This blog post is also available in Italian here.

Our tenure as the lead co-chairs of OGP comes at a pivotal moment for the Partnership and open government at large. Last year marked OGP’s 10th anniversary. It was a moment to take stock of the Partnership’s accomplishments in its first decade and an opportunity to reflect on the long road ahead, and what it will take to fully realize OGP’s vision of making governments more transparent, inclusive, participatory, and accountable. As a Partnership, we have made important progress towards this vision, and positioned OGP as a unique platform that yields tangible results, especially when civil society is meaningfully engaged. 

The challenge before us is to scale up these successes by closing the gap between 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... and implementation, to demonstrably reverse the trend of democratic backsliding, including in some OGP countries, and to pave the way for longer-term democratic renewal.

This year, OGP will also develop a new strategy for the growing Partnership. It is a singular opportunity to apply the lessons learned over the past ten years. We must collectively contribute to tackling the major challenges facing our societies from declining democracy and civic space, to equitable pandemic recovery. A full and creative engagement of the wider open government community is vital for this strategy refresh. To this end, there will be an open, consultative process and we earnestly encourage all of you to share your ideas and give us your input. More details on that will be announced at the end of March.

Our co-chair agenda supports these partnership-wide objectives by mobilizing political support and collective action across three focus areas (read our full agenda here):

1. Incentivizing more ambitious reforms at the country and local level, particularly those that improve the enabling environment for civil society and strengthen more inclusive participation. We will convene reformers that are pushing the boundaries of civic space to exchange ideas, strategies and to inspire ambitious action at national and local levels. 
2. Promoting citizen-centric open government reforms, and OGP as an effective domestic implementation mechanism, across global and regional fora. We will use our participation in international agendas to advocate for OGP and, with our Steering CommitteeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru... colleagues, specifically invite foreign ministry representatives to support these efforts. We will also host regional gatherings in Europe and Africa to garner political support for the open government agenda.
3. Setting up OGP for deeper success as it enters its second decade. We will initiate the development of an ambitious strategy for 2023 onwards that will ensure the Partnership’s governance model is fit for purpose, and positions the Support UnitThe OGP Support Unit is a small, permanent group of staff that work closely with the Steering Committee and the Independent Reporting Mechanism to advance the goals of the Open Government Partnership.... to deliver on the strategy. We will help build a pipeline of strategic and political leaders, including in the Steering Committee, to ensure a strong and sustainable pool of future champions for the OGP. 

We look forward with great anticipation to working with the OGP community and our Steering Committee colleagues to achieve these activities.