News from the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM)
The IRM of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) carries out national-level research in each OGP participating country. The research tracks development and implementation of OGP action plans and individual commitments within the plan. In doing so, it aims to promote strong accountability between member governments and citizens, through its annual reports.
The first round of reports is well underway. Researchers, independent experts based in each of the countries, are active in the 8 OGP founding countries: Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States. For the second cohort of country members–those that joined in 2012– recruitment of local researchers has begun. At the time of writing, the IRM staff has been working intently to ensure that we have a strong talent pool to choose from in each of these 39 countries.
At this time, the Technical Advisory team of the International Experts’ Panel (IEP) is fully formed and functional. These experts have established reputation in the areas of transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More, participation, and accountability. The Panel’s main tasks are to design the evaluation method, to choose the researchers in each country, and to guide the research process. Currently, the International Experts’ Panel is working on reviewing the draft reports of the OGP 8 founding countries. The IEP is also served by a group of senior advisors responsible for promoting the results of the IRM process. This aspect of the IEP is changing its composition with the recent departure of Mary Robinson to serve as a United Nations Special Envoy to the Great Lakes of Africa region. Because of this, there is an opportunity for thinking about the role of senior advisors, which is going to be discuss by the Steering CommitteeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru... in July.
Any questions or specific requirements, please contact us through this email irm@opengovpartnership.org.