Advancing Thematic Priorities and Co-creation through the OGP Multi-Donor Trust Fund

Update December 2019: An additional awardee, Directorio Legislativo, joined the thematic cohort after working with the OGP MDTF joint implementation team to refine their proposal.

We’re pleased to announce the results of the OGP Multi-Donor Trust Fund’s recently concluded calls for proposals on advancing thematic priorities and supporting participation and co-creation.

First Awards to Advance Thematic Priorities

Since OGP’s inception, we have seen the open government approach being applied to address critical challenges across a diverse set of thematic sectors. Governments and civil society are looking to make ambitious reforms on issues ranging from health to transport, anti-corruption to human rightsAn essential part of open government includes protecting the sacred freedoms and rights of all citizens, including the most vulnerable groups, and holding those who violate human rights accountable. T.... The OGP Paris Declaration provided a strong push to sharpen focus on thematic priorities, along with subsequent areas where the 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... has encouraged  greater uptake.

As an example, in the last two years the 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... areas that have been identified to have the highest number of “starred” commitments, or those assessed as having transformative potential impact and reaching substantial levels of implementation, are open budgets, natural resources and beneficial ownershipDisclosing beneficial owners — those who ultimately control or profit from a business — is essential for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. Technical... More. OGP’s civil society and multilateral partners drive much of the peer learning and exchange activities on these thematic sectors, and more recently have also been actively supporting OGP members on implementation of their OGP 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... commitments.

To better support thematic reform, the OGP Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) has dedicated financing entirely to advancing OGP’s thematic priorities. We are proud to announce the first ever cohort of awardees for this program. The thematic areas and partners are:

• Fiscal Openness – Global Initiative for 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 (GIFT)
• Open ContractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... More – Hivos
• Natural Resource Governance, 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 Social InclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... More – Natural Resource Governance Institute
• Anti-corruption – Open DataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici... Charter
• Beneficial Ownership – Open Ownership
• Water and SanitationOGP participating governments are in a unique position to address many of the root causes of water issues, including corruption and poor quality, as well as lack of prioritization, access, equity, and... – Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
• Climate Change – World Resources Institute
• Open Parliaments – Directorio Legislativo (representing the Open ParliamentEnsuring access to legislative information and creating mechanisms for public participation are critical to building an open, trusting relationship with citizens. Technical specifications: Commitments... More e-Network)

These awardees were chosen through an extensive and competitive selection process. The interest in this window far exceeded our expectations and unfortunately we did not have the capacity to meet this demand. Through an open call, we received 154 expressions of interest from 140 civil society and private organizations across seventeen thematic areas. All EOIs received were assessed against a range of criteria to determine if partners have the requisite thematic expertise;capacity to convene actors and deliver activities across multiple countries, local and regional networks; a track record of participation in domestic OGP processes; and the ability to deploy an inclusive and sound technical approach.

Based on this assessment we shortlisted submissions for the Request for Proposal (RFP) phase. Eventually, nineteen organizations covering twelve themes were found to have the relevant experience and were invited to submit technical and financial proposals. The criteria for final selection included (i) organizational experience and qualifications; (ii) theory of change, technical approach/proposed solutions/processes, and capacity for sustained knowledge transfer; and (iii) expertise of the team in the designated thematic area.

Peer learning and exchange are a core part of OGP’s model. In recent years, we have recognized the value of cross-sector coalitions to advance ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... and implementation of thematic sector reforms. Some of the organizations above have brought together a consortium of regional and national partners under the award to broaden the network of expertise and experience.

Through the support provided by the Multi-Donor Trust FundWith the support of development partners and working together with the World Bank, OGP established the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) to support World Bank client countries and local entities that part..., we hope to see an increase in the volume and quality of commitments over the course of the two-year award. We hope the activities and outputs coming out of funded projects will address the gap between design and implementation of reforms, lay the foundation for a broad coalition to advance reform, and increase capacity and knowledge to sustain reforms.

Second round of Co-Creation Awards

In 2018, the first round of co-creation awards through the OGP MDTF were made to nine countries and locals to help facilitate enhanced co-creation processes and more ambitious action plans. We are now pleased to announce that in 2019, co-creation processes will be supported in six  countries through awards to the following organizations:

Afghanistan: Integrity Watch, in partnership with Afghanistan Democracy and Development Organization (ADDO); Training Human Rights Association for Afghan Women (THRAAW)

Burkina Faso: Open Burkina, in partnership with RENLAC, CGD, BEOG-NEERE

Colombia: Fundacion Corona, in partnership with Cooperacion Somos Mas and Datasketch

Costa Rica: ACCESA; in partnership with Global Integrity; Kubadili; Costa Rica Íntegra (CRI); Instituto de Prensa y Libertad de Expresión (Iplex); Plugin

Liberia: Accountability Lab

Philippines: Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO)

These awardees were selected through a competitive process that was open to all eligible countries and locals (those developing actions plans in 2019, with an active multistakeholder forum in place). The selection process for this year’s co-creation awards was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, expressions of interest (EOI) were invited from civil society organizations from all eligible countries and locals. Twenty EOIs were received from eleven countries and one local participant. In the next stage, ten shortlisted organizations were invited to submit proposals addressing how they plan to enhance  design, deliberation, prioritization and monitoring processes, with the overall aim of securing more ambitious plans and broadening engagement and ownership of OGP amongst different stakeholder groups.

Proposals were rigorously evaluated based on the content of the proposal and its technical merits, on the experience of the applicants and the experience of their staff.  Selection criteria used for evaluating the proposals can be found here.

Compared to the previous round, in this round more organizations proposed (i) convening stakeholders based on specific thematic areas for targeted consultations to elevate the ambition of commitments; (ii) continuing dialogue beyond the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive... to also include monitoring the implementation of APs; and (iii) collaborating with other organizations in a consortium,  signalling the ability and willingness to leverage skills, expertise and networks of multiple actors.

The OGP MDTF team, the World Bank country offices, and 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.... will provide tailored support to all the awardees to: (i) assist them in achieving the objectives they’ve set, (ii) strengthen program design, (iii) develop an iterative approach to their activities to reflect and respond to changing realities on the ground, and (iv) help ensure that activities facilitated by the MDTF awards are well aligned and coordinated with overall co-creation process and complementary efforts of other stakeholders in strengthening co-creation.

At the 2019 Global Summit in Ottawa, the MDTF  team will convene awardees and official points of contacts from the first cohort in a one-day workshop to distill lessons learned that can be adapted for the second cohort of awardees, as they begin to plan their actions and activities to enhance co-creation. The reflections and learning shared in this workshop will also be important in refining the support provided to the second cohort of awardees.

Note: Information on the type of support available to all OGP participating countries and locals  can be found here.