Kyrgyz Republic Design Report 2018-2020

The Kyrgyz Republic’s first OGP 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... contains 18 commitments across nine different thematic areas, ranging from 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... to political financing and fiscal 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. Active participation of civil society contributed to the design of ambitious commitments. Going forward, the Kyrgyz Republic could strengthen outreach to wider civil society and facilitate more meaningful engagement of public administration to ensure effective implementation of commitments.

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. The Kyrgyz Republic joined OGP in 2017. This report evaluates the design of the Kyrgyz Republic’s first action plan.

General overview of action plan

Through developing the country’s first OGP action plan, the Kyrgyz Republic showed evidence of strong performance in several areas of the OGP process. The Kyrgyz Republic established a well-functioning multi-stakeholder forum, compliant with OGP Participation and Co-Creation StandardsCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders is at the heart of the OGP process. The Participation and Co-Creation Standards are intended to support this collaboration throug..., while also achieving “Collaborate” on the spectrum of participation during the development of the action plan. Going forward, however, the Kyrgyz Republic could strengthen outreach and awareness efforts, in order to ensure that a wider cross-section of society is able to participate and contribute meaningfully to the identification of priorities and the development of the action plan.

Nevertheless, the Kyrgyz Republic’s first national action plan for 2018–2020 generally emerged as an ambitious endeavor, aspiring to change ‘business as to usual’ in a number of policy areas of national importance and to make the government more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. A total of 21 state entities are proposed be formally involved in the implementation of the action plan, which stands to represent positive government involvement in the process.

The 18 commitments included in the action plan cover a wide range of thematic areas, with particular focus on opening data, including in the 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 ... and health sectors. While the IRM finds that 17 out of the 18 commitments are relevant to OGP values, no 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... was found to be relevant to the OGP value of 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. The majority of commitments leverage technology and innovation, particularly in the context of establishing or improving online portals to enhance public access to information or enabling and easing 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 government processes.

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. Four KEY IRM Recommendations