Open Innovation and Transparency in the Legislative (BR0094)

Lead government institution The House of Representatives Civil servant in charge for implementing at lead government institution Cristiano Ferri Soares de Faria Position - Department Manager/ Hacker Laboratory of the Chamber of Deputies E-mail cristiano.faria@camara.gov.br Telephone 55 61 3216 6005 Other involved actors Government The Chamber of Deputies Federal Senate Interlegis Program Municipal Chamber of São Paulo Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais Civil society, private sector, group of workers and multilateral actors Transparency International Labhacker - São Paulo Control and Inspection Institute Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (DIEESE) Parliamentary Advisory Intersyndical Department (DIAP) Status quo or problem/issue to be addressed Need of promoting an open parliament institutionalization policy, which makes possible the commitment of society, congressmen and civil servants Main objective To improve the Legislative Houses transparency and participative openness, by the concerted efforts from different actors, looking for innovative and open solutions Commitment short description Tools &Best Practices mapping; integration and dissemination of technology and content OGP Challenge addressed by the Commitment Improvement of Public Services Increase of Public Integrity Establishment of more secure communities Commitment relevance Relevant for open government fostering at the Parliament Goal Repository Join forces of different actors (congressmen, civil servants and civil society) to foster open government actions in the parliament.

11. Open Innovation and Transparency in the Legislative

Commitment Text:

Create and publicize a repository for Open Parliament institutionalization, with rules, tools, training, guidelines and practices

The commitment seeks to join forces of different actors (congressmen, civil servants and civil society) to foster open government actions in the parliament. Among the first initiatives are the mapping of tools, practices and norms that could compose an information repository, and the elaboration of a handbook on guidelines and competences.

11.1 – Mapping eligible tools, practices and standards for the repository

11.2 – Guide preparation, which comprises concept, guidelines, processes, and skills governances

11.3 – Integration and dissemination of technologies and selected content to the repository to Interlegis and its products

11.4 – Promoting dissemination and training actions on specific repository products

11.5 – Creation and dissemination of measurement program and awards the performance of homes in the worship of Transparency and Participation practices

11.6 – Open Parliament Annual Conference undertaking and dissemination

Responsible institution: The House of Representatives

Supporting institutions: The Chamber of Deputies, Federal Senate, Interlegis Program,

Municipal Chamber of São Paulo, Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais, Transparency International, Labhacker - São Paulo, Control and Inspection Institute, Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (DIEESE), Parliamentary Advisory Intersyndical Department (DIAP)

Start date: December 2016.. End date: November 2018

Context and Objectives

This commitment aims to improve the level of transparency in the legislative houses. Specifically, the commitment involves creating and publishing a repository for Open Parliament tools, including trainings, guidelines, and practices. In addition, the government proposes creating a program that measures and awards transparency and participation practices in the legislature, as well as hosting an Open Parliament Annual Conference.

The legislature in Brazil has a strong tradition of adopting open government innovations. LabHacker is an open government innovation center of the lower chamber of the federal legislative branch. The Lab has a national and an international reputation in open government initiatives.[1] The center is responsible for key initiatives such as the main civic participation portal of the lower chamber, the e-Democracia website, and co-creation of legislative tools such as Wikilegis.[2] In addition, the Senate launched the Legislative Transparency Index in 2015.[3] Civil society, however, still perceives the legislature as nonparticipatory and not transparent, as Congress is trusted by only 10 percent of the population.[4]

The commitment is relevant to access to information and technology and innovation, given its focus on publishing online best practices in legislative transparency. LabHacker has a long tradition of collaborating with civil society organizations and hackers. Its Facebook[5] and YouTube pages feature illustrations of the recurring consultation and collaboration activities with the hacker community.[6] This commitment, however, does not have specific milestones that would improve civic participation.

The commitment’s level of specificity is medium. There are several measurable deliverables. These include mapping for the repository of eligible tools, practices and standards for legislative openness, an awards program for the best transparency and participation practices, and an Open Parliament Annual Conference. However, the content and scope of these deliverables remain unclear. For example, the commitment does not specify what kinds of tools and practices will be gathered and disclosed, or who is expected to participate in the conference.

The commitment has a positive potential impact because it seeks to promote open government innovations in a branch of government that citizens highly distrust. However, the potential impact is minor because the commitment focuses only on highlighting best practices. Greater potential impact lies in proposing specific reforms and innovations in legislative practices.

Completion

The commitment has seen limited completion.

The August 2017 monitoring report[7] noted that the mapping of eligible materials for the repository (milestone 11.1), the preparation of guidelines (milestone 11.2), and the establishment of the repository (milestone 11.3) have begun. The government’s self-assessment report notes that the mapping activity was completed but that the guidelines and the repository were still in 'early implementation stages (around 30%).' According to the government, as of April 2017, the lead implementers for this commitment were in charge of engaging their networks and partners to collect content for the repository. The ideas were collected and discussed online.[8] The government provided clear evidence of progress toward the gathering of information for the repository.[9]

A government official interviewed by the IRM researcher (Cristiano Ferri) stated that the level of participation from legislative government institutions has been high. However, the official observed that civil society participation has been low. The report and the interviewee also confirmed that planning has started for the dissemination and training activities (milestone 11.4) and Open Parliament Annual Conference (milestone 11.6). The creation and dissemination of an evaluation and awards program (milestone 11.5) has not started.

