Inception Report – Action plan – Catalonia, Spain, 2021 – 2023

Name of Evaluator

Roger Barres

Email

roger.barres@uab.cat

Member

Catalonia, Spain

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 – Catalonia, Spain, 2021 – 2023

1.1 Does a forum exist?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The OGP process has its own forum (“Àgora”). It is the main consultative body of the OGP process, and has a role of monitoring 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..., boosting participation, and endorsing the results. Moreover, in order to facilitate the co-creation process and encourage multi-stakeholder participation, there are other participatory instruments. First, the steering committeeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru... (“Grup motor”). Its main role has been managing the co-creation process and providing with technical duties to the whole process and participants (i.e. calendars, documentation, calls). Second, for each one of the commitments there have been a Working Group (“Grups de treball”). In total 5 working groups. They were open participatory workshops in which commitments were defined. Third, there has been a digital platform for 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 open to the general public in which one could propose and prioritize and propose new commitments, and endorse them in the finals steps of the process.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• big_Infografia_cocreació_pla_2.png

1.2 Is the forum multi-stakeholder?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The forum is formed by 68 representatives and it is fairly well distributed: 41% of the total members represent non-governmental stakeholders from the civil society. There are also representatives from private organizations, interest groups, and the academia (12%). 47% of the members represent governmental stakeholders, among them: local governments (82%) and agencies of the Catalan government (18%). The steering committee is formed by 10 members from the forum, distributed evenly between governmental and non-governmental stakeholders: 5 non-governmental and 5 governmental. This distribution has remained during the whole process since in the case of absence of any of its members it has been replaced by a representative from the same organization/sector.
There have been a total of 15 workshops of the Working Groups (5 Working Groups, 3 workshops each). There have been 15 participants on average. Among them: 60% government stakeholders and 40% non-governmental stakeholders on average.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Membres_Àgora.pdf

1.3 Does the forum hold at least one meeting with civil society and non-governmental stakeholders during the co-creation of the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The forum has hold three meeting during the co-creation process. The steering committee has met 14 times during the process. In addition the members of the committee were in permanent contact through email, phone, and instant messaging. The 5 Working Groups held 3 workshops each, to a total of 15 meetings. All the meetings were held online. The forum was constituted on 6 May 2021. The second meeting was hold on 30 June 2021. In this meeting was presented the OGP strategic vision and the 5 thematic axis. In the period between the second forum and the third there were hold the 15 workshops in which commitments where defined. The third forum meeting took place on 27 October 2021 and were presented the final commitments in order to validate and endorse them.
In addition, in the period between 10 May and 10 June 2021 the digital platform was open to citizen participation, and lately in the final step of the process was open again in order to validate the commitments.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• big_nou_calendari_2.png
• big_nou_calendari_1.png

1.4 Has the action plan been endorsed by the stakeholders of the forum or steering committee/group?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The action plan has been endorsed by the forum in its third meeting. Additionally the action plan has been published in the OGP website and the participation platform in order to receive comments and support for other participants and the general public.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Àgora_III_acta_v2.pdf

2.1 Does the government maintain a Local OGP website or webpage on a government website where information on the OGP Local process (co-creation and implementation) is proactively published?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The government has maintained a website throughout the whole process. The Local OGP website is part of the governmental portal Participa Catalunya, which is an open community of professionals and experts in participation policies.
The website includes a thorough selection of all the relevant information of the OGP process:

• Explanation and communications material of the OGP process;
• Calendar of the co-creation process and links to the online participatory sessions;
• Relevant information for each axis including a definition, problem/challenges related to the axis, and status quo;
• Membership of the forum;
• Presentations, recordings and memos for all the meetings.

In addition, during the process there has been active a digital platform for civic participation. The platform also included information on the OGP process and communication material, calendar of the co-creation process, and results of the participatory process.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• web-link_1.docx

2.2 Did the government provide information to stakeholders in advance to facilitate informed and prepared participation in the co-creation process?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Throughout the process all stakeholders and participants had received a thorough selection of information and documents to facilitate their participation. First, the steering committee elaborated a set of documents that were distributed among participants, one for each axis. These documents included, among other issues, a brief definition of the topic, status quo, and main challenges related to that topic. In addition, all participants have received a brochure with information about the OGP process. Also, before each one of the participatory sessions, they received a user’s guide to the online tools used during the cocreation process. During the sessions, and previous to the participatory dynamic, they got information about the OGP and OGP Local, the Catalan OGP process, including tasks and actors involved, participatory dynamic, and calendar of the cocreation process. In addition there were presented the outcomes of any previous meeting.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• 210706_Guia-ús-eines-telemàtiques_GT1.pdf
• Eix_Ecosistema_Participació_Ciutadana.pdf
• OGP_díptic.pdf

