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The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) invites your input on its Research Guide

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The Open Government Partnership’s IRM is a key means by which all stakeholders can track progress on OGP action plans in participating countries. By tracking progress, it promotes strong accountability between member governments and citizens. The IRM invites your comments on its draft guide for researchers, beginning today through March 7, 2013.

The research guide will provide the official guiding questions for national-level researchers in each OGP participating country. Local researchers [doc] will apply the research guide annually. Each report covers:

  • development of action plans;
  • progress in implementing commitments;
  • national context of action plans; and
  • recommendations and next steps for OGP participation.

Local researchers will gather information to answer these guiding questions through interviews, group discussions, and by reviewing documents. The final product will include an OGP IRM-branded short report (20-25 pages) and an executive summary. The first 8 countries up for reporting will be Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States. Research will begin in earnest in April with publication in September. The 38 countries submitting their action plan reports in April of 2012 will begin the IRM process later this year.

About the draft Research Guidelines

The current draft was prepared by the OGP Independent Reporting Mechanism in February 2013 following the first meeting of the Technical Experts Group of the Independent Experts’ Panel (IEP), the directive body of the IRM. The draft aims to facilitate comment by all OGP stakeholders. Following comment, the IEP will look at major categories of comment and consider revisions or clarifications based on input. This draft builds on the OGP Proposal and Guiding Principles [doc], public participation on the IRM Concept Note in August 2012, and the IEP’s consultation with the Steering Committee in January 2012. Please refer to the IEP’s responses [doc] to these public comments and to the IRM Frequently Asked Questions [doc] for more general information.

How to submit comments

We greatly appreciate comments and questions, especially where they can spur public dialogue. For that reason, we hope you will post your comments in the comments section below. Alternatively, you can send your comments to joseph.foti@opengovpartnership.org with the subject “OGP Research Guide Comment”. Please note that unless you clearly state in your email that you wish for your comment to be private or anonymous, we will treat your comments as public. Finally, we hope to have opportunities for call-in during the coming weeks, in Spanish and in English. Dates and times will be posted shortly. We at the IRM sincerely look forward to hearing from you.

Filed Under: OGP News
Open Government Partnership