End of Commitment Report – Territorialize the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals in four municipalities of the province with a meaningful open government perspective, emphasizing collaboration between actors.

Name of Evaluator

Melisa Gorondy Novak

Email

melisa.gorondynovak@cba.gov.ar

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, 2021 – 2023

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...

Territorialize the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development GoalsOGP countries are experimenting with open government innovations to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 16+ which includes peaceful, just and inclusive societies... in four municipalities of the province with a meaningful open government perspective, emphasizing collaboration between actors.

Action

Generating a collaborative process between the provincial government and four selected municipal governments, about their geographic, sociodemographic, and political diversity in the provincial territory; and its stakeholders to prioritize the SDGs and their targets based on territorial challenges. Lines of action will be established to achieve the 2030 Agenda at the local level, integrating as many community actors as possible. In this sense, to carry out the territorialization process of the SDGs there are some guidelines and actions proposed by the Province, called the PRI Method. Municipalities participating in this first test: Freyre, Alta Gracia, Vicuña Mackenna, and San José de la Dormida.

Problem

Some municipalities of the province of Córdoba are carrying out an adoption process of the 2030 Agenda, making necessary a collaborative approach to accompany local governments in the territorialization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), providing methodologies and modalities that the province has already developed into the process of opening up municipal governments based on their territorial priorities and demands. We recognize that this Agenda is a very ambitious global plan and represents a difficult task that can only be accomplished if governments, individuals, civil society, and multilateral organizations partner and work together to leave no one behind. To achieve our global goals we have to make use of platforms that empower citizens through the promotion of openness, 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 collaboration, such as the Alliance for Open Government, strengthening the complementarity between the elements of governance and open government that encompass these two agendas to their successful implementation.

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:

The territorialization process was carried out in the four municipalities of the province, achieving prioritization through open government instances, accompanied by local political will, although with some differences between them. Freyre completed its territorialization with a progress control board and monitoring of actions and their impact on the SDGs, which highlights the priority actions and the levels of participation and collaboration of civil society in them. Vicuña Mackenna achieved internal prioritization, articulating with all its municipal secretariats, thus strengthening its multi-level governance, escalating towards its first local voluntary report shared with citizens. Finally, Alta Gracia and San José de la Dormida stood out because their territorialization processes of the 2030 Agenda were characterized by strong 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 their progress in the collaborative definition of lines of action to advance the implementation of the Prioritized SDGs.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

• SDG Website – Freyre
• OGP Local Workshop in Municipalities – Vicuña Mackenna
• SDG Report 2021 – Vicuña Mackenna
• Participatory Urban Planning – San Jose de la Dormida

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

The territorialization of the Sustainable Development Goals constitutes a challenge for local governments, as it implies operationalizing global challenges adapted to the territory. All policies that, simultaneously, are aligned with compliance with the SDGs with a focus on sustainability in its three dimensions, social, economic, and environmental, include the challenge of having data and information that allows the monitoring of their indicators. That is why accompanying municipalities to think about and articulate said territorialization implies a comprehensive and consensual process that includes a diversity of factors.
Concerning the external or internal factors that influenced the application of this commitment, on the one hand, different levels of development of the 2030 Agenda in the municipalities were evident, which marked different levels of commitment to its territorialization. Freyre was the most advanced municipality in this matter, but in practice, only the first proposed objectives were achieved. On the other hand, another factor was political commitment. For example, in Vicuña Mackenna, the person in charge of the project was not the ultimate decision-maker, which resulted in an internal territorialization process with all the secretariats that are part of the municipality, but difficulties in external prioritization with the citizenship. In the other municipalities, progress was made normally.
Meanwhile, another factor to take into account was the Pandemic, since the first actions were carried out virtually, which is a challenge for citizen participation processes, where in-person presence and analog exchange devices become key pieces, to generate trust and lasting ties.