The action plan set a deadline of October 2017 for milestone 11.1, which puts the commitment behind the schedule.

Early Results (if any)

Given the limited progress in implementing the commitment, there are no early results to report.

Next Steps

The commitment addresses an important policy issue and should be continued. It will be key to document the achievements of the Open Parliament repository, including independent analyses carried out by civil society (e.g., academics). In addition, future commitments related to the legislature should aim to implement specific openness reforms. These reforms should be based on the published best practices, such as crowdlaw, which is 'the practice of using technology to tap the intelligence and expertise of the public in order to improve the quality of law-making.'[10]

11. Open Innovation and Transparency in the Legislature

Commitment Text:

Create and publicize a repository for Open Parliament institutionalization, with rules, tools, training, guidelines and practices.

The commitment seeks to join forces of different actors (congressmen, civil servants and civil society) to foster open government actions in the parliament. Among the first initiatives are the mapping of tools, practices and norms that could compose an information repository, and the elaboration of a handbook on guidelines and competences.

More specifically, the commitment was set out to achieve the following milestones:

11.1 – Mapping eligible tools, practices and standards for the repository

11.2 – Guide preparation, which comprises concept, guidelines, processes, and skills governances

11.3 – Integration and dissemination of technologies and selected content to the repository to Interlegis and its products

11.4 – Promoting dissemination and training actions on specific repository products

11.5 – Creation and dissemination of measurement program and awards the performance of homes in the worship of Transparency and Participation practices

11.6 – Open Parliament Annual Conference undertaking and dissemination

Responsible institution: The House of Representatives

Supporting institutions: The Chamber of Deputies, Federal Senate, Interlegis Program,

Municipal Chamber of São Paulo, Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais, Transparency International, Labhacker - São Paulo, Control and Inspection Institute, Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (DIEESE), Parliamentary Advisory Intersyndical Department (DIAP)

Start Date: December 2016...                         End Date: November 2018

Commitment Aim:

This commitment aimed to improve the level of transparency in the legislative houses. Specifically, the commitment involved creating and publishing a repository for Open Parliament tools. This task would create a program that measures and awards transparency and participation practices in the legislature. The commitment also involved hosting an Open Parliament Annual Conference.

Status

Midterm: Limited

The commitment saw limited completion and was behind schedule. Milestones 11.1–11.3 were underway. The mapping of eligible materials for the repository (11.1), the preparation of guidelines (11.2), and the establishment of the repository (11.3) were started. However, these elements had not been made public. According to the government’s self-assessment report, those elements were in the early stages. Milestones 11.4–11.6 were either planned but not started yet, or not planned.

End of term: Substantial

Milestones 11.1–11.4 have been completed. Milestones 11.5–11.6 are underway and have had substantial completion. Therefore, the commitment achieved substantial completion.

Milestones 11.1 and 11.2 involved the mapping of content for a repository of tools, practices, and standards (11.1) and the launch of the material (11.2). The government published the material, [75] which included examples of two legislative houses: the national Senate and the state legislative house of Minas Gerais. The milestones included guidelines, tools, and civic tech available to promote, for example, accountability activities, participatory exercises, and an ethical code of conduct. Milestone 11.3 involved dissemination of content developed as part of the previous milestones, as well as a government-run program on open government (i.e., Interlegis). The government launched a website, [76] and it contained user-friendly materials on Open Parliament. Milestone 11.4 involved dissemination activities, which were carried out mainly at events such as the government-led National Open Government Encounter (2017), [77] the State Legislative Houses Union Conference (2018), [78] and municipal legislative events. [79]

Milestones 11.5 and 11.6 are considered partly complete. The first involved a measurement program and awards related to Open Parliament standards. The government has reported that this program and the awards are part of the government-led program Interlegis, [80] which is not public and as such  could not be validated by the IRM researcher directly. Milestone 11.6 involved hosting an Open Parliament Annual Conference. The government mentions in the monitoring report that it participated in two events, where it presented the commitment outputs. However, these presentations are different from the activity called for in the commitment: to host a conference specifically on Open Parliament.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Did Not Change

The commitment aimed to improve the level of transparency in the legislative houses. Specifically, the commitment involved creating and publishing a repository for Open Parliament tools (which was completed) and creating a program that measures and awards transparency (not completed). It also called for hosting an Open Parliament Annual Conference (not completed). The IRM researcher found no clear evidence of civil society participation in the commitment. This confirms comments from the government’s implementation monitoring report that mostly government institutions were involved.

Considering that there is no evidence of other legislative houses adopting the best practices designed and promoted as part of the commitment, the impacts on open government are unclear, other than organizing important information related to legislative transparency. The coordinator of Commitment 14 (Rodrigo Correa Ramiro, from the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Management) stated that they accessed and started using the Wikilegis tool. [81] That coordinator’s use serves as evidence of how other agencies were incentivized to advance an open government agenda.

Carried Forward?

The government did not carry this commitment forward into the new action plan. However, members of the legislature pushed to include a commitment that involves legislative transparency.