Strengthening of the processes for publication of information to improve the relationship between citizen demand and the Government (BUE0006)

Link with the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 (SDG) SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Status quo / Issue to be Addressed In general terms, citizens do not find the functions and activities of the different branches of government easy to understand. This complexity makes difficult the interaction between citizens and the government in terms of citizens’ requests and co-creation as well as the follow-up, monitoring and control of public policies. Below are some different issues identified: • Lack of unified criteria for the publication of public information. Currently, information is dispersed, it is not completely clear and there is a lack of access to data. • Lack of information about data generated by each area and inexistence of a protocol established to ease the exchange of such data. While individual efforts are made by Ministries to exploit the data, there is no unified strategy nor coordination between the areas. There is a need to promote the reuse of open data through the participation of several actors in the processes. • The Executive Branch drives different citizen participation stages: virtual, on-site, at public works, etc. There is a need to systematize the information and its indicators to be able to conduct a follow-up, measure the impact in the public policies in an open manner and see the results of these stages. • There is a lack of systematised information in an open format within the Legislative Branch. Likewise, while the Legislature – and the Constitution of the City- promote diverse citizen participation stages, there is no virtual space that systematises the information generated in the Legislature in an open data format, nor an office that centralises citizens’ claims and suggestions or promotes proximity to citizens. • Deficiency in intra-institutional communication of the Judicial Branch. By innovating and making the processes transparent, we will be able to bring them closer to the citizens who normally do not know in detail how Justice works due to its legal technicalities and the limited openness of information on how justice operates.

General objective Make the functions of the three branches of Government more understandable and bring them closer to the citizens, facilitate the follow-up and participation of neighbours in citizen participation stages. Strengthen data openness and generate innovative mechanisms for accountability through the creation of indexes which allow for the assessment of public policies.

Brief description of the initiative The commitment “Openness and Innovation for an Open Government” has different lines of action aimed at improving institutions and their relationship with citizens. These lines of action are: Access to information and assessment – Generate unified publication standards. Elaborate a diagnosis of relevant information related to civil society demand. Create tools and methodologies to assess the public policies on transparency. Open data and reutilisation - The commitment will seek to enhance the open data policy through 3 stages: one internal stage on redefinition of standards and normalisation of criteria; another one aimed at the promotion of use, reuse and openness on request; and another stage for the increasement of published datasets and its displays. Strengthening and follow-up of citizen participation – we will work towards the openness of information on indicators and data about the citizen participation practices carried out by the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. We seek to ease the tracking process to show the public the results of the different processes and practices opened, and promote different participation spaces within the public policies cycle. Open data and participation in the Legislature - Analyse the information generated in the Legislature, systematise it and make it available in a centralised open data platform. Create a centralised office to act as a direct link with citizens, which can serve as a tool to increase transparency and proximity to society. Open Courts - Generate an openness space in the Judicial Branch through an Innovation Laboratory which allows for the co-creation, development and diffusion of open government policies leading to the opening of a new extra- and inter- judicial participation channel.

Describe the way in which this commitment is relevant to strengthen OGP values of transparency, access to information, public accountability, civic participation, and technology and innovation for openness and accountability. The generation of unified standards together with the creation of a diagnosis of relevant information related to civil society demand as well as the creation of assessment tools will strengthen civil society’s capacity to monitor and assess the City’s public policies in terms of transparency. Openness of more data contributes to transparency, access to information and accountability. Furthermore, the promotion of use, the reuse and openness on request promote citizen participation, technology and innovation. The participation initiative will make citizen participation processes more transparent and it will provide feedback since it discloses the results, thus it generates a feedback circle between the government and citizens. The improvement of the access to parliamentary information by facilitating the analysis and electronic access to parliamentary information to all citizens and institutions, will allow for the improvement of performance accountability. In addition to enhancing the civil society’s monitoring capacity, the centralised spaces for access to virtual information and the OAC (Citizen Services Office) will promote the effective participation of citizens in the decision-making processes. The creation of a Judicial Innovation Laboratory will facilitate citizens’ access to legal information, moreover, the establishment of openness practices will contribute to accountability.

Milestones Ongoing or new commitment Start date End date 1. Strengthening of the processes for publication of information to improve the relationship between citizen demand and the Government. 1.1. Make a diagnosis of the demand for information taking into account the applications for Access to Public Information and a public consultation process. Ongoing September 2018 September 2019 1.2 Develop a publication guide with minimum standards of active transparency for all areas of government. Ongoing March 2019 September 2019 1.3 Systematisation and publication of public information New September 2019 September 2020 1.4 Implementation and extension of a transparency assessment methodology. It will be done through a government transparency index, which will be public and updated periodically. Ongoing September 2019 September 2020 1.5 Train the operative staff to implement the publication standards. New October 2019 November 2019

1. Fortalecimiento de los procesos de publicación de información para mejorar el vínculo entre demanda ciudadana y Estado (Estado abierto)

Completo:

Los cinco hitos del compromiso se cumplieron.

Se elaboró un diagnóstico [40] de la demanda de información a partir de las solicitudes de acceso a la información pública recibidas. Esto contribuyó al desarrollo de guías de publicación de Transparencia Activa de acuerdo con estándares internacionales y en el marco de la Ley 104-16 (de acceso a la información) [41].  Asimismo, se realizó un rediseño integral de la plataforma de transparencia del Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires y se capacitó a 238 miembros del personal operativo en la implementación de estándares de publicación a través de la formación virtual del Instituto Superior de la Carrera (ISC) de la Dirección General de Seguimiento de Organismos de Control y Acceso a la Información [42]. También se desarrollo de la segunda etapa del índice de Transparencia Gubernamental, y el índice se publicó a mediados de novimber de 2020. [43]

Cabe resaltar que tanto el establecimiento de pautas comunes de diagnóstico de las consultas recibidas en materia de acceso a la información, como los estándares conjuntos de publicación de la información, se encontraban en proceso de implementación con anterioridad a la fecha propuesta en el compromiso.