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Faces of Open Government: Oleksandr Yarema

Oleksandr Yarema, State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine

Meet Oleksandr Yarema, the State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers and co-chair of the OGP Coordination Council in Ukraine. We sat down with Oleksandr on the sidelines of the OGP Europe Regional Meeting to learn about his efforts to promote civil society and public participation in decision-making, ensure access to public information, and, more recently, aid the reconstruction efforts in Ukraine.

Read the full interview here.

Voices of Open Government

Two new episodes of Voices of Open Government have been released! Please rate, share, subscribe, and check back for more episodes in 2023!

A Mission to Record and Remember Victims of Gender-Based Violence
Learn about Helena Suarez Val’s mission to record and remember victims of gender-based violence in Uruguay, the meaning of “feminicide”, and how data can help change the public perception.

A Lawyer’s Journey to Unmask Anonymous Companies
Learn about Andrej Leontiev’s fight to uphold beneficial ownership transparency and how other countries are using the Slovak Republic’s model to further transparency and accountability.

IRM Week Highlights

During the recent IRM Week, the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) shared new findings, and insights on themes that have progressed through OGP action plans:

Check out the IRM Twitter account for social media cards with IRM researchers and key lessons from 2022.

OGP Local

In January we’re launching a series of interviews from the conversations we had with local reformers this year.

💻 Blog

From Regional to Local: Local Governments in Africa & the Middle East
By Rudi Borrmann, OGP

Over 500 participants, 36 sessions, 121 speakers, and hundreds of civil society organizations were able to meet after the pandemic in Marrakech, Morocco, at the OGP Africa & the Middle East Regional Meeting. Explore three main OGP Local takeaways from this meeting here.

More Action, More Evidence, More Collaboration: A Look at 2022
By Rudi Borrmann, OGP

In 2022 OGP Local brought local voices together and spoke louder than ever at a record three OGP regional meetings across three months in Santo Domingo, Rome, and Marrakesh. Explore top OGP Local highlights from the year here.

🌏 Local Roundup

Find a monthly roundup of highlights from the OGP Local community.

- 11 OGP Local members delivered their first action plan:

Corrientes (City), Argentina
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
Asturias, Spain
Žilina (Region), Slovak Republic
Hamburg, Germany
Valencian Community, Spain
Novi Pazar, Serbia
Detmold, Germany
Tarkwa-Nsuaem, Ghana
Carthage, Tunisia
Tétouan (Municipality), Morocco

- Check out highlights from an event in Corrientes, Argentina, on its action plan.

- The new plan by Comunitat Valenciana was highlighted in local media.

- Explore an analysis on Detmold and Hamburg’s action plan.

- The city of Contagem, Brazil celebrated the International Anti-Corruption Day.

- Georgian municipalities engaged in the co-creation of their OGP action plans and Ozurgeti Municipality applied the Council of Europe innovative methodology “CivicLab” to organize OGP public consultations.

Discover more and share your own on the OGP Local Slack workspace.

Insights + Stories

Inflection Point: Making the Summit for Democracy Matter at the IACC

Ahead of IACC last week, members of OGP’s Analytics and Insights team and partners reflected on how to leverage the event to analyze challenges and develop commitments as the second Summit for Democracy approaches. Read it here.

Open Government: A True Solution to Africa’s Governance Challenges

In an op-ed for Africa.com, Theo Chiviru, OGP’s Lead for Africa and the Middle East, discusses the issues Africa is facing, how open government can help, and ideas for solutions discussed at the OGP regional meeting last month in Marrakech. Read it here.

Three Community Justice Approaches

Graciela Zamudio Campos and Laura Márquez explore how advocates in Tijuana, Mexico, are engaging the community and using open justice and artistic approaches to allow citizens to more fully exercise their rights and improve relations between migrants and authorities. Read it here.

OpenStories

Check out recent stories written by our community.

🇿🇼 Cleaning Up Mbare: How Residents Are Keeping Their City Council Accountable
Kibo Ngowi shares how residents in Mbare, Zimbabwe, came together to keep their City Council accountable for failing to collect litter.

🇺🇾 How Access to Information Gives Uruguayans a Voice
Graciela Romero shares how Uruguay’s Access to Public Information Unit created, for the first time ever, an index to publicly assess public agencies’ transparency and access to information to strengthen transparency and improve the relationship between the State and their citizens.

🇦🇷 Inclusion for Strengthening Citizen Participation and Better Services
Reformers share how the municipality of Rosario, Argentina, is strengthening the public value by promoting digitalization and creating new channels to interact with the citizenry.

Want to see your story featured in the newsletter? Submit one here or reach out to the OGP communications team for help getting started.

Steering Committee Spotlight

The Government Steering Committee election process has begun, as the terms of Canada, Italy, and Kenya come to a close. New members will begin their terms on October 1, 2023. The election process aims to conclude in March 2023. More information is available here.

World of Open Gov

- Watch a highlight clip from OGP CEO Sanjay Pradhan’s speech at the opening plenary and explore his main takeaways in this thread.

- Check out EITI and Open Ownership’s policy brief on company ownership data.

- Explore International IDEA’s new Global State of Democracy Report.

- Join the launch of the OECD Global Report on Civic Space on Friday, December 16.

- Read this new piece from Carnegie Europe, “Closing the Gap Between Citizen Participation and Mainstream Politics”.

- Explore highlights from the Center for Democracy and Technology and OGP’s recent roundtable on the EU Digital Services Act.

- Read a new story from the Open Contracting Partnership on Albania’s e-complaint system and a new report on fulfilling the promise of e-procurement reforms in Africa.

- Register for this free workshop on using beneficial ownership data in Nigeria

- See Open Ownership’s response to the recent European Court of Justice ruling on public beneficial ownership registers in the EU

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