End of Commitment Report – Strengthening the Open Management Portal (Portal de Gestión Abierta)

Name of Evaluator

Facundo Nicolás Barrionuevo

Email

[email protected]

Member Name

Córdoba (Province), Argentina

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 – Córdoba (Province), Argentina, 2024 – 2027

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...

Strengthening the Open Management Portal (Portal de Gestión Abierta)

Title

Strengthening the Open Management Portal (Portal de Gestión Abierta)

Action

This commitment aims to transform the Open Management Portal into an active 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 portal that contains an 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... Portal. It will provide and organize the current management data according to the international open data standards of the Open Data Charter, such as being open, accessible, interoperable, comprehensive, and free. In addition, this active transparency portal will serve as a gateway to the different pages of public data and information of the provincial government that are currently scattered across different websites.

Problem

The lack of access to public data and information in reusable and interoperable formats affects citizens, control organizations, the press, and others. What is more, this difficulty in accessing and reusing state data and information on an official portal can lead to increased distrust toward government institutions and public officials. To this is added the dispersion of information on a myriad of pages that hinders the search, the overlap of platforms, the complexity of some data, the lack of quality, the standardization in the opening and production of data, and the absence of feedback spaces on datasets.

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:

All activities related to the nine commitment milestones were implemented within the timeframe assigned. The nine deliverables included the development of an initial diagnosis with the cataloging of existing portals and data, the identification of priorities through 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, the definition of the datasets and data portals to be published, the creation of the data management protocol and manual, the publication of the cataloged information on the Open Government Portal (Portal de gestión abierta), the delivery of training sessions and awareness-raising materials, the execution of a communication campaign, the institutionalization of feedback through a ministerial resolution and an online feedback platform, and finally, the organization of a collaborative activity with documented records, materials and results.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

1.1 Tracking Sheet Commitment 1.pdf

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

The implementation of this commitment was favorably influenced by the continuous participation of the academic sector and civil society stakeholders who were part of the Plan’s design. These organizations benefited and enriched the process with their direct contributions in working group meetings, and they distributed various instances of citizen needs assessment regarding data within their communities and partner networks, and encouraged participation in the collaborative spaces generated, particularly for Milestones 2, 3, 8, and 9.

The Córdoba Public Administration trajectory in openness and transparency proved to be highly significant. It facilitated the understanding and awareness of internal agents for this new data openness initiative. In addition, the authorities’ renewed political commitment provided relevant support for the data opening processes across different agencies, allowing for better inter-agency coordination.

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:

The commitment was implemented as planned and achieved the expected objectives. There was a modification to the tools employed, which was previously agreed upon in the commitment’s working group meetings, as in the case of Milestone 2. Furthermore, there were changes to the implementation schedule for Milestone 3, whose activities lasted longer than planned, starting earlier and finishing later than originally scheduled.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Evidence Section 1.3.pdf

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:

Outstanding

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

Within the framework of the commitment to “Strengthening the Open Government Portal,” the following improvements were achieved:

•  41 new public datasets were published.
• Some of the newly published datasets are considered in most international transparency indexes and standards as key (e.g., the roster of agents reporting to the Provincial Executive Branch)
• The publication of new information was improved through the use of open and interoperable formats.
• Access was centralized to 60 datasets previously scattered across different digital spaces for citizens.
• A data openness protocol and manual were created to organize the process within the public administration, which promoted the construction of higher-quality datasets.
• The design of the Open Government Portal was refunctioned, making it more user-friendly, facilitating navigation, and improving the filtering of datasets in the hosting section.
• An accessibility module was implemented for the Open Government Portal to facilitate navigation regardless of users’ physical and cognitive abilities.
• The public value of the information was enhanced by providing data that is both relevant and highly requested by citizens, such as regional development units, lists of mayors and community leaders, the list of provincial public administration agents, the complementary fund for infrastructure works, and companies under industrial promotion, among others.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Open Government Portal Images.pdf
Evidence Section 2.1.1.pdf

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:

Outstanding

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

At the participation level, the implementation of this commitment was constantly supported by a commitment working group composed of six representatives from academic and civil society institutions that are part of the Plan’s Board. These members, driven by personal or professional interests, chose to join the execution of Commitment 1 activities through their presence in the six periodic meetings held for joint planning and review of results.

