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Five Country Experiences
Five Country Experiences
2. Describe two things that were really good about the consultation, why it worked, and one thing that was not so good about it
Consultations worked well first of all because there was a kind of political vacuum, i.e. the then Government was in disarray concentrated on parliamentary elections which were held at the end of 2011 (which they lost) and did not care much about what was happening related to OGP. Second, the President of the Republic - who was not facing elections - was very interested in OGP which is in line with his social-democratic political views and was surrounded with people involved in OGP preparations (high-level political backing). Third, the new Government which came in the office at the end of 2011 embraced the OGP at least declaratively as it is in line with social-democratic values. However, the Action Plan is much more modest than we expected, i.e. it cannot remedy all the Croatian deficiencies listed in the Open Budget Index. Reasons why we cannot be too satisfied with the Action Plan on budget/fiscal commitments: the economic crisis, necessitating concentration of the Ministry of Finance on in their view - more pressing issues than fiscal transparency; the ban on employment in the public administration (= insufficient staff to work on OGP) lack of experts in administration and of funding for improvements in IT; the independence of the State Auditing Office (SAO) preventing the Government from being able to demand that it publishes reports on extra-budgetary funds and public companies; the independence of local governments units (LGUs) meaning that the Ministry of Finance cannot require of them to publish citizens budget guides or agendas of their sessions, so it ended up with the Government merely making recommendations to SAO and LGUs.
The Action Plan is less committed than we wished for, but bearing in mind the challenges, we would be very happy if in the end we obtained everything written in it related to fiscal transparency, access to information, using IT, citizen and CS participation.
3. What would your advice be for a new OGP member country- both for the government and for the civil society actors
Governments should seriously commit themselves to use the OGP for improvements within the country and avoid treating OGP as a kind of a foreign policy PR and carefully place the responsibility for the OGP within the most appropriate department as it could be essential for its capacity to influence the process. Non-government actors interested in open government should Inform themselves and try to get acquainted with people from the government who are involved in processes, less on higher than on lower levels of the government. With that knowledge they could be able to better target and communicate with people from the administration who can influence decisions. They should also actively monitor, analyze and publish their findings and distribute them as wide as possible to media. (Process can also start with the NGOs) NGOs should try to work if possible together with governments and if not then on their own - and with constant endeavors and contributions, step by step try to move forwards to a more transparent, accountable and participative society. This collaborative kind of approach of non-government actors from the beginning of the OGP in Croatia was visible in the preparations for the European OGP regional meeting this October in Dubrovnik. Croatian CSOs and Government convened it jointly and representatives of CSOs and academia moderated all sessions. Maybe both governments and non-government actors should start thinking both ways: how government could assist civil society and how civil society could assist government.
Mexico
Emilene Morales Martinez, independent Regional Civil Society Coordinator for OGP
2. Describe two things that were really good about the consultation, why it worked, and one thing that was not so good about it
In Mexico the consultation process was a result of a coordinated effort between government and civil society in which CSOs were treated as equals. In Mexico the action plan was driven by civil society demands with support from both IFAI and SFP and not the other way around. Through the Technical Secretariat, a formal process was created to conduct follow-up work on each commitment. For example, representatives from the three parties were required to be present in each meeting with the agencies addressed in the commitments. Both these and Technical Secretariat meetings were documented and minutes are available online. The three actors involved agree that the weakness of this consultation process was that only specialized civil society organizations in the fields of transparency, access to information and open data participated. Consultation was not open to a broader array of CSOs.
3. What would your advice be for a new OGP member country- both for the government and for the civil society actors.
My advice for new countries is to start by working closely with CSOs to develop a consultation process that works within the local context and that includes mechanisms to follow-up on the commitments included in the national action plan. Additionally, the process should ideally include clearly defined roles and responsibilities for each of the actors participating in both the consultation process and the follow-up work.
Moldova
Veronica Cretu, President CMB Training Center, Coordinator of the Working Group on EGovernance/Open Government within the National Council for Participation
The dynamics of the involvement of the civil society representatives in the consultation process was very good, however most of the meetings were attended by the same participants all the time (around 40% of the total number of civil society representatives who took part in consultations). Overall, the consultation process on Moldova Open Government Action Plan was based on a number of important principles and values, which contributed in turn, to an effective consultation process and resulted in a comprehensive Action Plan.
