OGP in the News – Month of October 2016
This monthly news roundup recaps the OGP stories we’d like to make you aware of either because they generated significant media buzz or because they provide new perspectives on OGP for the weeks of October 3, October 10, October 17, and October 24.
OGP’s mission of transparency is figuring into the discussion around urban development through the use of open data initiatives. An article about the future impact of open data on urban development appeared in nine widely-read Chinese news sources, hailing OGP as a “leader in the open data movement.” Meanwhile, a Huffington Post blog by Adèle Charbonneau applauded the municipality of Sao Paulo—a participant in OGP’s subnational pilot program—for its innovative use of technology, including a variety of apps (Take Vista, At Hand, Urban Vista) to improve service delivery. The blog explained how OGP can help the city’s current administration: “[I]mproving the interaction with citizens and among professionals is not always easy. The OGP will thus be an important support in maintaining this effort.”
OGP has also been at the center of the conversation around civic tech, particularly in France, the host country of OGP’s upcoming Global Summit. Le Monde covered a civic tech forum – Geeks for Saving Politics – in which elected officials presented their political goals while civic tech representatives “pitched” ideas for how best to achieve them. Attending the forum, Secretary of State Axelle Lemaire expressed her intention to capitalize on the OGP Summit in Paris to build France’s reputation for being “à l’avant-garde” in the civic tech world. Le Monde published a second article – picked up by France3 TV News – describing the open government “tool box” to be showcased at the Summit. According to the article, the French government’s open data task force Etalab and its collaborators are currently building a centralized portal of open government solutions that, in keeping with the OGP guiding principles of democracy and 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, uses open-source software and will be open to constant user modification and improvement.
In Chile, a former advisor to the Transparency Council, Juan Pablo Olmedo, wrote an op-ed for a leading Argentinian daily in La Nation discussing Argentina’s recent Freedom of Information (FOI) Law (passed in September 2016). La Nation, as well as Venezuela’s Entorno Intelligente, also featured an interview with Argentinean Minister of Modernization Andrés Ibarra, who expressed hopes for Argentina becoming one of the world’s most transparent countries and commented on the 2017 OGP Americas Regional Meeting:
Next year, Argentina will host the Regional Americas Meeting of the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More; this represents a major achievement at the international level: we are no longer an opaque state who hides or manipulates information.
In other FOI news, Nigerian news sources Vanguard and The Nation Newspaper quoted Attorney General Abubakar Malami, who encouraged Nigerians to use Nigeria’s FOI bill to address concerns over billions of dollars in missing public funds. He also spoke of the “technical support” the “network of OGP implementing countries” could offer in replenishing Nigeria’s national treasury.
OGP press coverage in Nigeria was particularly strong following a series of meetings held on October 24 in Kaduna, Nigeria between OGP Support Unit staff and high-level ministers and members of civil society. The Nation, along with several other Nigerian news sources and the USA’s World News Report, featured Malami’s announcement that President Muhammadu Buhari will sign an executive order on “transparency and efficiency.” Malami was also quoted in The Punch, highlighting the potential of openness in advancing Nigeria’s development efforts: “It is a journey that will take us from transparency and openness to national prosperity.”
Finally, this month we saw the publication of many new OGP National Action Plans (NAPs). The widely used United Kingdom government portal highlighted successes from the UK’s 2013-2015 NAP, as well as changes made to the country’s NAP development and implementation processes. Among other changes, commitments will now be considered on a rolling basis so as to “incorporate new ideas for opening up government as they [arise],” and progress reports on each commitment will be added to the UK page of the OGP website every six months. Following the release of Sri Lanka’s first ever NAP, several Indian news publications, including Yahoo! India News, emphasized the fact that Sri Lanka is the first South Asian nation to join OGP. Italy also published its NAP for 2016-2018.
And finally, as baseball season comes to a close, “Action Plan Season” is just beginning! Follow all of the NAP happenings on OGP’s Storify. After all, what is more important: a home run, or a starred commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...?
Of course, we can’t catch everything in our news round-ups, so if you see we’ve missed something or think a particular story ought to be featured, please send it to jacqueline.mcgraw@opengovpartnership.org.