Jordan Design Report 2018-2020

Jordan undertook a highly collaborative 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.... This process resulted in an 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... that promises to open new avenues for Jordanians to participate in their government. In particular, Jordan committed to engaging civil society and the public in national dialogues around key 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.... Looking ahead, implementing agencies should publish details about how citizen input was considered and incorporated into legislative reforms.

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 (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. Jordan joined OGP in 2011. Since, Jordan has implemented three action plans. This report evaluates the design of Jordan’s fourth action plan.

General overview of action plan

Jordan undertook a highly collaborative co-creation process. Jordan’s OGP multistakeholder forum engaged civil society to design the consultation process. The forum then employed a survey and series of consultations with government, civil society, and development partners. This process resulted in an action plan that reflects civil society and government priorities and open government values.

All five commitments in the action plan advance civic participation in government. Commitments 1 and 3 in particular aim to establish dialogue mechanisms between civil society and the government to amend legislation related to civil society organizations’ operating environment, electoral politics, and decentralization, among other vital topics. These commitments are new. The remaining commitments build on previous OGP reforms. Commitments 2 and 5 focus on access to information by strengthening Jordan’s 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... system and implementation of the Access to Information Law. 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... 4 promises to promote 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 by establishing a human rightsAn essential part of open government includes protecting the sacred freedoms and rights of all citizens, including the most vulnerable groups, and holding those who violate human rights accountable. T... complaint mechanism.

The IRM recommends that Jordan continue to build on these vital civic space and participation reforms in future OGP action plans. To do so, the IRM encourages the multistakeholder forum to further engage the legislative and judicial branches to ensure successful implementation of legal reforms. Finally, the IRM advises the multistakeholder forum to establish a public mandate and fair and transparent selection process for its members, to ensure procedural 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.

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. Key IRM Recommendations