Secrecy is getting in the way of effective government

This article originally appeared on FT.com and was written by Mo Ibrahim

Leaders are embracing the idea that democracy is enhanced by information, says Mo Ibrahim.

We have seen a global financial crisis triggered by bad corporate governance and increasing political unrest, from Tunisia to the Occupy movements, protesting against poor political governance. Public confidence in government has been eroded, leading to growing global demands from civil society for greater accountability. Citizens are increasingly demanding to know what is happening around them and are no longer willing to be taken for granted.

For citizens to become fully engaged in holding their leadership to account, accurate information is required to see where action is needed, to measure the results of policies and programmes, to build support for courageous decisions and to consolidate political legitimacy.

Over the past decade, my foundation has attempted to do exactly this through the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, a database of almost 90,000 data points that is available for citizens, governments, institutions and business to assess exactly how well governments are performing. However, we are reliant on partners to collect the data and are the first to acknowledge where gaps exist – in key areas of poverty, equity, genderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... More and unemployment.

Subsequently, in the past two years, I have been involved in the Open Government Partnership, an entirely new multilateral organisation that focuses on exactly this politically charged issue – how to inject more 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 into national governance.

Rather than relying on civil society to collect data, we are working to open up access to government data. Remarkably, governments are beginning to embrace the idea that nothing enhances democracy more than giving voice and information to everybody in the country. Why not open their books if they have nothing to hide?

When OGP was established some questioned whether a new multilateral initiative could effectively encourage countries to open their books. There was a risk it would simply be a talking shop. While few countries would openly declare themselves to be against openness, would they willingly walk the talk?

To date, the founding eight countries have been joined by a further 53 members. All 61 countries have committed to improve governance and public participationGiving citizens opportunities to provide input into government decision-making leads to more effective governance, improved public service delivery, and more equitable outcomes. Technical specificatio... and, since 2011, have made more than 1,000 open government reform commitments. However, nice commitments do not deliver results and governments must be held accountable for their promises.

From our work to date two key lessons arise. The first is that opening up government is hard work and requires partnership across sectors. The too-often ingrained divide between civil society organisations and governments is counter-productive and where countries attempt real reform, civil society must be a constructive partner – especially where the aim is to institutionalise civil society’s seat at the table.

Mexico established a unique three-part governing system shared by the government, the information commission and civil society organisations. In Indonesia, the OGP co-ordinating body is a national coalition comprising representatives of five governmental bodies and four civil society organisations. Both countries have subsequently made notable progress in implementing their open government commitments. It is significant that it is emerging countries taking the lead in formulating these new partnerships.

The second lesson is that strong political backing is key to ambitious open government reforms. When a powerful ministry leads the OGP process, impressive results follow. But the reverse is also true. Inexperienced, uncommitted or junior ministries can damage such a politically fraught exercise. Challenging vested interests requires a government’s full 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....

The importance of these two simple lessons cannot be overstated. As with climate change, poverty reduction and all the other great public policy issues we face, these two elusive qualities will be required to make progress: political will and co-operation. Without them, we will not move from closed to 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.