OGP in the News – Week of July 18, 2016

A series providing a round-up of media attention received by 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 throughout the world.

This week, the biggest news in the OGP world was in relation to the White House Summit on Global Development. The event, held at the headquarters of USAID in Washington DC, brought together leaders in development, civil society and the public and private sectors to discuss progress made in recent years on issues of “global health, energyEnsuring universal access to sustainable, dependable, and affordable energy is critical to every aspect of prosperity. Increasing public oversight and transparency in the energy sector can help to ens... More, food security, good governance, partnership, and youthRecognizing that investing in youth means investing in a better future, OGP participating governments are creating meaningful opportunities for youth to participate in government processes. Technical ... More engagement.”

The day-long summit, which featured a panel discussion on governance that made repeated reference to the Open Government Partnership, was covered by a wide variety of outlets. Among those to cite OGP was the Huffington Post which ran a piece, released in conjunction with the summit, by United States National Security Advisor Susan Rice. However, the most significant exposure for OGP came during President Obama’s address (which can been watched in its entirety here and read in its entirety here). Speaking on the question of good governance, he said:

And with our Open Government Partnership of 70 countries, representing some two billion people, we’ve continued to empower reformers and civil society from Sierra Leone to Ukraine to Uruguay. Because governments should serve the people and not the other way around. And, by the way, progress is not in a straight line. It’s not overnight…. But we have seen this tool prodding governments in new directions, opening up, creating greater mechanisms of accountability, setting new norms that over time make a difference.

Just north, another big story related to OGP came out of Canada, as the country was one of several to publish a new National Action Plan (NAP). A press release on the plan from the Canadian government ran in over a dozen sources, including Yahoo Finance, benzinga and Marketwired.

In Italy, meanwhile, OGP also received wide coverage in connection with Italy’s new NAP– or more exactly, a soon-to-be-released NAP. At least ten Italian outlets, including a network of local newspapers comprising Il Tirreno, La Nuova Sardegna and several others, ran articles on the opening of a new web portal for public consultation for the country’s third NAP. They reported that consultation will be held in August in the hope of publishing the finalized version during the OGP Global Summit in December.

Elsewhere in the world, Nigeria’s process of joining OGP continued to make headlines in The Punch, THISDAY, NTA.ng, Business Day, TODAY.ng and The Eagle Online. And in Mexico, the influential media conglomerate Televisa, as well as La Razón and a number of other outlets, reported on statements from the Mexican Secretariat of Social Development that the country had not only met the majority of its Millennium Development Goals but also, as co-chair of OGP, had promoted the Declaration on Open Government for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

And last but not least, it seems this week’s OGP Asia-Pacific Regional Dialogue was a true ‘Thrilla in Manila’!

Of course, we can’t catch everything in our news round-ups, so if you see we’ve missed something or think a particular story ought to be featured, please send it to alex.vedovi@opengovpartnership.org.