2.3 Did the government ensure that any interested member of the public could make inputs into the action plan and observe or have access to decision-making documentation?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The government has actively tried to involve all the interested public and stakeholders in the participation and observation of the whole process. In order to do so there were diverse mechanisms. First, they invited relevant agents to take part in the diverse participatory tools, including governmental and non-governmental. Also, members of the steering committee were asked to invite other stakeholders. Also, the participatory platform had been designed to involve the general public in the participatory process. In addition all the necessary information has been accessible in diverse formats and platforms throughout the process.
They conducted diverse communication and dissemination actions through own and stakeholders’ channels: governmental portals and newsletters, stakeholders’ news and bulletins, social networks.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• web-link_2.docx

2.4 Did the government proactively report back or provide written feedback to stakeholders on how their contributions were considered during the creation of the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The government has reported back to contributions of participants in the process. Feedback has been provided during all participatory sessions. In addition, government provide written feedback to the few contributions made by participants by other means, including e-mail.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Informe_Eix_1_s2_13set.pdf
• Àgora_II_acta_v2.pdf

2.5 Was there an iterative dialogue and shared ownership between government and non-governmental stakeholders during the decision making process, including setting the agenda?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The ownership of the process and decision-making has been shared throughout the process. The main instrument has been the steering committee, formed by both governmental and non-governmental stakeholders evenly distributed. While the forum has been the main consultative body, with a monitoring and endorsing role, the steering committee has been responsible of the design and management of the whole process, and has been in charge of the technical duties. The steering committee has met 14 times during the process. In addition the members of the committee were in permanent contact through email, phone, and instant messaging. It has been an open forum in which all members has the same role and capacity to propose and take decisions. In this sense, the steering committee represents a suitable solution to overcome decision-making and process management inefficiencies in the forum, while it remains a shared ownership between governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.

2.6 Would you consider the forum to be inclusive and diverse?

Moderately

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

From a 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 perspective the process have been inclusive. 51% of the total members of the forum are women. The steering committee also respects parity (50% women). In general terms the workshops has also been diverse: Civic Participation (44% women), Public Integrity (46% women); 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... (48% women); Quality of Life (64% women); Gender Perspective (81% women). Based on the results of a voluntary surveys we observe that of by age a majority of the participants were 40 years old or more (80%), in contrast, there were few young participants. As far as the origin of the participants is concerned, a large majority were born in Catalonia, fewer from other areas in Spain and none from other origins. There were not registered participants with disability. Also, 86% of the people who answered the survey are occupied, 9.5% retired, 2.4% are unemployed and 2.4% students. From those occupied, a majority are public servants (83%). A great majority have higher educationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ... (93%).

Provide evidence for your answer:

• OGP_Informe-avaluació-global_v21.docx

Design a participation model for policies and projects with a territorial impact

1.1 Is the commitment verifiable?

Unclear

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

While the commitment is relevant and it has potential positive impacts, the definition of the activities and milestones could be more precise. The activities outputs are not clear or are generic. In addition there could raise some doubts about the appropriateness of the implementation process, particularly, if the described milestones are appropriate enough, or there is a need to include more/other activities or milestones, modify the implementation process, etc. In sum, the ambiguity could add difficulties in the verification of the commitment.

Provide evidence for your answer:

–

1.2 Does the commitment language/activities clearly justify relevanceAccording to the OGP Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should include a clear open government lens. Specifically, they should advance at least one of the OGP values: transparency, citizen partic... to OGP values?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment is clearly connected to the 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... and 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 value. Not only is aimed at improve public participation in policy-making processes but also includes an innovative perspective on territorial inclusion and multilevel governance. The deficiency in participatory instruments that take into account the territorial perspective is a contextual particularity and shows a good understanding of the context and a clear visions of positive outcomes. In this sense, the commitment has a potential positive impact over both participatory policies and territorial inclusion.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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1.3 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

a new regulationGovernment reformers are developing regulations that enshrine values of transparency, participation, and accountability in government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or reforming ..., policy, practice or requirement.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitments is intended at produce new participatory practices in the Catalan context, through cocreating a new participatory model which includes new instruments, organizations and values: participatory instruments and communication channels, innovative methodologies, data production, multilevel administrative coordination spaces and monitoring spaces with the public, long-term political commitment, 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 understandable language by the administrations involved, training material for the stakeholders involved.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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1.4 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

will result in a change of the rules, practices or policies that govern a policy area, public sector and/or relationship between citizens and is binding or institutionalized across government or specific institution(s).

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment will bring new practices and values both to the governments and citizens. First, the territorial perspective will potentially create new mechanisms/spaces for multilevel and transversal governance between diverse governmental units and levels of government. Second, could produce new methodologies and instruments for public participation, new participatory values/visions that surpass current localist perspective in participatory policies, and new relationships between citizens and the public sector.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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1.5 Are there any recommended changes to the design of the commitment to help improve its implementation?