In addition, the Open Government 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... (Espacio Multiactoral de Gobierno Abierto), dedicated to citizen feedback and the continuous improvement of the Open Government Portal, was created in July 2025 through Resolution N°2 of the Open Government Secretariat. This space will function as a joint government-academia-civil society working area, which will also include periodic meetings.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Evidence Section 2.1.2.pdf

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

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

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

Through Resolution N°1 of the Open Government Secretariat, the Inter-Ministerial Open Government Board (Mesa Interministerial de Gobierno Abierto) was institutionalized, comprising high-level officials (Secretary, Undersecretary, General Director and Director) with influence and decision-making responsibility, representing the various ministries of the Córdoba government. This working group was created as a permanent coordination space for the Provincial Executive Branch, aiming to promote training, awareness, and improvement actions for the processes of generating, registering, and publishing public data and information. The Board also serves as a space for exchanging data openness implementation experiences, generating synergy among officials that benefits the opening work.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Evidence-Section-2.1.3.pdf

2.1.4 Other Results

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

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

The development of the multi-stakeholder design and implementation space for the Open Government Action Plan and the subsequent creation of commitment working groups generated collaborative ties among public, academic, and social sector actors that deepened the commitment’s scope beyond its design. During the Milestone 2 implementation debate, this context led to a partnership with the research project team “Participatory Agendas Construction. Contributions for Collaborative Governance between Social Organizations and the State,” funded by the Social and Cultural Observatory for Sustainable Development of the Secretariat of Science and TechnologyMaintaining the integrity of the scientific process — through open science, training, and rigorous evaluation criteria — is critical to ensure accurate health policy and strong public trust in gov... of the National University of Córdoba. One of its main objectives is to produce guidelines and definitions for the design of a participatory system to produce socially relevant public information from the provincial and municipal governments, to be accessed and used by social organizations in Córdoba according to their specific needs and demands.

The collaborative work with this space not only enriched the instances of citizen feedback during the implementation of Commitment 1, but also became an invaluable source of information on citizen data needs and demands that will continue to feed the work on this topic even after the commitment’s closure, in the institutionalized spaces created for this purpose.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Evidence Section 2.1.4.pdf

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 commitment’s implementation successfully addressed the public policy problem described in the Action Plan, particularly in the following areas:

• Publication of datasets on topics of citizen interest in reusable and interoperable formats.
• Publication, in coordination with local governments, of relevant datasets and information on local management.
• The addition of the function of redirecting to the various public data and information pages of the Provincial Statem on the Open Government Portal, which are currently scattered across different websites, to counteract the dispersion of information.
• Feedback on the datasets, through the Open Government Multi-Stakeholder Forum.
• Modification of the Open Data Portal on the Open Government Portal to offer data from the current administration, arranged according to the international openness standards of the Open Data Charter: open, accessible, interoperable, comprehensive, and free of charge.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Evidence Section 2.2.pdf

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 commitment’s implementation was favorably influenced by the continuous participation of academic and civil society actors, who contributed to the design, execution, trajectory, and experience of the Provincial Government team in openness and transparency, which facilitated the understanding and awareness of internal agents.

As a result, significant improvements were achieved in the Open Government Portal. Among other things, 41 new public datasets were published, the publication of information was improved through open and interoperable formats, and citizen access to 60 datasets previously scattered across different digital spaces was centralized. A protocol and manual were created to organize the process, and the portal’s design was refunctioned, making it more user-friendly and accessible.

The institutionalization of citizen feedback through the creation of the Multi-Stakeholder Open Government Forum and an Inter-Ministerial Board that promotes the portal’s continuous improvement is highlighted. Collaborative work with research projects provided guidelines and definitions for designing participatory systems to produce socially relevant public information.

Ideas for future commitments include deepening the coordination with research teams at all stages; developing tools and tutorials that strengthen citizens’ ability to interpret data; reviewing formats to facilitate the use of AI programs; and compiling contributions and suggestions received during citizen feedback spaces.