Uruguay End-of-Term Report 2016-2018

Uruguay made substantial progress in completing its commitments, half of which resulted in significant changes in access to public information. The implementation of the access to information law continued and the first National Water Plan was developed in a participatory manner. A greater number of public and civil society actors participated during the open government process; however, civil society continues to face difficulties in sustaining participation processes, due to the limited availability of resources for advocacy or 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... activities.

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 voluntary international initiative that aims to secure commitments from governments to their citizenry 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 ... carries out annual reviews of the activities of each OGP-participating country. This report summarizes the results of the period June 2016 to June 2018, and includes some event through august 2018. .

The Agency for the Development of the Government of Electronic Management and the Information and Knowledge Society (AGESIC for its acronym in Spanish) is in charge of the coordination of open government issues in Uruguay. This body is a dependency of the Presidency of the Republic and works with technical autonomy, being able to coordinate its activities with other State bodies. AGESIC has been in charge of the three open government action plans implemented by Uruguay since the country’s incorporation into OGP to date. The five-year national budget includes a specific item for open government.

The implementation of the plan made substantial progress in meeting the goals in the second year of the action plan cycle. 55% of the commitments were met substantially and 25% were completely.

The Government delivered the self-evaluation report on the third action plan to OGP on November 30, 2018. On December 9 of the same year, it presented its fourth action plan with 39 commitments, 10 of which follow up on commitments of the third plan. of action.

Consultation with Civil Society During Implementation

OGP participating countries are required to conduct a consultation process with civil society for the development and implementation of their action plans.

The Open Government Working Group is the permanent forum in which civil society organizations participate in the OGP process in Uruguay. This group was created when the country joined the initiative in 2011 and was formalized by a decree of the Executive Power dated November 2016, since then it has been operating without interruption. In this group multiple actors are represented,  including from the public sector (the Executive Power, the Departmental Governments, the Judicial Power and the Legislative Power), the academy (University of the Republic) and civil society organizations (Open Government Network ). Decisions in this space are made by consensus and the record and minutes of meetings are published on the AGESIC website.

The participation of civil society in the Working Group is a strength, but the ability to sustain these processes is one of the greatest challenges posed within the framework of sustainability of civil society organizations in Uruguay.

Table 2: Consultation process during implementation

Table 3: Level of public influence

The IRM has 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] The 75 commitments of the original plan were grouped down to 40. The 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... “Open Government Governance in Uruguay: a continuous process”, whose objective is to strengthen governance mechanisms and the continuous process of dialogue during the plan, is not included in the analysis with the rest of the commitments since it is a commitment that aims to strengthen the implementation process and its results are included in other areas of the report.