Germany Design Report 2017-2019

Germany’s first 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... focused on improving 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... and 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 across fields such as transportation and extractives, as well as expanding civic engagement opportunities. Civil society was actively involved in 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... primarily through the Open Government Network. However, most commitments represented existing initiatives. Moving forward, 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 process in Germany could benefit from high-level political support for its commitments. Future action plans could significantly increase in 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... by including commitments on, for example, transparency of beneficial ownershipDisclosing beneficial owners — those who ultimately control or profit from a business — is essential for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. Technical... More and public contracting while continuing to improve open data architecture.

The Open Government Partnership (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. Germany joined OGP in 2016. This report evaluates the design of Germany’s first action plan.

General overview of action plan

Germany started its first action plan with a strong legislative framework around accountability, anti-corruption, and civic engagement. The country had room for improvement on areas of transparency and open data. The first action plan, therefore, focused on improving open data (geo-spatial, transport, and general administrative context) as well as increasing transparency (extractives, development policy). Other commitments addressed specific social themes centered on integration, family policies, and LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people) issues.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior coordinated the co-creation process for the first action plan, and the Open Government Network (OGN), a coalition of over 100 civil society organizations and individuals, served as primary interlocutor on the civil society side and assumed coordination within its network to contribute to the action plan. Following an open consultation dialogue for stakeholders to submit 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... proposals OGN sent a report to the government with a list of recommendations. The government held cross-ministerial deliberations to determine the feasibility of the commitment proposals. Civil society stakeholders noted having limited time and opportunity to provide feedback on the government’s assessment of the proposals or to comment on the draft action plan.

Several commitments in the first action plan reflected pre-existing government activities that were given additional visibility and an additional monitoring and accountability framework through inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... More in the action plan. Some commitments were also informed by informal exchanges with civil society in the context of individual ministries and their established linkages to civil society groups that predated the OGP process. Civil society groups’ direct involvement in the co-creation process largely came from the data and transparency sectors, which influenced the thematic nature of their proposals to the action plan.

Notable commitments in Germany’s first action plan revolved around expanding open data, particularly around transport (Commitment 7) and building an open data ecosystem (Commitment 3). Other important commitments involved improved transparency in the extractives sector (Commitment 5) and strengthened public participationGiving citizens opportunities to provide input into government decision-making leads to more effective governance, improved public service delivery, and more equitable outcomes. Technical specificatio... in environmental policy and urban development (Commitment 8).

Table 2. Noteworthy commitments 

 Recommendations

The IRM recommendations aim to inform the development of the next action plan and guide implementation of the current action plan.

Table 3. Five key IRM recommendations