Action plan – Chihuahua (Municipality), Mexico, 2023 – 2024

At-a-Glance

Duration

Sep 2024

Date Submitted

11th October 2023

Foreword(s)

More than a decade ago, 8 countries signed the Open Government DeclarationThe Open Government Declaration is the declaration of commitment to upholding the principles of open and transparent government, approved by the founding countries of OGP in 2011. Countries are requir... that gave birth to the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP). Since then, 75 countries and 106 governments and local jurisdictions have committed to Open Government to promote transparency and accountability, fight corruption, increase citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More, and make governments more effective.

The municipality of Chihuahua embraced the principles of Open Government by joining OGP in 2022.

Open Government is a process that requires commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action.... That is why the Coordination of Transparency, Open Government and Archives formed an alliance that, together with all the agencies, carried out the first commitment assumed in 2022 with the citizens and ratified before the OGP: to build its first Action Plan in a participatory and transparent manner.

It is remarkable how well the Chihuahua Action Plan was taken care of because the commitments assumed have a high degree of public value and prioritize citizens’ needs. In the end, the important thing is that the commitments included are ambitious and are fulfilled, achieving an improvement in the quality of life.

This represents a cultural change and gives hope to a citizenry that demands governmental openness. Chihuahua Capital reaffirms its commitment to make this promise effective. Its first Open Government Action Plan is proof of this.

Open Government Challenges, Opportunities and Strategic Vision

This subsection details the Open Government Strategic Vision in your local area that should guide the commitments for the action plan period.

What is the long-term vision for open government in your context and jurisdiction?

The Municipal Government of Chihuahua, headed by Mayor Marco Antonio Bonilla Mendoza, has set as its main objective to increase the competitiveness of Chihuahua Capital through five guiding principles:

• Security
• Well-planned public works
• Human development anchored to economic development
• Quality public services
• Honest, effective, and efficient government

It is precisely here that Open Government becomes a major player because it allows us to achieve better results in public policies since these are designed and nurtured from the beginning with the vision of the people who are actively involved in the participatory process to solve problems that are common to all of us who participate in a community.  

We are committed to transparency, accountability, the use of technology, and citizen participation. We seek to establish through the Open Government Action Plan a precedent in which new processes can be consolidated to co-design, with the various sectors, solid public policies that remain and add to the democracy of our country.

We believe that Open Government is the answer to today’s complex problems that no longer admit traditional vertical decisions, those made from the desks of officials, but require more spaces where all people can contribute and get involved in positive changes.

What are the achievements in open government to date (for example, recent open government reforms)?

We have made great achievements in open government:

• We highlight our 100% rating in the Citizens’ Evaluation by Transparent Municipalities, in which we ranked first nationally.
• We have a Municipal Geographic Information System. We participated in the Open Infrastructure Challenge, where we opened information about our emblematic works.
• In 2019 we signed the Open DataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici... Charter and recently we started the Open Data Policy of the Municipal Government hand in hand with Codeando Mexico.
• We have signed collaboration agreements with institutions such as Coparmex, Karewa, National Democratic Institute, Coalición México por los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad, and Ciudadanos en Participación Activa.
• We co-created, together with USAID and researchers Guillermo Cejudo and Diana Laura Ramírez, an Open Government Self-Diagnosis that we will soon launch and make available to the country’s municipalities.
• We are the first municipality in Mexico to have the PEFA Check certificate and the first in Latin America to request the PEFA Climate module.
• We ensure the best practices in our participation mechanisms through the RegulationGovernment reformers are developing regulations that enshrine values of transparency, participation, and accountability in government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or reforming ... of Citizen Participation, Children, Adolescents, and YouthRecognizing that investing in youth means investing in a better future, OGP participating governments are creating meaningful opportunities for youth to participate in government processes. Technical ... More of the Municipality of Chihuahua.
• We have two citizen accountability bodies: the Citizen Council for Transparency and Accountability and the Anti-Corruption Policy Follow-up Council of the Municipal Government of Chihuahua.

What are the current challenges/areas for improvement in open government that the jurisdiction wishes to tackle?

When we began the work of co-creating our action plan, we sought the collaboration of an external entity to carry out a diagnosis of the state of open government policies in Chihuahua. This was done to orient the agreements of our plan, regardless of the subject matter, to strengthen the areas of opportunity found.

Thus, we allied with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which financed the study. As a result of this collaboration, we co-designed, together with the research authors, a tool called Open Government Self-Diagnosis. 

This will help municipalities to find areas of opportunity in transparency issues, regarding the publication of obligations and attention to requests for information and appeals for review, as well as proactive transparency mechanisms; it also measures the publication of open data and citizen participation in its modalities of consultation, execution, and monitoring.

