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IRM Report on Local Action Plans

IRM Local Cover

In 2016, OGP launched the “Subnational Government Pilot Program”, recognizing that many open government innovations and reforms are happening at the local level where governments can engage more directly with citizens and many crucial public services are delivered. The Pilot program consisted of 15 “pioneer” subnational governments who signed onto the Open Government Subnational Declaration. The pioneers submitted their first Action Plans in December 2016 and implemented them throughout 2017. Following the strong early results of the pilot, the OGP Steering Committee approved the expansion of the subnational pilot program, later renamed the OGP Local Program. In 2018, 5 additional local governments joined the program.

Of the 20 local governments, 12 developed action plans to be implemented between 2018-2020 while 4 developed plans to implement between 2019-2021. They are: Austin, Basque Country, Buenos Aires, Elgeyo Marakwet, Jalisco, Kaduna State, La Libertad, Madrid, Nariño, Paris, São Paulo, Scotland, Sekondi-Takoradi, Seoul, South Cotabato and Tbilisi.

To assess the implementation of these action plans, the IRM divided the research process in two parts: first, designing and developing a first draft assessing the 2018-2020/2021 action plans and second, carrying out the assessment for the remaining 2019-2021 action plans.

This report looks at the level of citizen engagement in the process, analyses the key thematic trends across the cohort and discusses the main results achieved and challenges encountered over that period, including the impact of local responses to the pandemic. In addition, it draws out a series of broader lessons to inform the further roll-out of the OGP Local Program and to support new local governments developing and implementing action plans for the first time.

How to read this report

Readers can find an overview of the key findings across the cohort of 16 local governments in the first section of the report. They can explore the main thematic areas covered by the plans and their relevance to OGP values and review a selection of the most promising early results achieved, as well as the main challenges which hindered the completion of commitments. Readers can also learn about the levels of citizen engagement in action plan implementation across the cohort and reflect on key lessons and recommendations from the collective experience of the 16 participating local governments.

For those who wish to read a more in-depth analysis of a particular local government´s action plan, Annex 1 provides a 3-4 page summary assessment of the implementation of each of the 16 local action plans, including early results, level of completion for each commitment and level of civil society and public engagement during implementation. These snapshots replace the longer end-of-term reports produced for the first cycle of local government action plans in 2017.

For any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to reach out to irmlocal@opengovpartnership.org

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Comments (1)

Aidan Eyakuze Reply

I really enjoyed reading this report and harvesting the insights it reveals about the successes and challenges of achieving impactful local government commitments. I contend that the relatively higher success of infrastructure and public service delivery commitments is to be expected as is the tendency for Locals to focus on open data commitments in their first rounds of Action Plans.

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