Open government is about enabling citizens to participate in the decisions that affect their lives, and making government more transparent, responsive and accountable.  The Open Government Partnership has emerged as a leading platform in realizing that ambition, with civil society…

A bit more than a decade ago I worked at the Dutch development organization Hivos. This was at the time of the World Summits on the Information Society. Hivos was – and is - promoting the smart use of technology…

Recently, the Netherlands published its self-assessment report on its first National Action Plan (2014-2015). In the report, eight learning points and challenges are mentioned in order  to improve the impact of the open government activities in our country. Three of them relate…

One of the most significant decisions taken by the OGP Steering Committee at their September 24th meeting in New York was to adopt a new policy to deal with concerns raised about civic space in participating countries. This has been debated…

Enabling people to be informed and active consumers is critical to developing a participative, critical and competent citizenship. Since its inception the Open Government Partnership has viewed empowering consumers as a core concern. Two of the five OGP grand challenges involve citizens in…

The belief that open, reliable and transparent data will drive better development outcomes in developed and developing countries is one of the founding principles of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). This can be seen in many of the more than…

On September 24 2014, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and Ford Foundation hosted a Civil Society breakfast meeting of senior civil society leaders and open government advocates from around the world. These reformers came together to talk about what is…

The story I’ve heard is that at a recent meeting of political advisers from US Embassies in the Eastern Europe countries, OGP was on the agenda, and Romania stood up as one of the most advanced countries. Being a civil…

Are governments most likely to reform before joining an international initiative or once they have joined it? The answer to this question will go a long way towards explaining the impact of Open Government Partnership in the years to come.…

We know that the Open Government Partnership is a powerful tool to implement national-level change. Brazil enacted its Freedom of Information Law thanks to OGP, the UK committed to public registries of beneficial owners of companies, the United States signed…

Tomorrow Mexico will become lead Co-chair of the Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The concept of Open Government has gained worldwide importance. This concept combines transparency, access to information, and citizen participation principles, policies and actions oriented…

1998 was the year when Indonesia started to question their identity by deconstructing their past to the future. Taking parallels to the Greek mythology, a literal Pandora box had been unleashed along the process. People in Indonesia have witnessed how…