Measuring Open Government – Critically reviewing OGP’s footprint

Carleton University undergraduate students in Ottawa, Canada, are studying the link between communication and open government. In the class, the students examine how communication can be used to improve governance and to foster a more collaborative relationship between governments and citizens. This series of blog posts is related to a range of topics concerning the issues that challenge open government. These posts will appear on the OGP blog over the coming weeks. We hope you enjoy them.

What is open government? When asked to the average person, such as myself, the answer to this question seems rather straightforward: An open government is, well, a government that is open, transparent, and does not withhold information from its citizens. The real question then becomes, how does one know, or how does one measure if a government is in fact open? When it comes right down to it, although many have tried, defining what an open government is still remains ambiguous and, to be frank, very unclear. One way which we can begin to understand what makes a government open is by looking at what sorts of criteria are considered indicators of “open government”. One of the best sources for finding a report card of standards a government must meet to be considered open is 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). I the sections below, we will begin to analyze how OGP has attempted to tackle the problem of measuring openness in government and speak about some of the shortcomings of the OGP’s measurement criteria.

Measuring open government:

OGP has taken on the difficult task of attempting to measure open government and provide scores to countries based on their ability to meet four key areas of government openness: fiscal 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, access to information, public officials’ asset disclosureAsset declaration laws are an essential safeguard against corruption that require public servants to disclose information on their wealth, possessions, and other interests. Technical specifications: A..., and citizen engagement.

Although OGP has not provided a specific definition of “open government”, its four eligibility criteria are fairly reflective of the factors that OGP believes a good, transparent government should possess.

Shaping policy: As an increasingly influential international body, the Partnership’s reputation for being a global authority on open government standards allows OGP to act as an international watchdog and encourage countries to heighten their level of transparency and openness.  This influence becomes problematic however, when countries use the OGP guidelines as their end goal. In other words, the OGP measurement criteria can create an environment where governments, especially those in countries struggling with openness and transparency, enact policies that are put in place to directly respond to the OGP assessment criteria rather than ensure that the openness of government is actually improved within the country. Simply put, it is important to understand that these four criteria are not the perfect recipe to creating an open government, but are just ways of assessing open government frameworks which are already in place.   

Quality & Effectiveness:

The current criteria does a good job of examining whether or not a government has certain documentation and legislation available to its citizens. There is, however, room for improvement in terms of assuring the quality and effectiveness of information within a country. For example, Mexico is a country that has been scored at 94%, according to the OGP standards, yet remains a very hostile and life-threatening environment for journalism. The fact that there are countries that can score well against the eligibility criteria set out by OGP, but in reality demonstrate little openness within their government, reveals that there are improvements to be made in the OGP measurement standards. Simply assessing whether access to information legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r... exists does not mean that the legislation is implemented. Making financial information about government spending available to the public does not necessarily mean that the information adheres to a certain level of quality and accuracy. These discrepancies highlight the biggest limitation of the OGP criteria as they currently exist.

Does OGP open government?

Overall, OGP plays a very important role in measuring open government and creating an international index of openness. The open government measurement criteria that OGP has set out are extensive and do provide a valuable benchmark for open government standards. There are certainly some areas of the measurement criteria which could be built upon, given the fact that establishing measurement indicators for anything on an international level is extremely complex. However given the fact that OGP has only existed since 2011, there is room for continuous evolution and improvement.