As a result of the application of this diagnosis, two main areas of opportunity were found in the Municipal Government of Chihuahua: the release of information of interest in more accessible formats to favor its usability and the publication of open data that can generate value propositions. These are areas that we will be working on and that will be strengthened with the execution of our action plan.

What are the medium-term open government goals that the government wants to achieve?

Open Government should be the way to design policies for all governments, but mainly for local governments that are dedicated to solving everyday problems in people’s lives. 

We aspire that in Mexico open government policies are not only action plans, but that open government is considered a quality of government in all their actions and not isolated processes. 

We also believe that the way in which action plans are carried out should be reformed and that the municipalities themselves should be the protagonists of these exercises, which is why we became the first municipality in Mexico to carry out a particular action plan and not in conjunction with the state level authorities. 

We want this exercise to be a national example and to open the door for other municipalities to develop more municipal action plans, and for this, we are very clear that we must take care of these aspects in the medium term:

• To fully comply with the agreements acquired in this first plan.
• Document the process and create a guide that can orient future exercises.
• To demonstrate the usefulness of the policies designed in this plan and to carry out a communication campaign to make this usefulness known.
• Transversalize open government by training public servants in Open Government so that they make the postulates of open government their own and apply them in all decision-making processes.

How does this action plan contribute to achieving the Open Government Strategic Vision?

This first action plan is a good example of how incorporating all voices is much more beneficial and profitable for governments. An example of this is the policy of attention to people living in the rural areas of our municipality, which will be strengthened with the direct participation of the inhabitants of rural communities and therefore will surely be much more successful policies that will generate a sense of greater attention to the beneficiaries. 

Having this first action plan as a successful example of participation and collaboration, more and more spaces will be opened in all areas of the municipal administration, allowing the mainstreaming of open government.

How does the open government strategic vision contribute to the accomplishment of the current administration’s overall policy goals?

The Municipal Government of Chihuahua has set as its general strategic vision to make the Municipality the most competitive in the country and for this, it is necessary to incorporate the participation of all sectors. We believe that the success of public policies depends on the extent to which they are designed in conjunction with the beneficiaries, because this way they will be more efficient policies. In this sense, open government is essential to favor its competitiveness and improve the provision of services to the community.

Engagement and Coordination in the Open Government Strategic Vision and OGP Action Plan

Please list the lead institutions responsible for the implementation of this OGP action plan.

• Municipal Public Security Directorate
• Municipal Rural Development Directorate
• Directorate of Economic Development and Competitiveness
• Coordination of Transparency, Open Government and Archives
• Directorate of Planning and Government Innovation
• Coordination of Social Communication
• Chihuahua Institute for Transparency and Access to Public Information (ICHITAIP)
• Citizens participating in the Grupo Impulsor de Gobierno Abierto (Open Government Promotion Group)

What kind of institutional arrangements are in place to coordinate between government agencies and departments to implement the OGP action plan?

The Municipal Government of Chihuahua has a Coordination of Transparency, Open Government, and Archives that will provide all the technical and administrative support and follow-up to the municipal agencies for the timely fulfillment of all commitments.

Likewise, support and follow-up will be given to the Open Government Promotion Group of the Municipality of Chihuahua, in collaboration with the State guarantor body ICHITAIP.

What kind of spaces have you used or created to enable the collaboration between government and civil society in the co-creation and implementation of this action plan? Mention both offline and online spaces.

The Municipal Government launched the public call to join the Open Government Promotion Group of the Municipality of Chihuahua. Applications could be made physically or digitally to facilitate the process for those interested; the call also allowed both civil society organizations and individuals to apply. Likewise, the group sought at all times to integrate the group with genderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... More parity.

The Open Government Driving Group designed the Citizen Consultation to establish the topics of the action plan, which was carried out digitally and analogously. Subsequently, it was agreed by the Grupo Impulsor that the work tables would be carried out in two phases:

1. Roundtables with specialists in the field to work on the topics resulting from the survey as well as to define a particular problem to be addressed through the Open Government Action Plan.
2. Co-creation tables, the call was open and plural to interested people, even if they did not have technical knowledge on the subject, and was carried out to seek solutions to the specific problem that the table of specialists previously defined.

In a cross-cutting manner, forums and workshops on Open Government were held to generate greater knowledge and interest between civil society and government.

What measures did you take to ensure diversity of representation (including vulnerable or marginalized populations) in these spaces?

In the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive..., we sought to make this process a space where everyone could participate.

