Open Government Partnership | January Newsletter

Having trouble seeing the whole newsletter? View this email in your browser

OGP Newsletter

January 2018: Looking Back, Looking Forward
Open government faced a tough year in 2017, with declining civic space and trust in government waning around the world. We take a look back at work and events from 2017, and look forward to defining moments for #opengov in 2018.

In This Issue:

Looking at six years of open government: what’s the evidence?
#OpenGov leadership in the Asia Pacific
Students in Canada look at their country’s open government track record
Announcing the 2018 OGP Summit in Georgia
Why peer exchange works: experiences from Slovakia
Why OGP commitments fall behind: a look at the data
Plus news from around the world of opengov, jobs, and more

Discussions at the Asia Pacific Leaders Forum in Jakarta, Indonesia, on December 14, 2017.

Calling On Knowledge Producers to Support OGP’s Mission

By Sanjay Pradhan and Munyema Hasan, OGP

OGP has accomplished a lot in the six and a half years since its founding - now including 75 countries, 15 subnational governments, and hundreds of civil society organizations, implementing over 3,000 commitments to open government. But we need more numbers - evidence and research backing up the work tireless reformers are doing on the ground. Read more here.

From Bali to Jakarta: The Evolution of OGP in the Asia-Pacific

By Shreya Basu, OGP

The Asia-Pacific Leaders Forum in Jakarta in mid-December was the first opportunity in over a year for OGP countries in the region to come together to participate in a peer exchange on open government. OGP’s Asia Pacific Civil Society Coordinator, Shreya Basu, addressed the meeting with words of praise - but also words of warning about the challenges and potential pitfalls as those in attendance work to advance open government. Read her remarks here.

Want to know more about the people of open government? Check out our Instagram for the Humans of #OpenGov series.

Government Points of Contact meet at the Asia Pacific Leaders Forum.

Blog Series: Open Government in Canada

Open Government and Communication Students, Carleton University

Mary Francoli, a member of OGP’s International Experts Panel, teaches a course on open government at Carleton University in Ottawa. Canada’s role as incoming co-chair, as well as Ottawa’s status as the capital of OGP Local participant, Ontario, make these youth perspectives on open government both timely and captivating. Read the top blogs here.

Announcing the 2018 OGP Summit!

The 2018 OGP Global Summit will take place July 17-19 in Tbilisi, Georgia. The OGP 2018 Global Summit will focus on civic engagement, fighting against corruption, and public service delivery. The objectives of the Summit are to promote peer learning, inspire OGP reformers to raise the level of ambition, and push the open government agenda forward to address new challenges and improve the lives of citizens around the world.

Bookmark this page and stay tuned for more details!

Peer Exchanges: A Core Element for Pushing OGP Reforms

By Iveta Ferčíková, Advisor at the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Civil Society Development, Slovakia

In September 2017, a group of countries from Central and Eastern Europe met to discuss OGP in Bratislava, Slovakia. This was the first time that such a conference had been held - and led to new information, education, and experiences being shared between a diverse set of countries. How can such events push countries to strengthen reforms? Iveta Ferčíková looks at this example here.

This Is Why OGP Commitments Fail

By Renzo Falla Lopez, Independent Reporting Mechanism

Open government is a challenging business - and not everything is a rousing success. The OGP IRM looked at incomplete commitments from around the world and examined the evidence: why do these commitments fall behind? What is the recipe for failure? We introduce this study here.

OGP in the News - December 2017

By Jacqueline McGraw, Communications Associate, OGP

#APLF took up most of our December news, with op-eds and commentary abounding. However, OGP made news in North and South America following #OGPArgentina, and news sprung up around the globe as the year came to an end. Read more here.

Employment Opportunities

Senior Program Officer for Europe
We are looking for a resourceful individual with strong experience and understanding of the governance field to serve as a Europe Senior Program Officer at the OGP Support Unit. The candidate should have knowledge of the inner workings of government - including the ability to interface with senior-level government officials - and also strong experience working with and building relationships with civil society actors in the region. Applications due by January 17.

Call for IRM National Researchers
The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) is seeking individuals to carry out research at the national level in a variety of countries to assess government progress on implementation of their OGP Action Plans.

Buzz on #OpenGov

OGP collected the best blog posts of 2017 and rounded them up here. Happy reading!

Read the full Why OGP Commitments Fall Behind paper here.

The World of #OpenGov

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations is hiring a Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.

The City of Austin held an open government showcase in December.

Sunlight Foundation: 8 challenges for open government posed by emerging technology
AdvocateEurope is offering funding for projects that can reinvigorate democracy in Europe. Details here.

Follow us

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

OGP

Check out our newsletter archive