Early Results

Category: Evaluations | Back to Glossary

Early resultsEarly results refer to concrete changes in government practice related to transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Inde... refer to concrete changes in government practice related to 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, citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More, and/or public accountabilityAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, public accountability occurs when ”rules, regulations, and mechanisms in place call upon government actors to justify their actions, act upon criticisms ... More as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM)The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is OGP’s accountability arm and the main means of tracking progress in participating countries. The IRM provides independent, evidence-based, and objective ... assesses early results four months after the conclusion of the action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... period. These assessments only take into account changes that occurred during the action plan period.

Beginning with 2021 action plans, the IRM assesses 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... results using an indicator called “Early Results”. This indicator compares the state of transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability before the action plan with the state at the end of the action plan. The indicator is assessed on a three-point scale:

• No Notable Results: According to the evidence collected (through desk research, interviews, etc.), the implementation of the open government commitment led to little or no positive results. After assessing the activities carried forward during the period of implementation and its outcomes (if any), the IRM did not find meaningful changes towards:
  • improving practices, policies or institutions governing a policy area or within the public sector, 
  • enhancing the enabling environment to build trust between citizens and the state.
• Moderate Results: According to the evidence collected (through desk research, interviews, etc.) the implementation of the open government commitment led to positive results. After assessing the activities carried forward during the period of implementation and its outcomes, the IRM found meaningful changes towards: 
  • improving practices, policies or institutions governing a policy area or within the public sector, or 
  • enhancing the enabling environment to build trust between citizens and the state.
• Significant Results: According to the evidence collected (through desk research, interviews, etc.) the implementation of the open government commitment led to significant positive results. After assessing the activities carried forward during the period of implementation and its outcomes, the IRM found meaningful changes towards:
  • improving practices, policies or institutions governing a policy area or within the public sector, or 
  • enhancing the enabling environment to build trust between citizens and the state. Significant positive results show clear expectations for these changes (as defined above) will be sustainable in time.

The Early Results indicator only covers changes achieved during the implementation period of the action plan. Given that OGP reforms often take many years to mature, this indicator does not capture the actual impact of OGP commitments. 

For the purpose of OGP data analyses, commitments with Significant Results are considered to have achieved strong early results. In past years, commitments with either Major or Outstanding early results on the “Did It Open Government?” indicator – an older indicator for assessing results – were considered commitments with strong early results.