Stephanie Muchai: We Were Made for a Time Such as This
15 Years of OGP
Fifteen years ago, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) began with a simple but bold idea: governments work better when they are transparent, accountable, and open to citizen participation. What started with eight founding countries has grown into a global movement of 73 countries, more than 135 local governments, and thousands of civil society organizations working together to make governments more open. Over that time, they have co-created thousands of reforms that strengthened right to information laws, opened up public spending and company ownership, expanded inclusive participation, and more.
OGP’s 15th anniversary arrives at a pivotal moment. Democracies worldwide are grappling with declining trust, polarization, and increasingly complex challenges. Open Government is not just more relevant; it is more necessary than ever. This milestone is both a recognition of what has been built and a call to go further, scaling ambitious reforms, strengthening democratic institutions, and advancing solutions on issues such as digital governance, civic space, economic transparency, and public service delivery. Learn more.
Latest Videos
Governor of Yogyakarta: Open Government for Better Public Services
Governor of Yogyakarta: Open Government for Better Public Services
Suneeta Kaimal: Open Government Can Protect People and the Planet
Suneeta Kaimal: Open Government Can Protect People and the Planet
Anniversary Report
Over the course of 15 years, OGP has helped define how open governments can and should work. Since 2011, members have delivered meaningful policy and institutional change. In that time, OGP has evolved as a platform for generating reforms that drive tangible outcomes, like expanding civil society participation in policy-making and improving public services, government responsiveness, and resource allocation.
This publication celebrates the hard work of political champions, public servants, civil society reformers, and partners. It also reflects the Partnership’s resilience in advancing open government reforms in the past 15 years. This milestone is both a recognition of what has been built and a call to go further by scaling ambitious reforms.
Read the report
Anniversary Stories
Explore 15 years of open government in practice through stories from across policy areas and issues. Discover how governments, civil society, and reformers have worked together through OGP to turn ambitious ideas into meaningful reforms, and the results these efforts have delivered for people and communities.
Read all stories
Anniversary Insights
Hear from OGP’s CEO, Ambassadors, and other leaders as they reflect on the Partnership’s journey over the past 15 years. Explore their perspectives on the progress made, the challenges facing open government today, and the role OGP can play in shaping more open and accountable governance in the years ahead.
Looking Forward
The work of open government is far from finished. Explore resources, updated frameworks, and practical tools designed to help reformers build on the progress of the past 15 years, tackle emerging challenges, and advance open government reforms for the next generation. Together, these resources can help build more open, prosperous, and resilient societies.
Public infrastructure is where government becomes visible in everyday life.
In Cali, opening up how projects are planned and delivered is helping citizens ask better questions, businesses compete more fairly, and communities have a stronger say in what gets built.
Filmed and edited by @shiokhidasheli
Produced by @shiokhidasheli and @tamara_jobava
Scripted by @tamara_jobava and Christina Socci
#OpenGovernment #Colombia #Cali #Transparency #PublicParticipation #OGP
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Democracy depends on more than elections, courts and constitutions. It also relies on the quieter institutions that hold power to account: independent watchdogs, ombudsmen, investigative journalists and civil society.
In a new op-ed marking OGP’s 15th anniversary, OGP Ambassador and former European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly draws a connection between attacks on these democratic safeguards in the United States and growing pressures on institutions and civil society across Europe.
Her argument is that transparency and accountability can themselves become tools of intimidation when governments selectively apply them to silence critics. Yet the answer isn’t to abandon these principles. It’s to protect them, strengthen them and keep putting them into practice.
This is the work OGP has championed for 15 years, bringing governments and civil society together to make public institutions more transparent, accountable and responsive to citizens. As these principles come under pressure, that work matters more than ever.
As Emily writes, these principles may now be “democracy’s survival toolkit.”
Read the op-ed, link in bio.
#OGP15 #Democracy #OpenGov #Accountability
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How can governments make digital public infrastructure more inclusive, accountable and responsive to people`s needs?
Our newly published Open Gov Guide chapter on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) offers practical reform recommendations and examples to help governments get it right.
Digital IDs, instant payments and government data systems increasingly shape people`s access to public services and economic opportunities. How these systems are designed and governed matters.