• The formation of the Open Government Promotion Group of the Municipality, which is designed to be mostly citizens and allows the participation of people who are not part of a legally constituted organization such as a civil association, chamber, or other type of organization.
• In the stage for the application of the consultation, we sought to reach all age ranges, even allowing children and adolescents to participate, as well as the different sectors of occupation. This was done in order to have a representative sample of the inhabitants of Chihuahua City. The survey was conducted digitally and analogously, and each of the questions was adapted to a simpler and more inclusive language.
• A mapping of actors was carried out with different instances to summon specialists in the subjects to be worked on in order to know a diagnosis of the situation presented by the Municipal Government as well as to define a particular problem to attack through the Open Government Action Plan.
• For the co-created roundtables, the call was open and plural to interested persons, even if they did not have technical knowledge on the subject, and was made with the purpose of seeking solutions to the specific problem previously defined by the roundtable of specialists.
• Direct invitations were extended to the 5 rural community sections of the municipality.

Who participated in these spaces?

Since the creation of the Grupo Impulsor, we have had the participation of two citizens in their personal capacity, 5 civil society organizations, 3 municipal government agencies, and the guarantor body of the State of Chihuahua, the Chihuahua Institute for Transparency and Access to Public Information.

In the consultation stage, 1,527 people participated, 889 women, 564 men, and 74 preferred not to say their gender.

In the stage of the roundtables with specialists, a total of 25 civil society organizations participated, attending each thematic roundtable.

In the stage of the co-creation roundtables with citizens, a total of 60 people participated.

How many groups participated in these spaces?

32

How many public-facing meetings were held in the co-creation process?

22

How will government and non-governmental stakeholders continue to collaborate through the implementation of the action plan?

For the follow-up stage of the Plan, the Municipal Government of Chihuahua has created a work plan by commitment to ensure that the three agencies directly involved generate spaces for the fulfillment of the commitments, as well as to report to the Plan’s follow-up group made up of civil society organizations and the state’s guarantor body all the progress made every month.

In this way, civil society, which is part of the Driving Group, will join the Follow-up Group and will meet every month to review the progress of each commitment.

A logical framework matrix was created, which establishes the execution dates for each commitment and the people responsible for each of them, and this will allow the follow-up group to have clarity on the progress made.

Please describe the independent Monitoring Body you have identified for this plan.

As a monitoring entity of the plan’s compliance, the following participate:

• Chihuahua Institute for Transparency and Access to Public Information (ICHITAIP).
• Citizens participating in the Grupo Impulsor de Gobierno Abierto (Open Government Promotion Group).

Provide the contact details for the independent monitoring body.

• Amelia Lucía Martínez Portillo, Presiding Commissioner, amelia.martinez@ichitaip.org.mx

What types of activities will you have in place to discuss progress on commitments with stakeholders?

The guarantor body of the State of Chihuahua, ICHITAIP, will convene the Open Government Promotion Group every month, which is grouped by topic to review the progress of each of the commitments.
Execution dates and a work plan were established for each of the commitments, which will provide a guideline for the group to follow up on the actual progress of the commitment.
The entire co-creation process as well as the progress of compliance will be uploaded to the Municipality’s Open Government portal.
We will continue to promote open government through conferences, workshops, and citizen participation events.

How will you regularly check in on progress with implementing agencies?

Each agency responsible for the commitments of the Action Plan created a logical framework matrix, which includes execution dates, indicators, means of verification as well as the person responsible for each of the actions to be carried out.
The Coordination of Transparency, Open Government, and Archives of the Municipality of Chihuahua will follow up on them in order to ensure that the agreed activities are carried out according to the established deadlines.
All the information that is generated will be uploaded to the web portal, as well as to online folders that will be available to the public and the monitoring group for review.

How will you share the results of your monitoring efforts with the public?

This will be done through dissemination mechanisms:

• Uploading of all progress information by commitments on the municipality’s open government portal.
• Uploading of all information generated in online folders for the monitoring group.
• On the municipality’s website and official social networks.
• Spaces for dialogue and participation with citizens will be promoted to show the progress of the commitments.

Endorsement from Non-Governmental Stakeholders

• Eng. Olga Anabell Chávez Dozal, Center of Technological Impulse for Society A.C.,
• Edgar Rentería Rivas, KAREWA CUU A.C.,
• Hugo Alonso López Arzate, Citizens in Active Participation – CEPAC COPARMEX Chihuahua,
• Ms. Ana Sofía Sáenz Solis, Center for Leadership and Human Development A.C.,
• Juan Torres Acevedo, Citizen,
• Paulina Valles Torres, Citizen,

Plan-de-Accion-de-Gobierno-Abierto-2023-PDF.pdf
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