While the commitment is highly relevant it would be recommended to clarify activities, milestones and outputs in order to assure it is verifiable.
It would also be recommended to take into account previous or current participatory policies/instruments and connect them to the commitment, learning from this previous experience and give continuity and improve ongoing policies/practices. Also, it would be interesting to consider foreign experiences in order to provide a solid bedrock to the new activities. Finally, we recommend to consider to include more/other stakeholders in the process, particularly agents directly involved in territorial management/advocacy and relevant to such projects, including national agencies and administrations, and non-governmental stakeholders.

2. Commitment :

Integrity plans for local bodies in Catalonia: tools to fight corruption and promote good governance

2.1 Is the commitment verifiable?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment states the main activities and milestones in a clear way and they are related to the commitment’s main objective.

Provide evidence for your answer:

–

2.2 Does the commitment language/activities clearly justify relevance to OGP values?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment is clearly connected to the public accountabilityAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, public accountability occurs when ”rules, regulations, and mechanisms in place call upon government actors to justify their actions, act upon criticisms ... More value through the development of a highly specialized tool: integrity plans. The commitment is aimed at providing support, training and resources to local administrations for the design, implementation and evaluation of integrity plans. We must take into account that among the implementing stakeholders there are the associations of local government in Catalonia (ACM, FMC), representing close to 1000 local administrations. This brings this commitment with a great potential.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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2.3 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

a continuation of ongoing practice in line with existing legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r..., policies or requirements.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment is a clear continuation and scale up of an ongoing project, “Integrity plans and anti-fraud measures”, by the Catalan Association of Municipalities (ACM). It is clearly stated in the commitment description. This project is currently implementing integrity plans and evaluation guides in 4 municipalities. In this sense, it would be recommended to include an action that considers the evaluation of the previous program or a design phase for its escalation.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• plans_integritat_ftbg.pdf

2.4 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

will result in a change of the rules, practices or policies that govern a policy area, public sector and/or relationship between citizens and is binding or institutionalized across government or specific institution(s).

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment is aimed at bringing a bedrock tool for local governments in relation to public integrity and accountability. Local administrations usually lack scarcity of economic and human resources that difficult the implementation of such tools. From this perspective the commitment have the potential to give a critical support for medium-sized and small local administrations in the development of public accountability policies.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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2.5 Are there any recommended changes to the design of the commitment to help improve its implementation?

The commitment is a continuation of an ongoing practice, which is strength of the commitment. It would be recommended connecting more clearly the current project with the commitment’s action plan. In this sense, it would be recommended including actions such as evaluation of the current project, escalation design, etc. Since the commitment is focused on local government there is a risk for a limited implementation particularly in small municipalities. Also, in the activities and milestones there would be recommended to clarify outputs and expected outcomes, actors involved (role of local/regional government), and include and define in the action plan critical actions such as the development of the main tool of the action plan (i.e. integrity plans).

3. Commitment :

Standardise SDG-linked datasets and provide high-quality open data for the territory as a whole

3.1 Is the commitment verifiable?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment states actions and milestones, following a defined plan of action. However, in some aspects the commitment is vague, which may affect the identification of activities and their measurability. In particular it would be recommended to distinguish between outcomes and outputs of the planned activities and further clarify the tasks to be developed, taking into account time-consuming tasks such as design of indicators, collection of data, etc.

Provide evidence for your answer:

–

3.2 Does the commitment language/activities clearly justify relevance to OGP values?

Unclear

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment is connected to transparency values, explicitly the availability of data that meets open data standards. Also, the definition of the status quo and background is relevant. However, the impact might be limited due to a certain vagueness in the definitions of activities and expected outcomes. We would also suggest the commitment to be more ambitious in clarifying outcomes over transparency values and open data, and taking into account that there are similar ongoing practices. In this sense there is a risk that the commitment could be a reproduction of ongoing/previous practices with a limited impact over OGP values.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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3.3 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

a continuation of ongoing practice in line with existing legislation, policies or requirements.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

There are ongoing experiences with similar goals of the commitment by other governmental agencies in the same context. While the commitment might be designed as an escalation/improvement of ongoing practices it would be necessary to acknowledge them, and have a good knowledge of their design, scope and results. In this sense, the commitment is vague in acknowledging/analyzing these ongoing practices, or the limits and the potentialities of the commitment in their improvement/escalation.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• web-link_3.docx

3.4 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

is a positive change to a process, practice or policy but will not generate a binding or institutionalized change across government or specific institution(s).

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

As noted before due a certain vagueness of the outcomes and disconnection with ongoing practices there is a risk of a limited impact of the commitment.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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3.5 Are there any recommended changes to the design of the commitment to help improve its implementation?

