Dominican Republic Design Report 2018-2020

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... of the Dominican Republic’s fourth 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... improved substantially as compared to previous processes. Its commitments seek to make significant progress at the municipal level, promote 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 participation 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 advocacy, and support the use of technology for citizen complaints. To improve the co-creation process and develop more ambitious plans, the IRM recommends formalizing the multi-stakeholder forumRegular dialogue between government and civil society is a core element of OGP participation. It builds trust, promotes joint problem-solving, and empowers civil society to influence the design, imple..., strengthening civil society’s influence by sharing the leadership in drafting the plan, and deepening the participation of senior government officers, as well as other agencies and Government branches.

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. The Dominican Republic joined OGP in 2011. This report evaluates the design of the Dominican Republic’s fourth action plan.

General overview of action plan

The Dominican Republic’s fourth action plan is focused mainly on the creation of technological tools for transparency and 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. As in the previous action plan, it includes an initiative to promote the OGP agenda at the municipal level.

The Ministry of the Presidency’s General Directorate for Government Ethics and Integrity (DIGEIG in Spanish) was responsible for the design, implementation and monitoring of the action plan. The DGEIG is currently working on a bill that would strengthen its mandate to lead the OGP process.

The process to identify the plan’s commitments included a socialization process across various regions, which led to roughly 260 citizen proposals. Yet, the majority of these proposals were not included because of their lack of 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... to OGP. The DGEIG took the set of proposals that were relevant to open government and designed 7 commitments.

The Dominican Republic does not have a formal multi-stakeholder forum to allow for the equal participation and influence of civil society and government. Civil society organizations focused on children, migration, 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 ..., health, and development participated by invitation. Despite leading a broad consultation process, there is no evidence that participants received feedback about how their inputs were taken into account and how they influenced the action plan commitments. The IRM recommends strengthening the future development of action plans by deepening the influence of civil society. This implies providing reasoned responseOngoing dialogue between stakeholders during the development of an OGP action plan is critical to the plan’s success. Specifically, communicating back to stakeholders the ideas received and decision... to input provided by non-government stakeholders.

Table 2. Noteworthy commitments

Recommendations

The IRM key recommendations are prepared in the IRM Design Report. They aim to inform the development of the next action plan and guide implementation of the current action plan.

Table 3. Five KEY IRM recommendations