How long shall we blunder along without the aid of unpartisan and authoritative scientific assistance in the administration of justice, no one knows; but all fair persons not conventionalized by provincial legal habits of mind ought, I should think, unite to effect some change. ~ Judge Learned Hand, judicial opinion rendered in 1911
Let’s face it, these days of forced hibernation can either depress the spirits or inspire grand thoughts of ways in which “all fair persons not conventionalized by provincial legal habits of mind” might “unite to effect some change.”
Genetically predisposed as I am to “taking arms against a sea of troubles,” let me propose a profound thought appropriate for a long winter ponder. Try thinking, even briefly, about the Open Government Partnership. (http://www.opengovpartnership.org)
Once a dream, now a reality, the OGP is raising the issue of open government to a place of honor on the international policy agenda. The global power of the concept lies in the shared recognition of the work required of national governments and non-government organizations to come to grips with the enormity of the world information infrastructure. The hope of the concept rises from the shared vision of how, working in tandem, the world’s democracies can metaphorically get their arms around the behemoth challenge of assuring open government in the 21st Century.
The OGP is “a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.”
Reflecting the enormity of today’s information reality – and the challenge to establish policies and procedures that cope with the challenge – the OGP formally launched on September 20, 2011, when the eight founding governments (Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States) endorsed the Open Government Declaration and announced their country’s action plans. Critical to the essence of OGP is the fact that the stakeholders include both governments and civil society organizations, a broad term that encompasses NGO’s, nonprofits, and other advocacy groups.
The mission of OGP is to establish an action agenda, individually and collectively, that will track the ways in which participating governments take meaningful, measurable, steps to be more transparent, more accountable, and more responsive to their own citizens. The ultimate goal is to improve the quality of governance, as well as the quality of services that citizens receive. Visionaries who are working on shaping the OGP action agenda admit that “this will require a shift in norms and culture to ensure genuine dialogue and collaboration between governments and civil society.”
Bottom line, the goal of OGP is to support both government and civil society reformers by “elevating open government to the highest levels of political discourse, providing ‘cover’ for difficult reforms, and creating a supportive community of like-minded reformers from countries around the world.”
A thousand OGP advocates met in recently in London to assess progress to date and to agree on an aggressive action agenda. The key objective over the next two years is to monitor and validate that real change is happening on the ground in a majority of OGP countries, and that this change is benefitting citizens.
Ambitious next steps are these: 1) to maintain high-level political leadership and commitment to OGP within participating countries, 2) to support domestic reformers with technical expertise and inspiration, and 3) to foster more engagement in OGP by a diverse group of citizens and civil society organizations. The overarching goal is to ensure that countries are held accountable for making progress toward achieving their OGP commitments.
To date over 60 nations have made formal commitments to the Open Government Partnership. Following the original cohort of eight nations, the next cohort included Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Slovak Republic, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine and Uruguay. These were followed by Argentina, Costa Rica, Finland, Ghana, Hungary, Liberia and Panama, Australia, Ireland, Malawi, Mongolia, New Zealand, Sierra Leone, Serbia, and Trinidad and Tobago. And Yes, there are some surprises on that diverse list.
Participating nations have made nearly1000 specific commitments to make their governments more open and accountable. These commitments reflect honest and serious effort on the part of both the governments and the civil society organizations.
Though civil society organizations do not formally join the Partnership in the same way that governments do, they play a critical role in OGP at both the national and international levels. Within every OGP participating country, civil society organizations work with their governments to develop, implement and monitor their country’s OGP action plan.
To track the progress OGP has established an Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) which produces biannual independent progress reports for each participating country. The progress reports assess governments on implementation of action plans, track progress in fulfilling open government principles, and make technical recommendations for improvements. The intent is to encourage a public discussion of what’s been done and what is needed.
On October 23, 2013 the IRM issued its report on the status of US effortsThe IRM report is available at http://www.opengovpartnership.org/blog/blog-editor/2013/10/23/irm-releases-united-states-report-public-comment
Patrice McDermott, Executive Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, responded the next day. Find her response at http://www.opengovpartnership.org/blog/patrice-mcdermott/2013/10/24/comments-usa-irm-report
The next step now is for individuals and organizations, everyone who has a stake in open government (and who does not?) to review – and respond to – the President’s National Action Plan for Open Government, a copy of which is available at http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/12/06/united-states-releases-second-open-government-national-action-plan/)
The work of OGP is not the work of wonks but of citizen advocates for whom open government is now and always was the core value of a democracy. The spirit of the OGP is fueled by informed citizens who know that, though the technology may change, first principles are firm and fundamental.
The US commitment to the Open Government Partnership – and to the American people – demands serious commitment not of words but of resources, including time and energy. It remains to the American people to monitor the follow through and to capitalize on the opportunity. Open government is difficult to define, more difficult to track. Still, we know it when we see it….and we have some sense of what it means when the portals to open government are shuttered.
It’s neither too late nor too cold for a 2014 Open Government resolution:
Be it resolved that all fair persons not conventionalized
by provincial legal habits of mind…
unite to effect some change.
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