End of Commitment Report – Conduct an Open Government Regional Forum
Overview
Name of Evaluator
Nodar Kherkheulidze
Member
Khoni, Georgia
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...
Action plan – Khoni, Georgia, 2021 – 2021
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...
To conduct an Open Goverment Regional Forum to promote OGP Values and share experience among similar municipalities.
Action
The commitment seeks to organize a regional open governance forum to kick-start the regional networking, promotion, and advocacy of OGP values, increase visible and civic engagement, and identify collaboration opportunities for open and accountable local governance in the Imereti region. If the commitment is successfully implemented, as one of the end results of the open regional forum, Khoni plans to establish a Regional Open Governance Hub to lead and scale up open government initiatives across Georgia. The Regional Hub will support the creation of a (sub)national network where OGP values and principles will be promoted by Khoni to scale up the open government initiatives across the country.
Problem
Despite Khoni Municipality’s consolidated efforts to increase awareness of open governance values and principles, the low overall awareness of open governance values, principles, and practices remains a challenge, especially at the local level. This contributes to lower overall 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 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 engagement in local policymaking, especially in those small municipalities located remotely from the capital and with limited resources. Thus, this commitment seeks to raise the level of awareness of the open government principles and values across the region under the Khoni Municipality’s leadership.
Section 1.
Commitment completion
1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?
Limited
Provide a brief explanation of your answer:
The current OGP local FoC was officially assigned as the Open Governance Regional Hub representative. But it is unclear if any coordination mechanism was created, a stakeholder map developed, and working channels set. PoC organized and conducted an Open Government Forum on 23, December 2021. A diverse range of stakeholders on local and central levels participated in the Forum such as OGP secretariat representatives from the Administration of Government (GoG), UNDP DGG, other self-governments, and local CSOs. Local CSO, Regional Initiative Center – Bright Future presented its experience related to 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..., Ozurgeti Municipality shared OGP-related experience, while Khoni Mayor presented the implemented activities within the scope of the OGP Local. Even though the stakeholders assess the regional OGP forum event as a success, its major output that envisaged the development of the concept document for the OGP Regional Hub and its activities for 2022 has not been developed.
Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:
1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).
According to the interviewed stakeholders, no factors have impacted the overall implementation of the commitment. However, according to the City Hall representative, COVID-19 has affected the organization of the OGP forum. Since the forum was conducted offline participation was also limited due to the COVID-19-related restrictions.
1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?
Most of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned.
Provide a brief explanation of your answer:
While most of the milestones were implemented as outlined in the Action Plan, the scope and entirely original idea of the commitment were lost during the implementation period as the idea of transforming Khoni into an OGP Local Hub has shrunk to the organizing of a one-time OGP local forum event.
Provide evidence for your answer:
Section 2.
Did it open government?
2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?
Not Applicable
Degree of result:
– Select –
2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?
Not Applicable
Degree of result:
– Select –
2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?
Not Applicable
Degree of result:
– Select –
2.1.4 Other Results
Not Applicable
Degree of result:
– Select –
2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?
Yes
Provide a brief explanation of your answer:
According to the Action Plan, Khoni’s efforts were directed towards increased awareness of Open Governance values and principles as the low overall awareness of open governance values, principles, and practices remains a challenge in the Municipality. Thus, the commitment was designed to advocate OGP values, increase visibility and civic engagement, and “establish a Regional Open Governance Hub to lead and scale up open government initiatives across Georgia”, where the Hub was supposed to support the creation of a (sub)national network where Khoni would promote OGP values and principles to scale up the open government initiatives across the country. However, organizing one Forum with a limited scale of attendance and participation responds elusively to the original 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... of the commitment and only partially contributes to the problem underlined in the vision of the Municipality.
Provide evidence for your answer:
Section 3.
Lessons from
implementation
3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.
The implementation of this commitment is a vivid example of how the original idea of the commitment and the ambition behind the idea could be dissolved in the implementation process. While the major plot of the commitment – creation of a Regional OGP hub at the local level had the potential to transform business as usual in promoting OGP values in the Municipality, the commitment was trapped in organizing one OGP-related event, which could be very beneficial, yet far from the original overall ambition of the commitment. Two lessons can be derived from this experience. Firstly, during an AP planning phase, it is crucial to keep the implementation difficulties in mind to avoid overambitious commitments. Secondly, it is important that the original spirit and idea behind it are maintained during the implementation phase to benefit at its most and really unleash the maximum potential benefits the OPG Local platform provides.
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