Collaboration – A crucial element for developing and implementing open government initiatives. Analyzing the co-creation of Costa Rica’s National Open Data Policy (PNADP)

by Jorge Umaña Cubillo

Costa Rica’s administration from 2014 to 2018 included open government as one of three pillars of the National Development Plan: “Open government at the forefront of the fight against corruption”. The Government co-created the National Open Government Strategy and the second 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 action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen.... One of the plan’s commitments was the co-creation of the National 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... Policy, which aimed to establish strategic, legal and technical guidelines to secure effective openness of public information in Costa Rica. The process also sought to engage stakeholders in open data efforts and broaden the landscape. This paper seeks to show how the collaboration process allowed for the co-creation, co-implementation and coassessment of the National Open Data Policy. As a result, levels of trust among the public administration, civil society, the private sectorGovernments are working to open private sector practices as well — including through beneficial ownership transparency, open contracting, and regulating environmental standards. Technical specificat... More, academia and media increased, strengthening the legitimacy of the Deputy Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Citizen Dialogue as a driver of the open government agenda. Finally, the paper provides insights about the enabling conditions that contributed to building trust and legitimacy in this particular process, as well as the challenges that the open government landscape faces when implementing innovative co-creation, coimplementation and co-assessment processes.