Paraguay End-of-Term Report 2016-2018

Implementation of the 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... focused on further understanding the law on access to public information, mechanisms for citizen complaints (like the platform to report corruption), and citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More for poverty alleviation. Moving forward, Paraguay should focus on creating accountability commitments, as well as strengthen citizen participation mechanisms, and open government at regional and local levels.

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 voluntary initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote 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, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. 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 ... conducts yearly assessments of each OGP member’s activities. This report assessed Paraguay’s results between June of 2016 and June of 2018.

The Open Government Directorate of Paraguay’s Technical Planning Secretariat was the agency in charge of the OGP process and commitments in Paraguay. This agency leads the open government agenda of the Executive Branch. The Government created the Joint Committee to follow up on the action plan commitments, with representatives from public agencies and civil society organizations.

Implementation of the Republic of Paraguay’s open government third action plan helped strengthen an understanding of the law on access to public information, as well as mechanisms for citizen participation via the corruption claim portal.

Additional highlights of the third action plan include openness of the health system and medication supply, and the advancement of the Development Councils as spaces for dialogue and coordination between the Government and civil society.

The Government published its final self-assessment report in September of 2018, opening it up to public comments from September 10 to September 24, 2018.

Paraguay’s fourth open government action plan (2018-2020) includes four commitments that provide continuity to the activities presented in this plan, including the creation of a national 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... policy, the implementation of the accountability manual, strengthening the Development Councils as mechanisms for citizen participation, and providing access to environmental data.

Consultation with civil society during implementation

OGP member countries are expected to consult with civil society during the development and implementation of their action plans.

As part of the consultation process carried out during the implementation of the third action plan, the Government created two forums to facilitate civil society participation. First, the Open Government Joint Committee meetings, in which the public agencies and civil society organizations engaged in the plan participated. Second, meetings dedicated to monitoring and evaluation of 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... progress in which agencies and organizations in charge of each commitment participated. The IRM researcher, Maria Jose Garcia, attended various meetings of the Open Government Joint Committee as an observer.

The process faced both internal and external challenges. In late 2017, for instance, journalistic investigations uncovered corruption allegations that implicated a Senator of the Republic^[1]. This brought about disagreement among the Joint Committee members with regards to the positioning that the open government community would take. This situation affected the operations of the Joint Committee, especially the participation of various civil society organizations in the country’s fourth action plan in July of 2018.[2]

In terms of the internal open government process, civil society stakeholders repeatedly requested a more integrated coordination and increased influence in the Joint Committee. A representative of a civil society organization that has participated in the Joint Committee since its inception indicated that the Committee requires increased institutionalization and that there is a need to agree on clear guidelines for its operation and further strengthen its achievements to date.

To this end, civil society organizations recommended the creation of an Executive Secretariat or collegiate body, which would be responsible for enabling communication and securing meaningful participation of civil society organizations.

 Table 2: Consultation process during implementation

Table 3: Level of public influence

The IRM adapted the International Association for 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... (IAP2) “Spectrum of Participation” to apply to OGP. The table below shows the public influence in the action plan. The stages shown in the table are cumulative, from bottom to top. In the spirit of OGP, most countries should aspire for “collaborate”.

^[1] Resulting from a journalistic investigation, allegations of corruption against Senator Oscar Gonzalez Daher emerged. The Senator resigned in August 2018. He is currently facing two judiciary processes and is confined by the police. More information can be found at: https://www.ultimahora.com/en-el-ojo-la-tormenta-quien-es-oscar-gonzalez-daher-n1124168.html; http://www.abc.com.py/nacionales/ogd-se-formaliza-la-renuncia-1735677.html; http://www.abc.com.py/nacionales/cao-audios-preliminar-en-febrero-2019-1772668.html;  y http://www.abc.com.py/edicion-impresa/politica/ogd-con-chicanas-traba-avance-de-sus-procesos-1779312.html.

[2] The following civil society organizations did not participate in the design of the fourth action plan: Asociación Trinidad: Ciudadanía + Cultura + Desarrollo; FEDEM; Fundación Libre; Asociación Tesai Reká Paraguay; Instituto de Derecho y Economía Ambiental; y Semillas para la Democracia.