Development of a Brazilian Portal for the Open Government Partnership (OGP) (BR0060)

to develop a Brazilian Portal gathering data on the Open Government Partnership (OGP), as a means of providing society with information on the OGP and enabling citizens to monitor the commitments undertaken by the Brazilian Federal Executive Branch within the Partnership. Furthermore, the Portal will enhance the dissemination of knowledge on the concept of open government and the civil participation within the OGP.

Commitment 2.3. Development of a Brazilian Portal for the Open Government Partnership (OGP)

Commitment Text: To develop a Brazilian Portal gathering data on the Open Government Partnership (OGP), as a means of providing society with information on the OGP and enabling citizens to monitor the commitments undertaken by the Brazilian Federal Executive Branch within the Partnership. Furthermore, the Portal will enhance the dissemination of knowledge on the concept of open government and the civil participation within the OGP.

Responsible institution: Office of the Comptroller General

Supporting institution: None

Start date: Not specified                          End date: 13 August 2013

Commitment aim

This commitment emerged from the need to promote Portuguese-language material about OGP and Brazil’s OGP activities, and support a participatory channel for action in the country. Providing society with information on OGP would enable citizens to monitor the commitments undertaken as part of OGP activities.

Status

Midterm: Completed

The portal (http://governoaberto.cgu.gov.br/) came online in October 2013. It publishes informative materials on OGP and OGP in Brazil, and contains news, documents, and links to an online tool for civic participation (Participa.br).

Did it open government?

Access to information: Marginal

Civic participation: Marginal

Public accountability: Marginal

The commitment delivers a fundamental tool to promote OGP engagement in the country. Nevertheless, most of the advances involved publishing informative materials. While this improves the public’s access to information about OGP in Brazil and fulfills the stated goal of the commitment, more emphasis on civic engagement would have made for a greater contribution to open government. In terms of civic participation and public accountability, the government had already created (and was using) a previously-existing participatory channel, e-Democracia, for civil society engagement in OGP. The new portal replaced this mechanism, but did not necessarily improve on it. According to Article 19, the impact of the portal is limited by the lack of regular updates and its focus on providing links to existing mechanisms for participation and accountability, rather than establishing new channels or improving previous ones.^{[Note 39: Artigo 19, contribuição na consulta, Participa.br, 2014, http://goo.gl/9S8Gki. ]} The government noted that the website has been updated weekly since August 2016, though this falls after the close of the action plan in June 2016. Still, the new webpage centralises OGP resources, and provides easy access to consultation opportunities and government feedback. The IRM researcher considers the commitment, then, to have had a marginal impact on open government in Brazil.

Carried forward?

The commitment is not included in Brazil’s next action plan. Nevertheless, the IRM researcher suggests improving the civic participation tools on the portal to foster more permanent dialogue between the government and civil society.