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Multi-Donor Trust Fund Co-Creation Awards 2: Results and Learning Report

Premios de co-creación de la segunda ronda del Fideicomiso de Donantes Múltiples: Reporte de aprendizaje y resultados

Prix de co-création du fonds fiduciaire multidonateurs : rapport d'apprentissage et résultats

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This report provides information on the key results of the second round (2019-2020) of the OGP Multi-Donor Trust Fund (OGP MDTF) co-creation awards with the support of the World Bank. Six civil society organizations (CSOs) received co-creation awards:

● Afghanistan

● Burkina Faso: Open Burkina

● Colombia: Fundación Corona

● Costa Rica: ACCESA

● Liberia: Accountability Lab

● The Philippines: CODE NGO

We explore what each awardee learned through their OGP MDTF experience so that others might apply these lessons to their own work. OGP is committed to incorporating these lessons to improve how we support co-creation processes across all our programs, including future OGP MDTF or other donor co-creation support.

Key improvements included: increased government buy-in, greater diversity of voices in the co-creation process, and citizen-generated commitments. All four countries (Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, and The Philippines) with 2019 OGP action plans show a measurable increase in the quality of dialogue and the potential impact of commitments.

Goals of OGP MDTF Window 1.2, key results from awardees

What are OGP MDTF Co-Creation Awards?

The co-creation awards provide funding to eligible CSOs and technical assistance and peer exchange opportunities to governments and CSOs. They enable CSOs to work with the government point of contact (POC) and the OGP Multistakeholder Forum (MSF) to jointly improve the co-creation process. Co-creation awards shape stronger design processes that lead to more ambitious and potentially impactful action plans by rewarding countries who achieve four key goals: improved ownership of reforms by the government, more diversity in the co-creation process, deeper collaboration across sectors, and improvements in OGP processes, such as more efficient decision-making in MSFs. Each award was disbursed as roughly $60,000 USD over the course of one year, though some awardees extended the duration of their projects due to longer co-creation processes. Co-creation awards support Window 1.2 of the OGP MDTF.[i]

What are the Main Goals Awardees Aimed to Accomplish?

Apart from the key goals listed above, which are shared by all awardees, the specific main objectives of each awardee, as specified in their project documents, were:

 

Key goals of OGP MDTF:
1. Government ownership of reforms
2. Diversity in co-creation
3. Cross-sectoral collaboration
4. Improved OGP processes

Thematic work

(Themes noted for each)

Increased political will/buy-in

Improved Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) processes

All branches of government involved in the action plan process

More active Steering Committee

Afghanistan

X

Beneficial Ownership, Elections, Education, Health, Local Governance, Participatory Budgeting, Public Finance Management, Rule of Law, and Women’s Empowerment

X

X

 

 

Burkina Faso

X

 Parliament

 

 

 

Costa Rica

X

Decarbonization

X

X

X

 

Colombia

X

Anti-Corruption, Citizen Advocacy in Public Decision-Making, Deforestation, Labor Rights, Open Contracting, and Fiscal Transparency

 

 

 

Liberia

X

Health and Legislature

X

 

 

 

The Philippines

X

Education, Indigenous Representation, Labor Policy, Local Tourism Development, and Participatory Planning and

Budgeting

X

 

X

What Did the Awardees Accomplish?

In this section, we highlight progress as distilled into three buckets: (i) government buy-in, (ii) diversity of actors in co-creation, and (iii) citizen-generated commitments. We illustrate some factors that may have influenced better-quality dialogues and ambitious action plans, as assessed by the OGP Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM). The sources of this information are:

  • The documentation of progress completed by each awardee throughout the award period,
  • Draft IRM Design Reports for 2019-2021, and
  • Structured interviews with each awardee in September 2020.

Increased government buy-in and participation in open government work

In our interviews, we heard that:

Greater diversity of actors in the co-creation process

In our interviews and in the awardees’ progress reports, we saw:

Citizen-centered and better-quality commitments

Our interviews, combined with the draft Design Reports, showed that:

Liberia: Reframed their work and launched actionable projects to show how open government benefits the government. The goal of this work was to increase the government’s buy-in and engagement.

Colombia: Aligned their open government work to elections and existing political agendas. This tailored framing fostered widespread support by national agencies for open government and active participation in OGP processes.

Costa Rica: Created a significant mindset shift in government attitude toward open government work. They achieved this by publishing detailed information about input collected in each action plan-development stage, and how they incorporated these while co-creating commitments. They also held “accountability sessions” attended by 20 public servants from 18 government institutions and over 120 citizens. These activities enabled institutions to take full ownership of their commitments.

