OGP Action Plan Formulation Process

1. OGP Action Plan Formulation Process March, 2014

2. What is the Open Government Partnership Action Plan? • The OGP Action Plan is a ‘living document’ that sets out a participating Government’s commitment to open government reforms. • These commitments should address at least 2 or more of the 5 grand challenges: • Improving public services • Increasing public integrity • More effective management of public resources • Creating safer communities • Improving corporate accountability

3. What is the Open Government Partnership Action Plan? contd • Each country must commit to improving transparency, accountability, civil participation, use of technology and innovation and implementing the highest standards of public integrity within the framework of its grand challenges. • The creation of the Action Plan requires collaboration between Government and Civil Society actors. Development without civil society participation is contrary to the OGP declaration of Principles. • Note that this is also a technical document that binds the Government to attaining commitments, hence it requires high level political buy in.

4. Examples of Commitments in the Five Grand Challenge Areas • Improving Public Services • Launch an anti-bribery campaign to improve service delivery at key Ministries • 2) Increasing public Integrity • Israel Government will establish a cross-sector forum as an official forum that will supervise approved Government plans and provide consultation on Open Government issues through the Minister in charge of Improvement of Government Services. The Forum will comprise senior representatives of the Government, the academic world and third sector organizations. (Israel)

5. Examples of Commitments in the Five Grand Challenge Areas contd • 3) More Effective management of public resources • Increased transparency of public procurement will lead to better management of public resources. (Kenya) • 4) Building safer communities • Reducing violent crime in 50 neighborhoods by 10% • 5) Improving corporate accountability • Popularize the EITI reconciliation report. (Liberia)

6. Key Principles to Guide Formulation of Action Plan Principle 1: Commitments should be succinct (each commitment should be explained in 1-2 paragraphs) Principle 2: The Commitments should clearly articulate how it will contribute to improved transparency, accountability and civic engagement Principle 3: Commitments should meet SMART (Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely) criteria should be applied to the formulation of the commitments

7. Key Principles to Guide Formulation of Action Plan contd Principle 4: Civil society participation is a cornerstone of the process in collaboration with Government to ensure citizen ownership of the process. Principle 5: Each commitment should express what Government hopes to gain in pursuit of the commitment

8. What Goes into An Action Plan? • Section 1: page1 • Introduction: explains why the OGP is important and which are the grand challenges the action plan will address. • Section 2: page 2-4 • Open Government Efforts to Date: this section will address key actions already taken by Government towards open government reform around the five grand challenges

9. What Goes into An Action Plan? • Section 3: page 4-10 • OGP Commitments: this section highlights the actions Government will undertake towards addressing the grand challenges. This section should: • i) identify the commitment (how does the commitment contribute towards transparency and accountability, implementation modalities), • ii)activities that will be undertaken towards achieving the commitment, and • iii) a timeframe for achievement. • THE ACTION PLAN SHOULD BE BETWEEN 8 – 10 PAGES LONG

10. The Consultation Process