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:

From what was planned, we sought to develop a collaborative approach in the provincial territory that implies accompaniment to the local communities and municipalities of the province to be able to generate prioritization of SDGs and goals for each of the municipalities, based on their realities and in dialogue with interest groups. Based on these prioritized goals and the knowledge of how they are linked to each other, a new instance of collaboration was planned, to define with the interest groups lines of joint action that will feed the development of collaborative public policies, integrated and goal-oriented to sustainable development at the local level.
These lines of action would be very useful to organize policies at this key moment of crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, it was planned that products resulting from this process such as the prioritization of SDGs by four municipalities of Córdoba could be seen through a public document available on the Open Management platform, at the same time lines of action assumed from this prioritization of SDG are shared.
Most of the milestones of the commitment were fully met, but with different intensities in each municipality, as planned. Difficulties were mainly observed in determining the lines of action in all municipalities.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

• Open Management Website

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.

The process of territorializing the SDGs in the four local governments promoted the improvement of the dissemination and quality of government information in two senses. One of them was at the internal government level, since through the internal prioritization process, instances were carried out in which not only was awareness raised about the 2030 Agenda but work was done between departments to collaborate on the strategic management vision aligned to the SDGs and establish priorities for action among the decision makers involved. The second responds to the opening of information and conversation with external actors, through external prioritization workshops in which government priorities were communicated, to debate and reach consensus under an open government paradigm. The SDG management dashboard created by the municipality of Freyre, the Voluntary Report of Vicuña Mackenna, and the participatory face-to-face meetings in schools in San José de la Dormida and Alta Gracia; are concrete examples of strengthening the dissemination, quality, and access to information.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• SDG Website – Freyre
• Work Plan – San José de la Dormida
• SDG Report 2021 – Vicuña Mackenna
• SDG Presentation – Alta Gracia

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.

Citizen participation was promoted in the municipalities as part of the process, but they developed it with different intensity. Freire involved citizens in the formation of his portal. Vicuña Mackenna at the launch of his first VLR. Alta Gracia and San José de la Dormida mainly deepened and generated opportunities to encourage participation in workshops with different interest groups, highlighting young people and women (responding to the transversal perspectives of 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 and genderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... More) obtaining feedback, exchanges, active listening to ideas, demands and proposals from citizens. The work methodologies of the municipalities were fundamental to achieve not only the participation of a certain number of people but also to address its quality. Importance was given to municipal public spaces to hold meetings in spaces welcomed by citizens. Time, predisposition and individualities were also valued, as well as collective perceptions, thanks to the agile methodology that achieved the involvement of people in this process of defining priorities and then lines of action for the development of communities. These instances of citizen participation to collaboratively define actions showed the accessibility by non-governmental actors to information about the local management model.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• SDG Website – Freyre
• Work Plan – San José de la Dormida
• SDG Report 2021 – Vicuña Mackenna
• SDG Presentation – Alta Gracia

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

Not Applicable

2.1.4 Other Results

Not Applicable

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:

Yes, first of all, awareness and appropriation of the global sustainable development agenda and the SDGs as a common language for local management was achieved. Secondly, the paradigm of open government with meaning at the local level was adopted as a fundamental practice or tool to establish management strategies and the definition, implementation, and evaluation of public policies. Thirdly, there was a commitment from the parts of the consortium to promote local development and thus contribute, at the same time, to sustainable development throughout the provincial territory.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• OGP Process – Cordoba

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.

We consider that this first commitment to territorialize the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals in four municipalities with an open government perspective successfully emphasized collaboration between actors to be able to carry out its fulfillment. In this way, it is essential to highlight that multi-level and multi-actor governance were essential mechanisms in this project. Thus, it was necessary to transform the participation spaces into real dialogue spaces, while at the same time creatively institutionalizing them, knowing that the tables with other actors and multi-stakeholder work made it possible to generate more sustainable public policies. For its part, Multilevel governance, mainly between different jurisdictional levels, such as the provincial level and the local level, implied an inclusive decision-making process, based on the coordinated action of the different levels of government.