The Philippines: Conducted 16 regional dialogues to develop co-created plans, and created 10 cross-sectoral monitoring groups. This co-creation process involved a number of first-time participants in the OGP process, from both government and CSOs.

Afghanistan: Consulted 24 provinces in the co-creation process, including women and youth groups. These consultations included 600+ people from CSOs, the government, private sector, citizen groups, international organizations, the media, and universities.

Burkina Faso: Increased engagement by women and youth groups. Two youth and one women associations are now part of the MSF. They developed three commitments with a gender and/or youth component.

Costa Rica: Included 40 government agencies in the thematic co-creation process and 118 CSO actors in the national workshops, including 11 organizations representing underrepresented and marginalized groups.

Afghanistan: Collected more than 400 ideas for commitments, which came directly from citizen input from five “think shops” to refine ideas and five additional regional sessions to gather public input. These collaborative sessions included 150 experts, and produced 18 concrete commitments. These commitments encompass all 6 priority thematic areas.

Burkina Faso: 60% of all commitments are now ranked as having a moderate potential impact, compared with just 15% in their last action plan (see table below).

Colombia: Co-created cross-sectoral commitments in each of the three priority thematic areas.

The draft IRM Design Reports for the four awardees with 2019-2021 action plans show that all four awardees improved their level of public influence in any public participation process (see table below). We also see that in Burkina Faso and The Philippines, a higher proportion of commitments are now ranked to be of moderate potential impact compared to the previous OGP action plan, and Costa Rica created a transformative commitment. As Colombia and Liberia do not have 2019 action plans, they have no IRM data for this cycle. However, both noted significant improvements in the quality of dialogue and the specificity and potential impact of their co-created commitments.

Awardees with 2019-2021 Action Plans Showed Improvement in their Level of Public Influence[ii]

Awardee

Potential Impact

Level of public influence

Minor

Moderate

Transformative

Afghanistan

2019 action plan

12

5

1

Collaborate

2017 action plan

4

6

3

Involve

Burkina Faso

2019 action plan

4

6

Involve

2017 action planP

11

2

Consult

Costa Rica

2019 action plan

5

2

1

Involve

2017 action plan

7

5

Consult

The Philippines

2019 action plan

3

6

2

Collaborate

2017 action plan

8

4

1

Involve

Though the level of public influence of each country and the potential impact of commitments of most countries have improved, hard numbers alone don’t show the full extent of positive changes in each country. First, each awardee is in a different stage in their OGP journey, which affects their results. This was just the second co-creation process in Afghanistan and Burkina Faso, whereas The Philippines and Costa Rica have had longer OGP journeys. These differences influenced how each awardee involved a wider diversity of stakeholders. Costa Rica, for example, has been diversifying the geographic spread of their consultations for several action plan cycles. Notably, their latest co-creation process incorporated stakeholders’ feedback to its fullest extent, and involved a truly collaborative MSF process between CSOs and the government.

Afghanistan’s key improvements cannot be captured in the hard figures of the table. In this round, stakeholders were more conscious of the feasibility of delivering commitments, which might explain why a higher proportion of commitments are ranked as having minor potential impact. CSOs were particularly keen to ensure that the action plan addressed new or stalled areas of open government reform, rather than include ongoing government initiatives that were already progressing. In addition, a major focus of this second action plan was broadening the base of stakeholders involved in its co-creation, which they achieved despite elections, an ongoing peace process, and recurring security challenges. Afghanistan met many of their co-creation objectives and developed a plan with a solid number of potentially impactful commitments, even though the number of commitments with transformative potential impact dropped from three to one.[iii]

In the Philippines, different agencies worked together on commitments, a process that was previously siloed. They developed an iterative approach to commitment development in which all agencies were active and proposals for commitments went through several rounds of revision. The Minister, Deputy Minister, and senior officials continuously engaged during the whole process, up through the final step of constructing an MEL framework for the implementation phase. The Department of Budget and Management created a dedicated Project Management Unit for open government. OGP supported government and non-government secretariats in providing feedback on workshop design. CARE Philippines delivered customized guidance to organizations new to the action plan process to help create gender-sensitive commitments.

Overall, each awardee improved the quality of consultations and commitments and has diversified their co-creation processes, despite shifting priorities due to COVID-19. Below, we explore how awardees used the OGP MDTF to achieve their goals, and how they feel OGP MDTF contributed to their achievements.

