Joining up the dots: OGP and the Anti-Corruption Summit

To many, especially members of the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP), the logic that promises on paper must turn into action is a familiar one. But the ability to practice what is preached is not common in all international collectives and fora, and rarer still in high-level international summits.

On the strength of the language alone, the Anti-Corruption Summit held in London earlier this year was assessed as a success by Transparency International. With more than half of all commitments (56 per cent) considered ‘concrete’, a third ‘new’ and a third ‘ambitious’, we have been celebrating the boldness of the pledges made by our world leaders and will be motivating them to maintain this high-level ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... in anti-corruption commitments elsewhere.

The 648 commitments made by the countries at the Summit have potential to make real changes to levels of corruption around the world – and only once they are implemented will we be able to see which leaders are serious about the global agenda for anti-corruption, 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 accountability.

Just as governments will be expected to translate the words on paper into tangible reform, it is up to other stakeholders – civil society, academia, journalists, the private sectorGovernments are working to open private sector practices as well — including through beneficial ownership transparency, open contracting, and regulating environmental standards. Technical specificat... More and others – to hold them accountable for their successes and failures. It is overwhelming, however, when we consider that the vast majority of commitments made at the Anti-Corruption Summit were made without timelines or assigned responsible government departments. In many cases it continues to be difficult to tell whether the commitments are being worked on or left unattended entirely.

But 32 of the 43 countries at the Summit were OGP members, and the simplest way for citizens of those countries  to ensure that their governments see through their commitments from the Anti-Corruption Summit is to have them embedded in the National Action Plans (NAP). Kenya and the UK have already published their 2016 NAPs, with Summit commitments on beneficial ownershipDisclosing beneficial owners — those who ultimately control or profit from a business — is essential for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. Technical... More, public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... More and other new initiatives included.  By embedding Anti-Corruption Summit commitments in NAPs, the majority of countries represented at the summit will immediately have a formal mechanism for accountability and follow-up in place.

Yet whilst the OGP NAPs do provide a model framework for monitoring, they will not capture all anti-corruption commitments made at the Summit.  And whilst the OGP process offers an in-depth review of the progress of commitments every two years, there is little offering a living and light-touch overview of that progress.

With this in mind, Transparency International UK has built a ‘UK Anti-Corruption Pledge Tracker’, which will follow the progress of fifteen commitments made by the UK Government at the Anti-Corruption Summit. The pledges are searchable by status of completionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin... More (‘pending’, ‘underway’ and ‘complete’), and information on deadlines and responsible government departments can be found for each. The Tracker will be updated as and when information on each commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... becomes publicly available, and clearly visualises the areas in which the government is making headway.  

The Pledge Tracker, with this top level, up-to-date perspective of government activity, complements the OGP’s longer-term deep analysis of reforms.  OGP members with government representatives at the Summit should seek to embed all relevant commitments in their National Action Plans, but all countries represented at the Summit should do what they can to monitor their government’s progress – at least in a simple format like the UK Anti-Corruption Pledge Tracker. We hope that this tool will galvanise government into fulfilling each of their anti-corruption commitments, and will raise awareness among stakeholders if they fail to do so.

Get in touch with Jameela Raymond at jameela.raymond@transparency.org.uk to find out more about how Transparency International UK developed their ‘UK Anti-Corruption Pledge Tracker’.