Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Winning Conditions for Effective Implementation of OGP Natural Resource Commitments

Everyone knows that implementation of commitments is at the core of the Open Government Partnership (OGP)’s mission for transformational reforms. However, more than a third of commitments reviewed to date by the Independent Reporting Mechanism have not been implemented. For natural resource commitments, this is an especially relevant issue. A new report by the Openness in Natural Resource Working Group (ONRWG), Closing the Gap: Strengthening the Development and Implementation of Natural Resource Commitments in the Open Government Partnership, highlights that countries make more natural resource commitments when compared to other sectors like health or educationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation .... Yet only about half of the reviewed natural resource commitments have been completed or substantially implemented.

To understand some of the challenges implementing commitments, the ONRWG commissioned a series of case studies from civil society partners in Mexico, Nigeria and Peru. These researchers have been actively involved in 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... in their country and offer a unique perspective, supplemented with interviews from key government and other civil society participants. As the entire OGP community wrestles with how to foster better implementation, here are a few key insights synthesized from these case studies.

Get Earlier and Wider Political Buy-In from All Relevant Ministries

All of the case studies highlighted how limited political will and poor coordination of key ministries greatly impacts implementation in multiple ways. In Mexico, researchers observed notable differences in 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..., speed, and seriousness of focus depending on the ministry in charge of implementation. In Peru, the absence of high-level OGP champions and the OGP implementing authority´s lack of capacity to directly involve the Extractive IndustriesApplying open government values of transparency, participation, and accountability to extractive industries can decrease corruption, safeguard community interests and needs, and support environmental ... 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 Initiative (EITI) commission reduced the OGP natural resource commitments to a mere administrative procedure of secondary importance.

Design Realistic Timeframes

In Nigeria, implementing the commitment to create a 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 Register requires amending legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r..., which significantly impacts the implementation and compliance.  Similarly, in Mexico, ambitious timeframes discounted the political context required for legislative 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 reform and the slower decision-making processes intrinsic to joining EITI. Further, it is clear from all the case studies that government and civil society require different processes and timeframes to engage and make commitments that support implementation.

Mainstream Budgets for Implementation into the Commitment Section Process

All case studies identified a lack of financial resources as a major barrier to implementation. In Nigeria and Mexico, the national government did not assign a budget for implementation, but instead, assumed they could rely on outside funds that did not materialize as planned. In Peru, the Secretariat of Public Management (Secretaría de Gestion Pública) had a budget for the overall development and implementation of the NAPs, but every implementing agency had to earmark resources from their own budget. To overcome this problem civil society and government officials should consider access to secured funding sources and the ability to mainstream these resources into line ministries involved in implementation when proposing commitments during the co-creation and selection process.

Improve the Quality and Specificity of Commitments

Inconsistent or poor availability of information needed for implementation made it difficult to implement 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... commitments in both Mexico and Nigeria. In Mexico, for example, the General Directorate for Mining, which created the geographical mining data, had no leverage over the Office of the Presidency, charged with publishing it. In Peru, civil society partners believe vague commitments delayed implementation and generated distrust between government and civil society by reporting all indicators as completed in its progress report, without taking into account civil society’s contrasting observations.

Build the Capacity of Civil Society Partners to Participate in Implementation Monitoring

Building trust and a working relationship between civil society and government officials, knowledge sharing, and overcoming technical and policy capacity gaps requires resources even when the political support for implementation is there. In Nigeria, civil society groups had difficulty grasping terms and trends that cover the technicalities of the extractives sector. The Nigeria EITI has maintained a training series for civil society organizations to enable fuller comprehension of the implications (technical and otherwise) of the initiative’s work, and increase their know-how on effectively engaging with the government.

The Way Forward

Advancing implementation of National Action Plans must go beyond monitoring and evaluation. These case studies offer specific lessons civil society and government champions can use to improve implementation of individual commitments and help achieve OGP’s important vision for transformative change. The OGP community will have a chance to dig deeper into the drivers of natural resource commitment implementation at the upcoming OGP Regional Meeting during the ONRWG’s Round Table on Implementation of Natural Resources Commitments in OGP – Success, Gaps and Challenges. This session is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 21 at 15:40.