Awardee Spotlights—Stories, in their own Words[iv]

AFGHANISTAN

What we did with the OGP MDTF: We conducted public consultations and technical workshops, which included participants from 26 provinces. These consultations extended beyond the capital for the first time. CSOs and government officials worked together to filter, cluster, prioritize, and select commitments for inclusion in the action plan.

The role of the OGP MDTF: The MDTF award enabled higher levels of cooperation and coordination between the government and CSOs, which is a key factor in creating a stronger action plan.

What we achieved: We achieved greater high-level political buy-in for the process, which is key for sustaining this work in the long term. We achieved much greater diversity of actors in the co-creation process, particularly at the provincial level and by women and youth groups. We also improved MSF processes as the MSF held several workshops to jointly develop plans and generate buy-in. As a result, we finalized 22 commitments across all six of our priority themes.

What we recommend to others: The success of an action plan comes from the high levels of communication, cooperation, and goodwill between the government and CSOs. Creating and implementing a solid action plan is not possible without this collaboration. We recommend others foster a close relationship between CSOs and the government, even if this relationship has traditionally been difficult. The end result will be a much stronger action plan.

BURKINA FASO

Regional Consultation in Burkina Faso

Regional Consultation in Burkina Faso

What we did with the OGP MDTF: We established a national OGP website and social media channels, which allowed over 1,000 citizens to engage in the action plan process. Over 800 citizens from rural areas offered their ideas for the commitments via in-person public consultations across all 13 administrative regions. We later appointed local government representatives from these regions to join the MSF, to ensure the sustainability of the participation of these diverse actors over time.

The role of the OGP MDTF: Financing from the OGP MDTF was important in achieving these results. We were able to undertake a wider range of high-quality activities thanks to the collaboration between French Development Agency’s (AFD) Support Program for Francophone Open Governments (PAGOF), the government, and the OGP MDTF. The OGP MDTF’s financial contribution enabled us to roll out new communication means, including Facebook, which helped secure the participation of youth and women organizations.

What we achieved: Some of our most important accomplishments were identifying and integrating new key voices into the co-creation process, sensitizing key stakeholders to the action plan process, and enabling these stakeholders to engage meaningfully in the process. This resulted in the first-time participation of at least 11 political parties and CSOs, including the Alliance for Democracy and Federation-African Democratic Rally (ADF/RDA), Burkina Youth, The National CSO Council, and the Women’s Council of Burkina. At least eight media organizations also participated for the first time, including the Burkina Association of Journalists and the Agency for Government Information. We hope that these efforts will ensure this work is sustainable.

What we recommend to others: Collaboration is key, both within the government and between government and non-government stakeholders. Maintaining a high level of trust among all actors is vital to sustaining solid relationships. We recommend others build this trust by specifying joint goals which interest all stakeholders. A common goal helps cement a good relationship and communication, as actors across sectors must work together to achieve that vision.

COLOMBIA

Colombian virtual co-creation session

Colombian virtual co-creation session

What we did with the OGP MDTF: We formed three government-CSO coalitions under the identified priorities of transparency and anti-corruption, fiscal policy, and the environment. These coalitions co-created commitments in each policy area, incorporating open government principles. They also aligned their activities with existing national processes, such as the Escazú Agreement. When we faced difficulties at the national level, we leveraged interest at the subnational level and developed a toolkit for public innovation based on the principles of open government.

The role of the OGP MDTF: Though the OGP MDTF wasn’t the only factor in achieving these results, and its effect was sometimes indirect, it was undoubtedly important. We could not have formed such high-quality commitments, benefited from as much specialized support, nor created such strong and sustainable long-term open government processes without the OGP MDTF.

What we achieved: Apart from meaningfully engaging a wider diversity of actors in the co-creation process, our main achievement has been developing solid procedures that will support open governance long beyond our participation in the OGP MDTF. Creating robust processes has helped us achieve more specific and actionable commitments, which heightens their potential impact. We know that the process we developed will help us write similarly strong commitments in future action plans.

What we recommend to others: It is important to define which stakeholders must participate at each key moment of the process to achieve the right cross-sectoral mix. Dedicating time at the beginning of the process to develop a solid engagement plan will lead to better results in the long term. The success of our work is due to having developed a specific and targeted plan for engaging local governments. Throughout that process, we saw that some local governments had interest in engaging in open government work, but did not have the skills or knowledge to do so. Identifying a feasible mentorship plan to strengthen this local capacity was key.

COSTA RICA

Second National Workshop, Costa Rica

Second National Workshop, Costa Rica

What we did with the OGP MDTF: We conducted consultations in all five regions and bolstered the participation by regional representatives in the national workshops. We engaged different branches of government in all of our nine target themes. We also facilitated the participation of over 100 civil society, private sector, and academic actors, including marginalized populations such as women and people living with disabilities, in our in-person events. We held public consultations while prioritizing themes, so that stakeholders across sectors could work together in defining problems and potential solutions.