OGP members offer concrete examples:
🇧🇷 Brazil: Openly published rules and multi-stakeholder discussions helped shape Pix, the national instant payment system, which reached two-thirds of Brazilian adults within 15 months of launch.
🇵🇭 The Philippines: Legal safeguards in the PhilSys digital ID system support inclusive registration. By the end of 2022, 8.4 million previously unbanked Filipinos had entered the formal banking system through the initiative.
🇳🇬 Nigeria: Commitments to develop digital infrastructure include plans for multi-stakeholder engagement and stronger protections for digital rights.
Explore the chapter to discover how transparency, public participation and accountability can help ensure digital infrastructure protects people`s rights and serves the public interest.
🔗 Explore the Open Gov Guide chapter on DPI, link in bio.
#OpenGov #DigitalPublicInfrastructure #DPI
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Who really owns the companies operating in our economies?
In Ghana, beneficial ownership transparency is making it easier to see who is behind companies, strengthen scrutiny, and reduce the space for corruption and illicit financial flows.
What started in the extractive sector has grown into an economy-wide system covering hundreds of thousands of companies.
Filmed and edited by @shiokhidasheli
Produced by @shiokhidasheli and @tamara_jobava
Scripted by @nicwinston_ and Christina Socci
Photography by @enoq_anyane
#OpenGovernment #Ghana #Transparency #BeneficialOwnership #OGP
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“Open government is a way to build strong democracies, better policies, and greater trust.”
In a world facing democratic backsliding, shrinking civic space and declining trust in public institutions, open government offers a way to turn democratic principles into practical action.
In this #OGP15 video, Anette Davidsen, State Secretary of Norway, explains how OGP brings governments and civil society together to share experiences, strengthen cooperation and advance reforms.
She highlights Norway’s work with Albania, Ghana and Mongolia to advance a UN resolution on transparency in political finance, and how OGP can help turn international commitments into concrete action.
As OGP looks to its next 15 years, the challenge is clear: make open government work for people through stronger democracies, better policies and greater trust.
#OGP15 #Norway
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“Democracies are of the people, and by the people, not just for the people.”
At the OGP Leaders Roundtable at UNGA, Heather Gerken, President of the Ford Foundation, highlights how everyday participation strengthens democracy, from reporting wrongdoing to scrutinizing public contracts.
#OGP15 #UNGA #OpenGov
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🇬🇧 Last week, OGP CEO Aidan Eyakuze and Europe Regional Lead Paul Braithwaite visited London to meet with government and civil society representatives and discuss priorities for the year ahead.
Three areas of focus emerged:
🗣️ Giving people a greater say. Government officials Camilla Pallesen, Charley Bendall, Helen Warren and Kate Hall-Wright discussed reforming public consultations and testing new ways to involve people in decisions.
🔎 Tackling corruption. With Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Champion Baroness Margaret Hodge, discussions explored greater transparency of asset ownership and political finance reform.
🤝 Connecting government and civil society. Baroness Twycross, the UK’s new lead minister for its domestic OGP process, discussed opportunities to turn reform priorities into action through the UK’s upcoming Open Government National Action Plan and its global co-chair role.
The UK Open Government Network also brought civil society voices together to identify opportunities for collaboration and meaningful reform.
OGP’s role? Connecting governments and civil society, sharing practical solutions and helping turn commitments into reforms that make government more transparent, accountable and responsive to people.
#OGP15 #OpenGov #PublicParticipation #AntiCorruption
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How can local governments make democracy work better for older people?
From Aragón (Spain), Leova (Moldova), Khmelnytskyi (Ukraine) and Nuevo León (Mexico), local governments are finding ways to help older people shape the decisions that affect their lives.
At our OGP Local Circle on Inclusion, they shared four approaches:
🔹 Co-design public services with older people.
🔹 Give older people a say in local spending through participatory budgeting.
🔹 Build digital skills that help older people engage in their communities.
🔹 Make inclusion a government-wide responsibility by training civil servants on older people`s rights and ageism.
Swipe through for the examples.
@laaab_es @gobaragon @nuevoleonmx @gobabiertonl @khmelnytskamiskarada
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