Spain Implementation Report 2017-2019
- Action Plan: Spain Action Plan 2017-2019
- Dates Under Review: 2017-2019
- Report Publication Year: 2022
The implementation of Spain’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... strengthened the governance of the OGP process through the creation of the Open Government Forum. This forum fostered a space for dialogue and civil society participation. The high degree of completionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin... More achieved during this cycle allowed for significant progress in opening up the Government, especially in access to information 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.
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. Spain joined OGP in 2011. Since then, the country has implemented three action plans. This report evaluates the implementation of Spain’s third action plan.
| Table 1. At a Glance
Member since: 2011 Action plan under review: 2017-2019 Type of report: Implementation Number of commitments: 20 Action Plan Development Is there a multistakeholder forum? Yes Level of public influence: Involve Acted contrary to the OGP process: No Action Plan Design Commitments relevant to OGP values: 16 (80%) Transformative commitments: 1 (5%) Potentially starred commitments: 1 (5%) Action Plan Implementation Starred commitments: 1 (5%) Completed commitments: 11 (55%) Commitments with significant DIOG*: 6 (30%) Commitments with exceptional DIOG *2 (10%) Level of public influence: Involve Acted contrary to the OGP process: No *DIOG: Did it Open Government |
General Overview of the Action Plan
The Open Government Forum (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... 1.1), contributed to civil society participation during the implementation of the action plan. The access to information tools established by the Government were a website, a repositoryAccess to relevant information is essential for enabling participation and ensuring accountability throughout the OGP process. An OGP repository is an online centralized website, webpage, platform or ..., and regular meetings between the members of the forum at different levels – working groups, permanent commission and plenary session. These spaces fostered dialogue between civil society and the Government, allowing both the reception of proposals and feedback on how these proposals were addressed in the implementation process.
The high degree of compliance with the action plan allowed significant contributions to the opening of the Government. The Participatory Web Space on Open Government (commitment 2.2) strengthened the access to information by monitoring the implementation of the action plan.
Likewise, the State 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 portal (commitment 3.1) now offers large amounts of statistical data on access to information, in different formats. Also, given the recommendations of the IRM in previous reports, the applicant identification system was simplified, facilitating the exercise of the right of access.
In terms of citizen participation, the Network of Local Entities in Transparency and Participation was created, contributing to the development of the open government agenda at a local level. In the Region of Murcia, the mechanisms for citizen participation in the decision-making process on regional budgets were strengthened.
Starred commitments must meet the following criteria:
- In the Design Report, the commitment was rated as verifiable, relevant to OGP values, and with transformative potential impact.
- The IRM implementation report rated commitment implementation as substantial or completed.
Based on these criteria, Spain’s action plan has one starred commitment:
- Commitment 1.1: Creation of an Open Government Forum
Table 2. Noteworthy Commitments
| Commitment Description | Status at the end of the implementation cycle |
| Commitment 1.1:
Creation of an Open Government Forum ✪ |
This commitment was completed. It fostered greater multi-stakeholder participation in the OGP process, improving inclusivity and representation of non-governmental and subnational entities |
| Commitment 1.3
Promotion of the Network of Local Entities in Transparency and Participation |
The complete implementation of this commitment allowed the consolidation of the Network, improving participation channels for local entities and enabling them to promote greater transparency. |
| Commitment 3.1
Improvement of the Transparency portal and Right of Access |
The General Secretariat of Digital Administration completed this commitment that contributes with access to information by improving the State Transparency portal (transparencia.gob.es), which now offers a greater number of statistics in reusable formats, thus facilitating the exercise of the right of access by simplifying the applicant identification system |
| Commitment 4.3
Improve the quality of real estate data through the coordination of the Cadastre and Land Registry |
This commitment reached a substantial level of implementation that contributed, through inter-institutional coordination, to the quality of real estate information –and its access through several channels-, the simplification of procedures, and the reduction of costs and administrative obstacles. |
| Commitment 5.3
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 ... in Open Government |
The complete implementation of this commitment resulted in the development and dissemination of educational resources on open government, which exceeded expectations in terms of involvement of educational centers through proposals and in the different activities carried out. |
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 the implementation of the
current action plan. In the Spain Design Report (2017- 2019), the IRM
recommended the following:
| 1. Improve the work dynamics and the functioning of the forum, to increase the quality of participation and offer spaces that allow the public to influence the final formulation of commitments. |
| 2. Propose a smaller number of commitments, with greater specificity, 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... and potential impact, specially focused on the priorities expressed by citizens such as the fight against corruption through strategies and approaches based on 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..., the development of regulations for whistleblower protection, regulationGovernment reformers are developing regulations that enshrine values of transparency, participation, and accountability in government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or reforming ... of pressure groups and lobbyists. |
| 3. Encourage civil society active participation and strengthen its internal coordination. |
| 4. Develop a communication strategy that allows the public to identify the national OGP process and the available participation channels. |
| 5. Involve high level politicians and other government entities in the OGP process to move towards an “Open State”. |
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