The role of the OGP MDTF: Participating in the OGP MDTF significantly improved the quality of the commitments. We are on track to achieve our long-term goal of convincing traditionally closed institutions about the value of open government. This will ensure that open government stays high on the government’s list of priorities, and that agencies work together closely on implementing commitments.

What we achieved: We achieved much more meaningful participation by a diverse group of actors in the action plan process. All of the decisions in the co-creation process included perspectives of both the government and CSOs. Six of our nine commitments include at least one counterpart from civil society, the private sector, or academia. We’ve also seen some important mindset and behavioral shifts in traditionally “closed off” government agencies; some agencies without a history of engaging with citizens are now welcoming citizen feedback. These attitude changes are critical for our work being sustainable.

What we recommend to others: First, start the process by reviewing previous processes, international trends, and good practices. This knowledge base will help design a feasible process that is truly collaborative. It will also help you make informed decisions throughout the different stages. At the same time, it’s important to balance broadening participation in the co-creation process with designing feasible, well-constructed, and high-impact commitments. Greater diversity by itself does not ensure higher-quality commitments; these diverse voices must be leveraged to create relevant, impactful commitments.

LIBERIA

Liberian stakeholders in the Dubai peer exchange

Liberian stakeholders in the Dubai peer exchange

What we did with the OGP MDTF: We collaborated with line ministries, government cabinet members, and the legislative and judicial branches to garner government buy-in. We also encouraged the government to champion open government issues in the national agenda. Furthermore, we mobilized 11 new CSOs to participate in the co-creation process, which was a key part of our efforts to engage new sectors and government agencies. We arranged in-person meetings between the government and non-government stakeholders, in which 50 different institutions participated.

The role of the OGP MDTF: Without the OGP MDTF, it is unlikely we could have completed this work. In particular, it wouldn’t have been possible to achieve participation by such a highly-diverse group of actors. We greatly benefited from OGP MDTF-organized activities such as the peer exchange in Dubai. That exchange helped us understand how other beneficiaries used innovation to overcome obstacles similar to the ones we faced.

What we achieved: We increased action plan ownership by key stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Health and their new commitment, and local CSOs who were not involved previously. Ministries are more engaged than ever in open government work, which has increased political will around this action plan. By conducting open government training suited to the interests of different stakeholders, we were able to convince a wide range of people of the value of this work. In particular, we refined our pitch to appeal to the health, legislative, and judicial sectors.

What we recommend to others: Tailoring training around what OGP is and how citizens can benefit from open governance helps clarify the value proposition of open government for a wider range of stakeholders. This will help maintain their participation and future support.

THE PHILIPPINES

Philippines action plan Workshop

Philippines action plan Workshop

What we did with the OGP MDTF: We created a bottom-up, citizen-driven process by developing the agenda based on citizen priorities identified through workshops. This agenda then became the basis for the call for commitments. In total, we held 16 nationwide consultations to validate and refine the draft commitments. These consultations included over 1,000 participants from across sectors. We also held two national workshops to develop implementation and monitoring plans, which culminated in the formation of ten monitoring groups. To close the feedback loop with citizens, we worked with implementing agencies to include in the annex of the action planan explanation of which comments were considered for publication.

The role of the OGP MDTF: The OGP MDTF helped secure active participation of non-government stakeholders across different parts of the country. The action plan we constructed, thanks to the award, is the most collaborative and citizen-focused yet. That said, we also see results not directly attributable to OGP MDTF, but rather due to having two new full-time staff members in the Secretariat dedicated to this work. Having these new staff allowed us to dedicate more time and resources to this work and gave us the ability to do a wider range of activities.

What we achieved: Eight of the ten new commitments are being implemented jointly by the government and non-government stakeholders. In fact, non-government stakeholders initiated three of these commitments.

What we recommend to others:  It is critical to push for the needs of marginalized sectors. To do this, you must engage actors across sectors in meaningful ways, including the national and local governments, CSOs, academia, and the private sector. You can maximize resources across sectors by working together. Working in a unified, cross-sectoral way achieves much more than working individually on similar projects.

Lessons Learned[v]

 

What are the most important lessons you learned through this work?

How would you recommend others adapt their work to COVID-19?

How will you change your work going forward based on what you learned? What comes next?

