The Open Gov Challenge: Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Open Government Challenge and why was it launched?

The Open Government Challenge is a call to action for all members to raise ambition in ten areas of open government to help strengthen our democracies and improve our communities. The topics are listed below. Each of these has a head line challenge and actions and reforms of what is and is not considered relevant to each challenge area to help reformers design relevant and ambitious submissions at either national or local level as appropriate.

The Open Government Guide is a one-stop shop for concrete recommendations, examples of reforms, and international standards and guidance, and a resource to help reformers take action. While it covers actions that go beyond the focus of the Challenge areas, it can be a useful resource for addressing the Challenge areas as well. .

Note: click on the links to see the full text of the Challenge.

1. Access to Information
2. Anti-Corruption
3. Civic Space
4. Climate and Environment
5. Digital Governance
6. Fiscal Openness
7. Gender and Inclusion
8. Justice
9. Media Freedom
10. Public Participation

The Challenge operationalizes Strategic Goal 4 on accelerating collective progress on open government reforms in OGP’s 2023-2028 strategy. The topics for the Challenge were identified based on the themes that emerged as priorities for the Partnership through the extensive consultations that informed the development of OGP’s strategy.

The Challenge duration is five years, coterminous with the current strategy.

What actions or commitments are eligible for the Challenge?

Actions or commitments that meet all of the following criteria:

• Thematic relevance: The action must aim to advance the goals of a Challenge area (see details below). Members are encouraged to submit ambitious commitments that are possible game changers for practices, policies, or institutions that govern a policy area, public sector, or the relationship between citizens and state; and/or generate binding and/or institutionalized changes across government. Ambitious commitments may also be actions within the Challenge areas that no one else or very few in the Partnership are addressing.
• Future-oriented: The action must be ongoing or planned, with future milestones. To be future-oriented, submitted commitments must include verifiable reforms that have yet to be implemented at the time of submission.
• Open government relevance: The action must be relevant to at least one open government value – transparency, public accountability or civic participation.
• Government-led: The action must be led by a public sector institution from any branch or level of government of an OGP member. Collaboration with civil society in the design, implementation, and/or evaluation of actions is strongly encouraged.

Who can participate in the Challenge?

Any public sector institution across all branches and levels of government of an OGP member. Members are encouraged to participate in as many Challenge areas as possible. Challenge commitments should be the most ambitious, flagship actions by members.

Where more than one public institution in an OGP member wishes to participate in a specific challenge area, the OGP Support Unit will aim to facilitate coordination between the actors.

Civil society and other partners are strongly encouraged to co-create and support a Challenge, but the Challenge must be owned and implemented by a public sector institution. At the time of awards, partners and civil society could nominate governments, as long as the reform is adopted and implemented by the government.

What are considered ‘ambitious’ actions for the Challenge?

The scope of each of the 10 Challenge areas has been designed to promote ambitious commitments. Members are encouraged to submit commitments that are possible game changers for practices, policies, or institutions that govern a policy area, public sector, or the relationship between citizens and state; and/or generate binding and/or institutionalized changes across government. Ambitious commitments may also be actions within the Challenge areas that no one else or very few in the Partnership are addressing.

What are the mechanisms to participate in the Challenge?

Members can participate in any of the following ways.

• Co-create relevant commitments in OGP action plans
• Submit a standalone action/commitment, independent of the OGP action plan
• Submit entries for the OGP awards
• These are not mutually exclusive options. Members can participate in more than one of the above concurrently.

Beyond these options, OGP will enable members and non members to share stories for inspiration on their work on Challenge areas. Similarly, civil society and partners can share stories of government actions. These will not be used for measurement of Challenge performance, but may be used in our narratives and communication and inspiration efforts to promote the Challenge.

Can non-member eligible countries submit challenges? 

No. The Challenge is open to any public sector institution across all branches and levels of government of an OGP member. Non-members can share stories of progress towards the challenge, contributing to OGP’s storytelling and communications work in support of the Challenge. More information on mechanisms to do so will be available in the future. For now, they can route this via their point of contact within the SU/IRM.

What rules will apply to the Challenge?

Rules will depend on the mechanism through which members submit a Challenge.

• Commitments included in action plans will need to follow existing Co-creation and Participation Standards, and reporting requirements. They will be subject to the existing Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) methodology for assessing action plans or stock takes.
• For standalone actions/commitments and awards entries, the submissions must meet the eligibility criteria of the Challenge (see FAQ 1). For these, collaboration with civil society in the design, implementation, and/or evaluation of actions is strongly encouraged and expected.
• Once the objectives of the scope of the mid-term and end-term review of the Challenge are agreed, members will be asked to self-report some information on the progress of these actions, based on the scope of the reviews.

What are the timelines/deadlines for participating in the Challenge?

