Introducing the new OGP Civil Society Steering Committee members

Dear friends,

I am delighted to introduce two new civil society members who will be joining us on the OGP 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...: Danny Sriskandarajah and Delia Ferreira Rubio.  Danny and Delia will formally join the OGP family with the next Steering Committee rotation in October.  

I would like to take this opportunity to share some further details on the selection process.  The selection process is outlined in the Civil Society Steering Committee Mandate and Selection, and a full overview of the candidates, steps and scores for this selection can be found here.  

This year’s call for applications to join the SC brought 13 accomplished and motivated civil society candidates.  Six of them were shortlisted; the Selection Committee finally selected two members and two ‘additional members’. It was a difficult choice, as we had a strong list of experienced global civil society leaders to choose from.  

The selection committee consisted of two volunteers from the community, current members of the Steering Committee, and the Support Unit, as per the Civil Society Mandate and Selection policy.  Undral Gombodorj (Democracy EducationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ... Center, Mongolia), Ziya Guliyev (Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, Azerbaijan), Maria Baron (OGP Steering Committee), Aidan Eyakuze (OGP Steering Committee) and Paul Maassen (OGP Support UnitThe OGP Support Unit is a small, permanent group of staff that work closely with the Steering Committee and the Independent Reporting Mechanism to advance the goals of the Open Government Partnership....) constituted the 2018 selection committee.  They had the difficult task of selecting the final candidates from this competitive pool.

Individual OGP civil society Steering Committee members need to bring a range of skills and experiences to execute their roles effectively, as outlined in the Civil Society Steering Committee Mandate and Selection.  The selection committee also emphasized that to be effective as a group, the civil society SC cohort needs to be diverse and balanced, not only in terms of experiences and skills, but also geography and genderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov....  With this in mind, this year’s call for nominations explicitly welcomed women candidates and representatives from Latin America.

On the basis of the outlined criteria, the selection committee unanimously decided to select Danny and Delia.  Here is a bit more on both of them:

• Danny Sriskandarajah (@civicussg) has been Secretary General and CEO of CIVICUS since January 2013. His previous roles have included Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, and Deputy Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research. Danny is the author of numerous reports and academic articles on international migration and economic development. He writes and appears often in the media on a range of topics, including contributing regularly to Al Jazeera, Guardian, HuffPo, and Weekend on the BBC World Service. He sits on the boards of several organisations, including the Baring Foundation, Comic Relief and International Alert, and was a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Humanitarian Finance. He is a co-founder of the Ockenden Prizes and the Migration Museum Project. Danny holds a degree from the University of Sydney, and an MPhil and DPhil from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. In 2012, he was chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
• Delia Ferreira Rubio (@DeliaFerreira) was elected chair 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 International, the global anti-corruption movement, in 2017. Delia is from Argentina and was the former president of Transparency International’s Argentine chapter, Poder Ciudadano. She has served as chief advisor for representatives and senators at the Argentine National Congress and has advised the Constitutional Committee of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Ferreira Rubio has a PhD in law from Madrid’s Complutense University and is the author of numerous publications on democratic culture and parliamentary ethics. She served on the international board of Transparency International from 2008 to 2014.

In addition, the Selection Committee selected two additional members to support the caucus as a whole.  Lucy McTernan (Scotland) and Scott Miller (New Zealand) will work closely with the civil society SC members, supporting their work where needed.  They will join meetings but will not enjoy speaking or voting rights.

Please join me in extending a warm welcome to our new colleagues.  We are thrilled to have such strong civil society champions with us and look forward to working with them.