Frame conversations around the priorities of each stakeholder

Liberia: Refining your open-government pitch to your audience is key. Understanding the listener and speaking to their interests has been the most important part of our work. To generate interest and buy-in, you must frame the conversation around the priorities and needs of each stakeholder.

Burkina Faso: It’s important to align commitments with existing sectoral strategies within ministries. You can build political will by showing how the action plan will help ministries meet their internal objectives.

Build up cross-sectoral trust

Philippines: It’s not possible to control how another stakeholder acts, but we have found that as long as we follow a model of constructive engagement that is consistent with OGP’s values, stakeholders across sectors will keep cooperating. The Philippines is one of few countries with a non-governmental Secretariat. Both Secretariats respect the other’s culture and context. This good working relationship has meant they can jointly shepherd the whole OGP process with a high level of success.

Keep work goal-oriented

Costa Rica: We maintained a problem/ solution logic focused on improving the quality of life of citizens across the country. This meant starting with discussions around concrete thematic areas, then identifying key root problems, and finally developing problem-oriented solutions. Only once we had done this important initial work did we finally start drafting commitments.

Align work to shifting priorities

Colombia: To keep our work going at this difficult time, we needed to align the action plan with existing internal processes and priorities. One key way we did this was by shaping our work around elections and political agendas. This is a big improvement that goes beyond the pandemic, and one we will continue to implement in the long term.

Adopt lightweight digital solutions

Afghanistan: Others who are working in the COVID-19 context need to plan how they can successfully move their co-creation work to digital means without alienating stakeholders from more remote regions. One way we managed this was by relying not just on videoconferencing like Zoom, but also on technologies that work well across the country, such as Whatsapp. Early planning for how you can pivot your work online is important not only in light of the current pandemic, but it will also help you respond more quickly in the face of future disasters and crises.

Liberia: We were able to achieve a greater diversity of actors in the co-creation process, even despite COVID-19. When the pandemic hit, civil servants began not receiving their pay, and our concern was whether the government would continue to prioritize open government work. We attribute our success in large part to the new communication mechanisms we developed to keep engagement high during COVID-19. We made Whatsapp groups for different thematic areas and ministries. These new communication means have kept engagement and momentum high. Plus, they helped bridge the gap in information dissemination, which is useful even outside of the current pandemic.

Keep it simple

Costa Rica: Complex co-creation workshops limit their effectiveness. Even though we had many volunteers supporting the sessions, we didn’t have adequate time to train them fully on facilitating complicated activities. Simplifying the workshops kept the focus on the primary objectives, and resulted in more fruitful sessions.

Achieve even greater diversity

Afghanistan: We achieved a high level of diversity in the co-creation process. We garnered participation by many new provinces, and opened spaces for women and youth to participate. That said, we still see an opportunity to be even more diverse, particularly at the district level. The interests and needs of the districts are different from those of the provinces, and we want to increase representation of these interests.

Focus on local government

Philippines: For our work to be sustainable, we must make OGP relevant to marginalized sectors at the local level. Several local governments submitted applications to the OGP Local program, and we are excited to see how we can take advantage of that platform to advance open government at the local level. We are exploring ways to partner with the National Secretariat at the local level, perhaps by holding webinars for local governments.

Colombia: We learned just how highly local government agencies regard national entities in Colombia. Local entities rarely have the chance to work directly with national agencies, and it meant a lot for them to have the opportunity to learn from them. We will continue leveraging this positive relationship to build local trust and interest in open government work.

Foster peer exchanges

Burkina Faso: The Dubai peer exchange event helped us understand who is doing what, and how they are overcoming challenges. It would be beneficial to find ways to share information and resources in the longer term. We’d like to continue exchanging information with others working on open government, especially those who speak French.

This publication was developed by Katherine Wikrent from the OGP Support Unit.

[i] Window 1.2 belongs to Window 1, “Country Support,” which also involves implementing commitments and eligibility support to join OGP. Window 2, “Cross-Country Research, Learning and Thematic Priorities,” researches evidence of impact and advances thematic priorities through peer learning. Window 3, “Programmatic Support to OGP,” focuses on country contributions for the OGP Secretariat. For more information on the OGP MTDF windows, see here.

[ii] All figures are taken from draft IRM reports and are subject to final approval of the reports.

[iii] All figures are taken from draft IRM reports and are subject to final approval of the reports.

[iv] This information comes from September 2020 interviews with awardees. We invited the government and CSOs to all interviews and also to review this report before its publication. Where possible, we validated this information with the progress reports submitted by the awardees.

[v] This information comes from the September 2020 interviews with awardees. Where possible, we validated this information with the progress reports submitted by the awardees.

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