2. Describe two things that were really good about the consultation, why it worked, and one thing that was not so good about it
Good: The consultation process came in synergy with other initiatives (=ecosystem) implemented at that moment in Moldova with support from World Bank (Open Innovation Fund for Moldova); Good: Feedback from civil society came in track changes before a new consultation meeting, so this allowed everyone see what comments, suggestions and recommendations were already made, and helped in identifying new aspects, dimensions to be included/considered; To be improved: Summary of all feedback received, what feedback was considered, what was not and why, was never provided to those participants in the consultation process; To be improved: The civil society representativity and reach out to CSOs outside capital city; To be improved: More active involvement of the business sector, especially IT industry as well as of public sector representatives, at least one representative from each Ministry;
3. What would your advice be for a new OGP member country- both for the government and for the civil society actors
Governments : CONSULTATION METHODOLOGY: Apply research approach to consultation by having very clear planning of the a) objectives (define the level and focus of consultation), b) target groups (define all groups that might have a stake in OGP), c) appropriate consultation methodology and tools (include at least 2 tools to reach the same target group), d) plan needed resources and partners support, e) plan a proper communication/feedback strategy after the end of consultation process. (Provide a table of recommendations/feedback from all consulted stakeholders both during the consultation process, and after the approval of the Action Plan. It is important to indicate what recommendations were considered for final version of the Action Plan and which ones were not, and what were the main reasons for excluding them); Apply multichannel consultation methodology: in most of the cases a proper consultation methodology requires use of direct, mobile and internet strategies in order to reach/involve all target groups. Civil Society: MEDIA TOOLS: Use different media and communication tools to reach out to civil society representatives from across the country during the consultation process on OGP. Reach out both rural and urban CSOs representatives; CSOs can collaborate with local TV stations and organize live TV talk-shows during which representatives responsible for OGP are invited to talk and share about the benefits and estimated impact of the OGP for the country at central and local level. Prepared for the Peer Exchange Meeting London, December 2012 4
WHERE DID MY RECOMMENDATIONS GO: Ask for the comments, feedback, recommendations provided to the Action Plan prior to having a consultation meeting/new round, so that CSOs are able to analyze what has been recommended up to this moment and are able to generate new ideas, bring in new input without being repetitive over and over again; Both AWARENESS OF OGP AGENDA: Meet with your countrys partners in development (agencies for development, etc.) to raise awareness of the importance of OGP Agenda for the country, as well as about the need to integrate in future country strategies support for OG related initiatives (monitoring, evaluation of public services, governance processes, etc.).
2. Describe two things that were really good about the consultation, why it worked, and one thing that was not so good about it
A challenge faced from the beginning of the National Plan development was, for instance, when the Ukrainian government decided to hold national consultations on the OGP plan by means of the civic councils. All of the 400 suggestions they proposed to the draft government plan were of a very general character. Based on these wordings, they would be able to develop a plan that would be both too general and at the same time favourable for the government. This action was successfully opposed by our Coalition. The Ukrainian civic community could not support a draft national plan that did not reflect the real needs of the Ukrainian state, while the authorities did not want to take the civic community seriously, opining that it is always unsatisfied with something. However, our Coalition together with its Prepared for the Peer Exchange Meeting London, December 2012 5
experts started to develop an alternative national plan, which fully corresponds with the OGP requirements and began working to promote it. It resulted in the current document signed by the Prime Minister of Ukraine, 80 percent of which is comprised of the suggestions of our Civic Coalition. Finally, we achieved a partnership with the government, which appeared beneficial to both sides. The government benefits substantively and financially from the work of civic experts, which is usually free, and boosts its international image and domestic reputation by collaborating with civil society. Civil society is able to make itself heard at the national level, and have direct input on policy. As already mentioned before, there are some threads that should be worked on for proper implementation of the OGP initiative. Besides, the Government has two major weak points in the OGP implementation process: building efficient dialog with stakeholders and the lack of the funding. Donors might consider the opportunity to fund initiatives, related to the introduction of e-government, preferably the software development for the steps, indicated in the OGP Country plan. In this case, efficient use of funding could be easily monitored and evaluated.
3. What would your advice be for a new OGP member country- both for the government and for the civil society actors.
To overcome challenges, government and CSOs have to create a working communication mechanism, and furthermore, the government should properly supervise and manage the OGP implementation process. Currently, government suffers from inexperience in the development of an open and transparent public dialog. Thus, the Government needs additional assistance and guidance in the development of the communication mechanism. The other option to increase the efficiency of OGP implementation is some kind of technical assistance to the Government in development of IT tools for the e-government implementation.
