Freedom of association is a pillar of open government. This freedom powers the ability to act collectively. For open government to work, people must be able to join together, seek funding, and pursue common purposes—whether cultural, political, or economic. However, as with free expression and free assembly, governments worldwide have tightened restrictions on civil society organizations (CSOs) and other groups, particularly by limiting funding and creating legal barriers to operating.
The Open Gov Guide is the go-to resource for open government reformers. The guide provides concrete recommendations for policy makers, civil society representatives, and more on how to apply open government principles to real-world challenges. Readers can also use the guide to learn more about how governments at the national and local level are putting these values into practice through OGP action plans and beyond.
Learn more about this policy area in the “Freedom of Association” chapter of the Open Gov Guide.
As part of the Open Gov Challenge, the OGP Support Unit would like to recognize some of the most inspiring commitments made by participants to date. Read more about these exciting reforms on freedom of association below.
For a full list of Challenge commitments submitted by members, visit our Open Gov Challenge Commitment Tracker.
National Strategy for Civic Space
To date, there has not been a national-level strategy to protect and expand civic space. To fill this gap, the government will create a national strategy for civic space to guarantee the rights to assembly, association, and expression.
Explore all freedom of association commitments from OGP members.
The following list reflects commitments submitted through national or local action plans. For more details, visit OGP’s Data Dashboard.
Filter the commitments according to three categories evaluated by the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM): ambition, completion, and early results.
| Country/Locality | Year | Commitment Title | More |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quezon City, Philippines | 2025 |
Strengthening Civic Engagement through Capacity Development on Participatory Governance |
|
| Morocco | 2024 |
Strengthening the enabling environment for CSOs |
+ |
| Tunisia | 2023 |
Developing Guide for Improved Governance of Associations |
+ |
| Serbia | 2023 |
Transparency of Funds Awarded to CSOs |
+ |
| Mongolia | 2023 |
Support Civil Society and Freedom of Association |
+ |
This table shows all commitments that match the filters selected at the top of the page. At least one filter must be selected to populate this table. Use the tags above the table to further filter by commitment quality (e.g. ambitious, complete). Click on commitment titles to learn more about each commitment. Click on “Featured” icons to access stories, where available.
This table enables finding existing commitments in specific policy areas, regions, and years, as well as top-performing commitments by using the built-in table filters.
The commitment performance metrics (e.g. ambitious, complete) are derived directly from IRM reports. See the terms below for details. The Year field shows the year in which the commitment was first submitted. Icons in the Featured field indicate that a story is available on the OGP website.
Disinformation, online gender-based violence (GBV), and hate speech greatly impact online civic space and democratic processes. Governments should take steps to promote healthy and safe information ecosystems online while also protecting the exercise of online civic freedoms.
Access to an open and free internet is integral to individuals’ and organizations’ ability to exercise fundamental freedoms online, and to benefit from, and contribute to, digital open government initiatives.
Meet Sarah Wesonga, Program Officer for Transparency and Access to Information at ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa.
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The Open Gov Challenge is a call to action for all members of OGP to raise ambition in ten areas of open government to help strengthen our democracies.
Join hundreds of reformers around the world – in government and civil society – who are working to make their communities stronger, more open, participatory, inclusive, and accountable.
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