• Commitments included in action plans will follow the regular action plan timelines. Members that have already submitted their action plans may use the window for amending their action plans or adding “challenge commitments” within the prescribed time frame for these. The OGP commitment templates for both national and local action plans have been modified to enable members to flag commitments as entries for the Challenge.
• Standalone actions or commitments may be submitted at any time, through the Standalone Commitments form (available in English, French and Spanish.) The mid-term and end-term review of the Challenge overall will take into account information available at the time of conducting those reviews.
• Entries can be submitted during the OGP awards processes. More information on this will follow.

Stories for inspiration can be shared and captured at any time.

For members wanting to include commitments in action plans, what process should they follow?

The OGP commitment templates have been modified to enable members to flag commitments as entries for the Challenge. Members that have already submitted their action plans may use the window for amending their action plans or adding “challenge commitments” within the prescribed time frame for these.

If a member is implementing a current OGP action plan with commitments relevant to the Challenge, can these be submitted as Challenge commitments? 

Yes, as long as the criteria are met, including the criterion that the work must be ongoing or planned for the future. Members may notify their Support Unit point of contact regarding commitments they would like recognized as entries towards the Challenge. This will be reviewed by the Data team for relevance.

If a municipality is not a member of OGP and the country is, can the municipality submit a challenge commitment?

Yes. Any public sector institution across all branches and levels of government of an OGP member can submit Challenge commitments. The commitment should be submitted through the Standalone Commitments form. Under the ‘Member type’ field, they should select ‘Other (non-member local jurisdiction in a member country)’ to proceed with submission.

Does submission of a Challenge commitment require endorsement from a POC?

For Challenge commitments in an action plan, an OGP member’s MSF, in coordination with the POC, is responsible for nominating which commitments are submitted for the Challenge. However, Challenge commitments and actions can also be submitted outside the action plan process, and any public sector institution across all branches and levels of government of an OGP member can submit such actions. Doing so does not require endorsement from the OGP POC. The Support Unit will keep the POC informed of such submissions of standalone challenge actions.

How will progress on the Challenge be assessed?

• The IRM and data teams will do a stock-take exercise (somewhat similar to the OGP Local exercise) at the mid-point and end-point of the Challenge (to coincide with the mid and end-term of the strategy period). Progress measures will take into account action plan commitments, standalone actions/commitments, and awards entries. Any other information obtained through stories and other efforts may be used for illustrative purposes only.
• Actions co-created as part of OGP national and local plans will be part of the IRM’s regular assessment and IRM stocktakes of Local respectively.
• Challenge submitters/implementers will be invited to self-report (light-touch) on some progress before the midterm and end-of-term Challenge review (which will coincide with the mid and end-term of the strategy period). Such self-reported information will inform the progress reporting on the Challenge. More information on self-reporting will follow.

For two-year action plans, how will the Challenge commitment be evaluated?

If a member includes a Challenge commitment in their action plan, the commitment will be evaluated as part of the regular IRM review process. Once the scope of the midpoint and end-point Challenge review is established, the Support Unit/IRM may reach out to the commitment holder for additional information/updates.

Who will determine eligibility and relevance of an action to the Challenge?

All commitments submitted to the Open Gov Challenge will undergo a review process by the Support Unit to ensure the required criteria are met. Submissions will be reviewed on a monthly basis. When submitting a Challenge action, members will identify and tag themselves what Challenge area their submission is relevant to. The Support Unit’s data team will then review each submission using the criteria for the Challenge, and if needed, will re-tag the submission for relevance to a different Challenge area. The final eligibility, tagging and relevance decisions will be with the Support Unit.

Will I be informed about the decision on my submission for the Challenge?

Submissions will be reviewed on a monthly basis. Submissions that meet all criteria will be published as Challenge reforms. Submitters will receive communication from the OGP Support Unit regarding the result of the review.

How will we maintain ambition around the Challenge?

While any relevant action can be submitted as a Challenge action, awards, support and other incentives will be mobilized for those actions that are promising, and that embed multi-stakeholder collaboration.

What are the incentives for a member to participate in a Challenge? What does a member get out of it?

• Political opportunity to fast track progress
• Visibilityand credibility
• Technical and peer assistance
• Opportunities to lead cohorts, peers
• Recognition in the form of awards, spotlighting through communications, events, etc.

How do the different submission modalities differ in timing, evaluation, chances of winning, etc. Is it better to wait and directly submit to an Award, or submit now? Or via both/multiple channels? 

• Submissions through the action plan follow the timing and assessment process of the action plans. Standalone actions can be submitted at any time.
• Entries for the awards may be submitted in the window when the call is open for these (more information to follow). Submission via the other two modalities does not preclude the possibility of submitting action plan commitments or standalone actions as entries to the awards.
• Members should prioritize those actions/commitments that are ambitious, collaborative with civil society in their design, implementation and/or evaluation, and show promising potential for or actual early results for awards. Criteria for awards will be developed and shared at a later time. Therefore members are encouraged to not wait to submit via this modality.