Open Letter from Aidan Eyakuze, CEO of 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,
on OGP’s 15th Anniversary

In September 2011, the Open Government Partnership was launched on the premise of this simple but radical and bold idea: that governments should serve the people, not the other way around. It sounds conceptually obvious, intuitive, even. But in practice and for millions around the world, it remains out of reach.

A decade and half later, the world is changing fast and in uncomfortable ways. We see rising polarization, declining trust in government, pressure on civic space, and the reality that our collective institutions are hardly keeping pace with the challenges people face in their daily lives. 

But the same fifteen years have shown that open government works and that our Open Government Partnership is delivering strong results. 

Open government works

Consider these few examples. Because of our Partnership, 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 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 has become a global norm, starting with the UK’s 2016 registry that inspired reforms in nearly 40 countries. As a result, millions of dollars are saved or recovered.

We have strengthened the rule of law: five of the world’s ten strongest Right to InformationThe legal right to request information from the government allows the public to follow government decision-making, participate in ensuring better decisions, and hold the government accountable. Techni... frameworks were advanced through our OGP. 

We are making economies fairer, by using 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 reforms that are expanding transparency in public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... More and unlocking business opportunities for more people. 

We are infusing openness into the multilateral agendas by, for example, working with the OECD to embed open government principles into their indices that measure the quality of governance worldwide or with UNDP to help our common members to implement open government reforms.

We have reached far beyond the executive branch of government. More than 90% of our Partnership’s members now involve legislatures, judiciaries, and local governments. The vast majority of them, over 80%, invite citizens to directly shape the decisions that affect their lives in structured multi-stakeholder forums. City-level reforms in Germany, Morocco, and Estonia have become national standards, proving that local innovation can travel.

The solid foundation of this partnership is our growing community. During the last 15 years we have, together, built a unique planet-embracing network. Different regions, different perspectives and priorities are sharing the same principles and values and are pulling in the same direction.

Far from being abstract achievements, our collection of over 5,600 reforms have, and continue to  improve how governments and institutions work and ultimately, how people experience democratic governance in their daily lives. They are the result of countless reformers who chose persistence over cynicism, prefer collaboration over isolation, and prioritize doing over talking.

At the heart of this progress is the co-creation model that remains as powerful today as it was fifteen years ago. Governments and civil society work together in partnership to design reforms, implement them and hold each other mutually accountable.

Our 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..., action and accountability approach has gone beyond delivering better policies and outcomes. It has built trust where it was fragile. It has created coalitions that endure national political change. It has rooted reforms in real needs and real contexts. It has allowed reformers to learn from one another and move faster, more efficiently, and with greater 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....

Indeed, this may be our Partnership’s most important contribution to the world, showing how civil society and governments can work together deliberately and democratically to directly improve lives. 

OGP was designed for the moment we are in

Our fifteenth anniversary arrives at a difficult global moment. The multilateral system that once provided guardrails and shared rules of engagement is under serious pressure. Geopolitical fractures threaten the cooperation on which collective progress and shared prosperity depends. The decisions governments are taking now, on artificial intelligence, climate, public finance, and security, will shape the lives of many future generations.

So it is precisely now that our core values as a Partnership matter most. 

We know that inclusive and resilient institutions are better able to respond to our shared challenges. We know that transparency and accountability reduce corruption risks and lead to better outcomes. We know that meaningful participation leads to more effective and legitimate policies. And we know that open societies are more competitive, more innovative, and more inclusive. 

OGP was born in a different geopolitical context, but it was designed for this moment. It is an action-oriented, pragmatic, coalition-based platform, grounded in the premise that governments and civil society can achieve together what neither can achieve alone. 

Renewing the Partnership.

At a time of mounting global pressures and uncertainty, the Partnership is adapting so that we can continue doing this hard work in the most effective way possible. That is why, during this anniversary year we are renewing our Partnership in two important ways. 

First, the Action Framework has been refreshed to give it the agility fit for current and future conditions. Members now have the flexibility to pursue reforms at a pace and scale that fits their own context. By giving reformers greater room to maneuver, to seize political openings when they arise, and to sustain momentum when political transitions occur, the updated Framework sharpens our focus on action and results. The Open Gov Challenge and peer learning, provides reformers with additional tools to move from ambitious commitment to tangible outcomes.

Second, we are upgrading the member services to deliver a stronger universal offer for all. It will be combined with enhanced engagement to deepen domestic impact such as improved service delivery, and to advance the Partnership’s broader strategic goal of making open government the norm across countries and levels of government. We want to ensure that governments and civil society enjoy services that are leaner, faster, and more responsive to their needs. 

OGP is shaping a future of more open, resilient and prosperous societies.

We are looking to the future with confidence in our platform, and with a clear-eyed view of what only open government can deliver: more open, resilient, and prosperous societies. Many of you are already using the Partnership to forge into frontier territory. 

You are tackling algorithmic accountability, the transparency of AI systems and democratic digital governanceAs evolving technologies present new opportunities for governments and citizens to advance openness and accountability, OGP participating governments are working to create policies that deal with the ... More. You are promoting inclusive economic growth by fighting against illicit financial flows and by ensuring a transparent and participatory climate and environmental action. You are exploring proactive disclosure of public information as the default. You are drafting national strategies to protect and promote civic space and mainstream participation in decision making. 

These are some of the big governance questions of our time, and OGP is the institutional infrastructure, the connecting tissue that links reformers across levels of government, across regions, and across thematic priorities, to answer them together.

The future needs all of us. 

It needs governments to embed openness into how they decide and how they act. 

It demands of political leaders to strengthen trust through transparency, participation and accountability.

It calls for civil society to continue pushing for change, proposing solutions, and holding the line, even when the space to do so is contested. 

It requires donors and partners to invest in what works and to help scale it. 

Most of all, it will require us to remember why we started.

To every reformer who has been part of this journey, I want to say this: your work has made all the difference. And it has laid the foundation for what comes next. 

But the road ahead will demand even more of our Partnership. We have the ideas. We have the evidence. We have the strength of the network and the community.

The past fifteen years were about proving that positive change is possible. The next fifteen are about making that change inevitable.

Let us do it.

Aidan Eyakuze
Chief Executive Officer
Open Government Partnership