Reinstating OGP on the Croatian Political Agenda

Ivona Mendeš, Independent Researcher for Croatia, e-mail: ivonamendes@gmail.com

What happens when a country’s successful OGP track record falls victim to electoral politics and ends up on the political back burner? Croatia is currently a good example of that situation, after going through national parliamentary electionsImproving transparency in elections and maintaining the independence of electoral commissions is vital for promoting trust in the electoral system, preventing electoral fraud, and upholding the democr... More in November 2015, seeing the newly appointed government fall after only six months in power, and preparing for another round of elections to be held on 11 September 2016. The OGP process in Croatia started five years ago, in late August 2011, with an official letter of intent to participate in OGP. The first national action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... was developed and presented to other participating countries at an annual meeting in April 2012.

The first Croatian OGP Action Plan for the 2012-2014 period contained nine commitments and 33 implementation activities, most of which were related to improvements in financial transparency and bringing the budget process closer to citizens. According to the independent Progress Report for the 2012-2013 period, all nine measures were relevant to the four OGP values, eight of them had moderate or transformative potential impact, and seven were carried out completely or substantially. Overall, six out of nine were evaluated as star commitments.

It appeared that Croatia was able to come out among the best achievers on its first attempt, in the innovative field of public administration and governance, and serve as an example to other participants. Unfortunately, it turned out that this fact reverberated far louder in other countries and in the international arena than in the Croatian media, the public eye and in everyday political discourse.

In fact, since October 2014, Croatia has been a member of the OGP 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..., a direct result of the fact that it stood out as an example of good practice in cooperation between the government and civil society when drafting and implementing action plans. For example, the Croatian OGP Council grew from 18 to 24 members at the end of 2014, representing state, local and regional levels of government, civil society, academia, and the media. In addition to permanent members, some members are nominated via a candidature process through the Council for Development of Civil Society, to ensure the participation of various stakeholders.

On the wings of the generally successful implementation of the first NAP, a new Council initiated the process and adopted a second Action Plan for the 2014-2016 period. The document scaled up the previous plan’s scope and volume, with 16 commitments and 46 activities mainly focused on the process of increasing 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 in areas known for corrupt activities and the need for reform. Also, the commitments related to a wider array of issues, and the activities put forth were more ambitious than those provided in the first Action Plan.

According to the independent Progress Report assessing the implementation of the second Action Plan in its first year, the level of implementation was slightly lower than it was in the first cycle. However, four out of 16 commitments had still been fully implemented, six had been substantially completed, and seven of the 16 commitments were judged to have potentially transformative impact. Important commitments such as the introduction of e-services for citizens and the opening of a joint portal for government bodies were carried out in the first year of implementation.

Slightly lower implementation may, in part, be attributed to increasing uncertainty in the political process in the past year, given the pre- and post-election period (at the end of 2015/beginning of 2016, and again from July 2016). In addition, the implementation of certain activities, which were ready for 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, were stopped in the second year of the implementation cycle due to a lack of coordination and ability to reach an agreement in the government, the minimal legislative impact of the last session of the Parliament, as well as controversial moves made by some members of the government.

For the same reason, the drafting process for the third action plan is considerably delayed, and the OGP Council – currently chaired by the Minister of Administration – has only convened once in the past 12 months. However, public authorities responsible for various commitments continue with the implementation to the extent possible, and the administrative portion of the implementation, reporting and initial consultation process for the third action plan are all continuing as before.

The positive results yielded in the first and second OGP cycle owed partial thanks to a kind of synergy between different policy areas, with both action plans serving as operational documents consolidating existing activities and completely new initiatives. This was additionally reinforced through an obligation to report on implementation, as well as the independent assessments, which serve as a control mechanism for the entire OGP process.

Improvements and innovations – such as the introduction of the Information Commissioner, the e-Consultation portal, the gov.hr central state portal, the e-Citizen system (which received the Open Government Award in 2015) – have been recognized by the citizens, but are rarely perceived to have emerged from the OGP platform, which needs a definite visibility boost. It would help if the OGP values and goals found their way into political party programs , and if OGP issues were more present in political campaigns.

So, what is the way back onto the political agenda for the OGP initiative in Croatia? Primarily, the fact that Croatia is part of the managing structures of the initiative, and a star performer in the first two action plan cycles. For a small country, having a position of influence and importance in an international arena is not a negligible fact. In addition, the fact is that the OGP process has proven to be somewhat sustainable even when there is a lack of political will for reform. This is due to a mid-term strategic influence of adopted action plans, meaning it is useful as an advantage in political negotiations about certain controversial policy issues. Since the OGP process has a positive record of accomplishment in Croatia, any future government, or a contender for government, should be able to recognize it as both a useful tool for implementing real reforms, and a means for winning “easy points” in the political arena.

For anyone interested in more details about the implementation of Croatia’s second Action Plan and the plans for further OGP work and initiatives, be sure to follow the Open Youth Academy website, an initiative started and led by OGP enthusiasts, focusing on use and reuse of public sector information and aimed at young people from around the world. The Academy’s flagship event is taking place in Pula, Croatia from 28 August to 3 September, with over 40 participants, ending with a pitching forum on the participants’ work, followed by a press conference outlining the Academy’s performance, as well as achievements and plans regarding 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 in general.