Panama Design Report 2017-2019

Panama’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... is focused on anticorruption and it was designed through open participatory workshops, with high influence from civil society. The plan was widely distributed through the media, but it did not include participation of organizations from beyond the capital city. The plan’s ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... level is moderate, with only one 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... having potential transformative impact. Going forward, the country could ensure the 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 of the multi-stakeholder forumRegular dialogue between government and civil society is a core element of OGP participation. It builds trust, promotes joint problem-solving, and empowers civil society to influence the design, imple... and promote an inclusive dialogue, as well as develop more ambitious commitments that clearly state their expected outcomes.

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. Panama joined OGP and has since implemented two action plans. This report assesses the design of Panama’s third action plan.

General overview of the action plan

Panama’s third action plan is focused on creating tools to prevent and fight corruption and protect the public resources, in response to the high-level corruption cases reported in the last few years.

The Open Government Commission, created to follow up on the implementation and monitoring of the second action plan, was charged with the creation of the third plan. This resulted in higher participation and influence from civil society, as compared to previous action plans. The willingness of the National Transparency and Access to Information Authority (ANTAI in Spanish), agency in charge of advancing the open government agenda, as well as civil society’s positive response, created the enabling conditions to conduct a collaborative process.

However, the outcome was similar to previous action plans in terms of their ambition levels, with one transformative commitment and a balance between moderate and minor ambition. The third action plan covers four themes, i.e. anticorruption, public contracting transparency, public services and 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 .... Unlike the previous plan, it does not include 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... efforts. Commitment no. 4 is noteworthy, as it promotes the implementation of mechanisms to prevent corruption in public contracting.

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. Five key IRM recommendations