An Update on the OGP Networking Mechanism: Introductions, Affinity Groups & Webinars

This past January, we put the Government of Israel in touch with five different NM “suppliers” – three conversations focused on aspects of 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..., and two dealt with citizen feedback mechanisms for improved public service deliveryTo ensure that citizens of all groups are better supported by the government, OGP participating governments are working to improve the quality of and access to public services. Commitments in this are... More and more general draft action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... feedback. In a number of cases, materials were exchanged between the Government and the suppliers after the initial calls to elaborate on particular discussion points. In February, the NM made supplier suggestions to the Governments of Canada, Lithuania, Philippines, Moldova, and Croatia. 

February also marked the launch of the first three OGP Affinity Groups in the areas of Public Financial Management, Public Service Delivery, and Open Data Portals. These Affinity Groups are clusters of OGP governments that have indicated their intent to include in their Action Plans similar open government commitments in specific issue areas. To stimulate further interest, a webinar series was launched to provide the Affinity Groups with tailored presentations from various experts on their topics of focus – Global Voices/America Speaks kicked it off with a presentation on public participation.  See the slide deck here: http://bit.ly/HXGWJ9.

Subsequent webinars focused on Citizens Budgets (hosted by the International Budget Partnership), as well as ICT for Citizen Engagement and Open Budgets (hosted by the World Bank Institute). If you missed them, watch them here: http://bit.ly/Awz4Zw ; http://bit.ly/H0cdxw ; http://bit.ly/HnWwyQ.

March marked the launch of the searchable online NM supplier roster on the OGP website for quick and easy reference.  If you haven’t already, check it out: http://www.opengovpartnership.org/suppliers.

We are excited to see what comes out of Brasilia and look forward to next steps in working with many of the new governments that have recently joined OGP.  For now, we plan to bulk up some of our activities that have gained traction and streamline those that have not.  Feel free to send us your ideas for the NM going forward – we would love to hear from you!