End of Commitment Report – Open government culture

Name of Evaluator

Carlos de la Peña Jimenez O’Farril, Daniel Rosemberg Cervantes Perez, Jesus Ponce Rubio

Email

carlos.delapena.j@gmail.com, drosemberg@gmail.com, jponce9911@gmail.com

Member Name

Mexico State, Mexico

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... Title

Action plan – Mexico State, Mexico, 2021 – 2022

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...

Open government culture

Action

Articulate the local and municipal open government agendas, in order to convert them, in coordination with Civil Society Organisations, into a state strategy that allows progress towards the consolidation of institutional openness in the State of Mexico, based on the experiences accumulated in the three levels of government.

Problem

Lack of interest and knowledge of 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, access to public information and Open Government on the part of obliged subjects, civil society and citizens in general.

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

complete

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

This commitment is in the final stage of its implementation since of the 3 lines of action that make it up, there is already a study on municipal opening, as well as important advances for the implementation of Technical Secretariats. Municipal in at least 4 Mexican municipalities. Regarding the third line of action, the dissemination of content and the organization of forums or meetings with various sectors are constantly generated to promote Open Government.

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

Given that this is an agenda that depends to a large extent on the political will of the authorities to generate mechanisms for dialogue with civil society, it has been a great effort on the part of INFOEM to manage to add municipalities to this governance strategy. Thus, from the institutional part, what was reflected in the roadmap has been fulfilled, although with lag times due to the fact that it has added at all times to the opinion and proposals of civil society. On the other hand, it can be mentioned that the results of the opening study are just a first sample of the reality in the State of Mexico, but because the citizen validation responses barely reached 18 municipalities, such an x-ray cannot be statistically conclusive.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

All of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Although the stages of each of the lines of action considered have been completed, under the scheme of encouraging 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 that the results be as widely agreed upon as possible, it was decided to incorporate several the suggestions emanating from within civil society (for example, in the design of the information collection instrument of the opening study). This strengthened the exercise, although to the detriment of implementation times, which, however, are still enough to finalize the commitment in the first half of the year. That is, it was fulfilled as far as the stages are concerned, although due to the logic of counting the citizen perspective in each of these, the implementation times were considerably lengthened.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• INFOEM’s active commitment

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?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

As a result of the implementation of the commitment, INFOEM has been positioned as a citizen reference that allows finding communication bridges with state and municipal authorities. In addition, all the information that has been generated throughout the implementation period has been made public, thus making it transparent and accountable to society about the role of the local Guarantor Body. On the other hand, it is noteworthy that the municipalities that are joining have shown their willingness for their Transparency Units to be the natural links with society, which also results in making themselves known in said communities.

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?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

As described, INFOEM has involved citizens in each step of the commitment: from the definition of the problem and the roadmap to the preparation and validation of information from the opening study. In this sense, it is important to emphasize the interest in promoting this participation through the nucleus of civil society organizations, in addition to expanding networks with academics and students who are interested in this agenda. The open spaces have been permanent and the punctual presence of members of the Plenary stands out, both in the events and in the work sessions, which is an important message of commitment to these actions.

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

It is worth emphasizing that this commitment is in the implementation stage, so the scope of this response must be understood in the context of an exercise that does not yet report all the proposed objectives.

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:

The objective of bringing the concepts and benefits of Open Government closer to different sectors is being met, in addition to having a first image regarding the conditions of institutional opening in the municipalities. In this sense, the last part of the implementation is linked to the available time for the local political and social actors to expedite the installation of the Municipal Technical Secretariats, although INFOEM is in the best disposition to accompany and help in whatever is necessary to make it.

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.

INFOEM has carried out important work to raise awareness in the different municipalities of the entity, as well as an extensive dissemination campaign to position this issue in public opinion. As a window of opportunity, we can mention the fact that civil society becomes even more involved in the commitment and in the monitoring of the installation and operation of the Municipal Technical Secretariats.