USA
Patrice McDermott, Executive Director OpenTheGovernment.org, Wayne Moses Burke, Executive Director Open Forum Foundation
well-placed to lead for the openness/accountability community, as this community was well-organized and had for a number of years been working together to build consensus on our policy priorities including a detailed set of transition (from President Bush to President Obama) recommendations (21st Century Right-to-Know), meetings with the transition teams, an openness floor for government information, and a list of 7 specific asks to the Obama Administration. Indeed, we were much better organized than the government, as they were largely operating in stove-piped offices with little coordination. Some collaboration was occurring related to work on President Obamas Open Government Directive and we had been meeting with an interagency working group around the implementation of that directive. But, generally, it took some effort to get the White House offices working smoothly together. Over the course of July through September 20, 2011, OpenTheGovernment.org established a Google group for groups both inside and outside D.C, coordinated 6 face-to-face meetings with a wide range of groups, set up regular conference calls, and facilitated communications with the Obama Administration. While encouraging the Administration to act on our coalitions priorities, we also helped make sure that the wider transparency communityincluding organizations that had not previously engaged in domestic policy but have an interest in U.S. actionsmet with the Administrations domestic policy team that wrote the U.S. National Action Plan. In our ongoing face-to-face and other meetings with the Administration, we were told they were hamstrung by their internal processes and legal restrictions from sharing the draft Plan with us as it developed, but we were assured that you are going to be happy. The outcome of this work was the commitments in the U.S. Governments Action Plan that address the concerns of a broad array of the stakeholders. The US NAP addresses three broad challenges, and includes 26 commitments to help achieve 17 goals. Although those commitments were a significant step, OpenTheGovernment.org has learned from experience that if the process is not pushed from the outside, very little happens. While the Administration is committed to these issues, without sustained advocacy from the NGO community, new issues and crises come along that distract attention away from transparency priorities. We did more than pay attention: within 6 weeks of the release of the Plan, we set a high bar for what would count as successes and presented the Administration with a detailed roadmap of what needed to be done to meet their openness goals. We also established civil society (CSO) teams around each of the governments commitments and the White House worked with us to set up meetings with each of these teams and the responsible official(s) inside the government. Where the agency teams inside government directly proposed commitments for the Plan and were committed to them internally, these meetings have been highly productive and have led to ongoing relationships between CSOs and government officials. We also developed metrics to assess both whether the Administration met the letter of the commitment, if it took the recommendations made by civil society, and if the Administration stretched itself beyond the commitment to meet its expressed goals and make the effort more successful. In January OpenTheGovernment.org will release that full assessment. Prepared for the Peer Exchange Meeting London, December 2012 7
In advance of that full evaluation, we released a Progress Report on September 20, 2012, the first anniversary of the USG Plan. At that point, 8 of the USGs commitments were fully met and the rest were in progress toward meeting that goal by the end of 2012. We are now in the process of developing the next set of recommendations for the US NAP 2.0 with a broader set of CSOs. We will build from the set of robust working group-to-government recommendations for next steps on current projects and new ideas for advancing government openness and accountability.
2. Describe two things that were really good about the consultation, why it worked, and one thing that was not so good about it
Good things: The Administration actively utilized the OpenTheGovernment.org coalition and our outreach to engage with civil society. They were open to meeting repeatedly and in various settings and to hearing civil society groups ideas. The Plan itself directly reflected many of the asks from civil society, and the development of the Plan created an action-forcing deadline for policies that were foundering in the bureaucracy. Bad things: The governments outreach to a more general public was very limited and not at all transparent or interactive, in contrast to our Google groups and well-attended open meetings (with those outside DC participating by phone). The USG set up a blog for broader input, but it was really only a drop-box for comments, which the Administration summarized. We pushed back that this was not sufficient, but this was an example of the rushed organization of the USG in approaching the Plan.
3. What would your advice be for a new OGP member country- both for the government and for the civil society actors
The primary piece of advice is that civil society actors need to get themselves organized, figure out what it is that they want from the Plan, and build consensus on those asks. Start with outreach, meetings, and events that form common understandings around open government principles with discussions about the types of projects that should be in the plan. And then the civil society actors have to stay organized and push government to a) include those commitments, and b) implement them. For both government and civil society, building relationships is essential at both the planning and the implementation stages. The working relationships that form from this process will not only enable a better and more realistic action plan, they will also create broader support for the plan, and enable the implementation to be appropriately shared, and any shortfalls more understood by non-governmental actors.