In order to improve the implementation of the project we would recommend, first, to build the activities taking into account previous/ongoing practices in the topic. That is, identify and acknowledge these practices, analyze them in depth, and evaluate them, if possible. Building on and improving existing practices could bring solidity to the commitment and its development, and improving ongoing projects. Otherwise there is a risk that the commitment ends up being a replication of practices. We would also recommend to clarify expected outcomes and its connections to activities and outputs. The commitment presents some ambiguity in relation to its goals and scope. In particular, it might be recommended to distinguish outputs, milestones, activities, and clarify expected outcomes. Otherwise, it could diminish the measurability of the actions and the development of the action plan.

4. Commitment :

Generate open data […] of socio-economic inequality of women and the feminisation pf poverty

4.1 Is the commitment verifiable?

Unclear

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment states diverse activities and milestones in connection to open data and data collection. However, in some cases they are not clearly identifiable and measurable, or they are not clearly connected to the commitment. There is not a clear difference between outcomes and outputs. This vagueness in the activities and confusion between outcomes and outputs may affect the measurability of the commitment and its potential impacts.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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4.2 Does the commitment language/activities clearly justify relevance to OGP values?

Unclear

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment is primarily linked to transparency values, particularly open data. Also connected to inclusion values, for it seeks tools for more evidence and responsive governance towards gender inequality. While it has a potential to be a relevant commitment, it would be recommended clarifying goals and expected impacts. Its relevance may be compromised by a confusion between outcomes and outputs. It might be required to have a better distinction between what it is expected in relation to building new datasets, collecting data, creating open data infrastructures, or analyzing gender inequality. Clarification in that respect might have a positive impact over the relevance of the commitments and its measurability, as noted before.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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4.3 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

a continuation of ongoing practice in line with existing legislation, policies or requirements.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

There are ongoing practices in a similar direction of the commitment. Moreover, the commitment attach relevant memos and research papers that represent a good baseline for its development. In relation to this, the potential impact of the commitment might be improved by building on previous practices.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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4.4 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

is a positive change to a process, practice or policy but will not generate a binding or institutionalized change across government or specific institution(s).

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

As noted before, due to certain vagueness in the language and ambiguity in the goals there might appear some doubts about the impacts of the commitment.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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4.5 Are there any recommended changes to the design of the commitment to help improve its implementation?

The main recommendation would be to clarify the goals and outcomes of the commitment. Also, it would be recommended to better define the activities and their connection to the commitment’s goals. Otherwise the commitment’s relevance and activities’ measurability could be compromised. I addition, we would recommend to identify and analyze existing practices in the area: agencies that are relevant or already working on the same topic, sectoral legislation already existing, and ongoing projects. Building on and improving existing practices could bring solidity to the commitment and its development, and has a potential to improve existing practices. Otherwise there is a risk that the commitment has a limited impact.

5. Commitment :

Extending the OpenCohesion School project to include subjects related to social challenges

5.1 Is the commitment verifiable?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment is presented clearly, with identifiable activities and milestones. And a distinction between resources, outputs and outcomes.

Provide evidence for your answer:

–

5.2 Does the commitment language/activities clearly justify relevance to OGP values?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment has a comprehensive approach to OGP values. It is connected to transparency values and open data for its aim at collecting datasets, but also public participation and inclusion, particularly the 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, technology and innovation values for its potential for students in technological and data analysis skills, even public accountability for its learning potential about public policy. While it is relevant, due to its broad approach and some weaknesses in the implementation design, its impact might be limited.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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5.3 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

a continuation of ongoing practice in line with existing legislation, policies or requirements.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

It is clearly stated that the commitment is a continuation of an ongoing project. The commitment will represent an extension of the previous practice and escalation to other agents (schools). In this sense it would be recommended to take advantage of the acquired knowledge and skills by the preceding project, incorporating an evaluation for its improvement and escalation. Thus, it is important to include activities aimed at connecting the previous project with the commitment planning.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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5.4 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

is a positive change to a process, practice or policy but will not generate a binding or institutionalised change across government or specific institution(s).

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment has a comprehensive approach and may result in a change of the relationship between young students, open data, and governmental agencies, and in general their relation with public policies and social challenges. Having said that, these impacts might be limited and difficult to observe. However, the commitment would certainly be an improvement of an ongoing project (Open Cohesion School), broadening their scope to new topics and more participants.

Provide evidence for your answer:

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5.5 Are there any recommended changes to the design of the commitment to help improve its implementation?

The commitment project in which the commitment is built on is relevant. It would be recommended to better align the commitment action plan with the previous project, including continuing activities, an evaluation, etc. Building on what has been previously done it would strengthen the process design, and bring a positive effect over its implementation and impacts.