Côte d’Ivoire Hybrid Report 2018-2020

Côte d’Ivoire’s second 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... was designed through an improved, collaborative process with civil society. The commitments responded to citizens’ demands and national development priorities. The Technical Committee and civil society platform’s monitoring led to high levels of 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... completionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin... More. Notable early resultsEarly results refer to concrete changes in government practice related to transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Inde... More were obtained in transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More and participation with public budgets. To raise the level of ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... in future commitments, the IRM recommends that commitment designers provide greater details on planned activities and evaluate draft commitments to ensure a clear, open government lens.

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) is a global partnership that brings together government reformers and civil society leaders to create action plans that make governments more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM)The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is OGP’s accountability arm and the main means of tracking progress in participating countries. The IRM provides independent, evidence-based, and objective ... monitors all action plans to ensure governments follow through on commitments. Côte d’Ivoire joined OGP in 2015, and has since implemented two action plans. This report evaluates the design and implementation of Côte d’Ivoire’s second action plan.

General overview of action plan

Côte d’Ivoire’s second action plan was developed with collaboration between the multi-stakeholder Technical Committee and Civil Society Platform. Together, representatives from the government, 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 and the Civil Society Platform for the PGO (PSCI-PGO) held public consultations and drafted commitments based on diverse public input. Civil society tracked the implementation progress, in collaboration with relevant government institutions. Subsequently, 3 commitments were fully completed and 5 were almost completed by the end of implementation. However, most commitments were of moderate ambition.

This report focuses on three commitments that produced notable early results in open government. Commitment 1 spurred co-creation of a simplified Citizens’ Budget from 2019 onwards. Commitment 2 led to the establishment of community committees to oversee the construction of schools and the quality of educationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ... at 110 rural preschools. Commitment 6 continued efforts to expand participatory budgeting practices to more communes through outreach and technical support. Commitments 1 and 6 fostered budget transparency and initiated civic participation in local budget processes. Commitment 2 demonstrates the power of community participation in upgrading public services.

Section B of this report analyzes completion levels for the remaining action plan commitments. Commitments 3, 5, and 9 primarily involve awareness-raising activities, considered as important first steps towards open government reform. These commitments are judged moderately ambitious and were not analyzed for early results. Commitment 8 was not reviewed in-depth, as it did not contain a clear, open government lens. Commitment 4 was revised during implementation and encountered a number of obstacles; it was not initiated, but was pursued in Côte d’Ivoire’s third action plan. Commitments 7 and 10 reformed vitally important national issues – anti-corruption and media freedom – but achieved limited open government results during implementation and were not evaluated in detail.

Nevertheless, the IRM recognizes that these commitments begin to address issues of national importance. Commitments such as 3, 4, and 5 were modest in ambition, but laid the foundation for more ambitious reforms in Côte d’Ivoire’s 2020-2022 action plan. Using a new reporting model, the IRM turned its focus on a limited number of commitments with evidence of early results for all member countries. Extra attention to specific commitments in this report should not be construed as a statement on the action plan’s overall ambition and relevanceAccording to the OGP Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should include a clear open government lens. Specifically, they should advance at least one of the OGP values: transparency, citizen partic....

Looking to future action plans, the IRM recommends that commitment drafters provide greater details on activities outlined under each commitment. More comprehensive specificity would help the IRM to better assess each commitment’s potential for open government results. The IRM also recommends that drafters evaluate all commitments to ensure that they promote government transparency, civic participation in government processes, or public accountability of government officials or entities. For more details on key recommendations listed below, see Section V of this report and Côte d’Ivoire’s 2020-2022 Action Plan Review.[1]

Key IRM Recommendations

[1] Independent Reporting Mechanism. Côte d’Ivoire’s 2020-2022 Action Plan Review. 2021. https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/cote-divoire-action-plan-review-2020-2022-for-public-comment/