Latvia Implementation Report 2017-2019

Latvia’s third 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... saw significant improvements in 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..., access to budget information, and 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 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. Other commitments effected incremental, positive steps in areas including whistleblower protection, lobbyingLobbying transparency allows the public to ensure that there is diversity of participation and contribution to public decision-making. Technical specifications: Policies and actions affecting lobbying... regulations for public officials, and governance of state-owned enterprises. Latvia’s fourth action plan will cover several of the same areas from the third plan, like lobbying transparency, as well as several new areas, such as open government at the local level and anticorruption in the healthcare sector.

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. Latvia joined OGP in 2011. Since, Latvia has implemented three action plans. This report evaluates the implementation of Latvia’s third action plan.

General overview of action plan

Most of the commitments in Latvia’s third action plan were fully or substantially completed. This was partly the result of the 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 of small-scale but achievable activities for most commitments.

The plan resulted in noticeable improvements in the areas of open data, access to budget information, and beneficial ownership transparency. During its implementation, the number of datasets available on Latvia’s open data portal increased considerably (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... 3) and detailed budget information is now published in interactive and reusable formats (Commitment 5). Also, detailed information on Latvian enterprises is now available for free (Commitment 11).

Table 2. Noteworthy commitments

Five Key IRM Recommendations

The IRM key recommendations are prepared in the IRM Design Report. They aim to inform the development of the next action plan and guide implementation of the current action plan. In Latvia’s (2017−2019) Design Report, the IRM recommended the following: