Chile hosts regional OGP meeting [QUOTES]

Chile is hosting a Regional Outreach Meeting of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) for Latin America on the 10th and 11th January 2013. It will be opened by Cristián Larroulet, Minister Secretary-General of the Chilean Presidency, who commented:

The fact that Chile is hosting a meeting of such magnitude is a major example of the leadership our country has taken in terms of transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More and of the high compliance reached by President Sebastián Piñera’s Government in this area. International studies support this: according to the latest report by Transparency International, Chile ranks 20th in the world in terms of transparent institutions.

The meeting brings together civil society organisations and NGOs, policy leaders and representatives of industry for a series of workshops, presentations and panel discussions focusing on OGP developments in Latin America. One of the CSOs presenting at the meeting is Álvaro Ramirez Alujas, Founder of the Group of Investigation in Government, Administration and Public Policy (GIGAPP). He said:

The OGP regional meeting is not only an excellent opportunity to contrast the progress made and to share lessons learned from the experience of the 15 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean involved in OGP. It is also a turning point for strengthening joint work programs and more permanent collaboration platforms, between the governments of the region and participating civil society organizations. This is a meeting where CSOs will have an opportunity to share their opinions of how countries can work through their OGP action plans towards increasing access to public information and transparency, deeper citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More, more open parliaments, and using technology and open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici... to provide better public services.

The event is also an opportunity to formally announce the declaration of Argentina to join the OGP. You can receive live updates from the event on Twitter via the hashtag #OGPChile or by following @OGPChile_2013 and @opengovpart. OGP participant countries now represent more than two billion people, of which 500 million live in Latin America. We have created an infographic showing which countries participate in OGP and their progress towards publishing open government committments.