End of Commitment Report – Forum for the articulation and coordination of access to public information and transparency of the three branches of the State

Name of Evaluator

Rolando Muzzin

Email

rmuzzin@untref.edu.ar

Member

Buenos Aires, Argentina

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... Title

Action plan – Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2021 – 2023

Commitment

Forum for the articulation and coordination of access to public information and transparency of the three branches of the State.

Action

Creation of a Coordination and Cooperation Forum between the three branches of the City of Buenos Aires on matters of transparency and access to public information. In this first instance, the Forum will have four lines of action: a) Training and dissemination; b) Institutional strengthening; c) Good practices and clear language; d) Elaboration of application criteria regarding access to public information and transparency.  The Forum will develop joint initiatives that will aim to promote the implementation of public transparency policies and encourage the participation of stakeholders from Civil Society, academia, and other public agencies. In addition, the space will be articulated with the Open State Forum of the City of Buenos Aires to strengthen collaboration with civil society organizations.

Problem

Currently, there is no institutionalized space for the articulation of the three branches of the State in terms of access to public information, which incorporates the participation of extra-governmental actors interested in the development of the policy (CSOs, academia, private sectorGovernments are working to open private sector practices as well — including through beneficial ownership transparency, open contracting, and regulating environmental standards. Technical specificat... More, etc.). This situation generates a lack of coordination between the different agencies in charge of guaranteeing the implementation of Law No. 104 on Access to Public Information in the City of Buenos Aires. Therefore it has not yet been possible to work on joint lines of action aimed at formulating good practices, strengthening institutional mechanisms as well as providing clarity on interpretive criteria to collaborate with the correct application of the regulations.

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

Complete

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

After a year of implementation, considerable progress has been made and the times stipulated in the action plan have been met. In particular, progress was made in the consolidation of the articulation and coordination table on access to public information and transparency of the three branches of the State. This roundtable has a periodic frequency of bi-monthly meetings. The objective of designing a participatory methodology for the elaboration of a diagnosis on the state of the situation of access to public information in the three branches of the State was also achieved. In the same sense, it can be seen that the training program has been completed and made available to start the process of teaching courses.
Monitoring Dashboard for the Third Action Plan of Buenos Aires
Collaborative review of the coordination table and next steps

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted the implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

The main internal positive factor in the implementation has been the coordination and strengthening of the agreements reached at the articulation and coordination roundtable on access to public information and transparency of the three branches of the State. The articulation and coordination roundtable meets fortnightly to inform its members about the progress of each milestone and agree on the next steps. In a complementary manner, working groups were created to develop operational activities. Another achievement is that this Articulation roundtable is already participating in the Open State Roundtable of the Buenos Aires City Government. The evidence that supports the progress of the commitment is found in the documentation uploaded to the Trello Board and on the government website that contains the different meetings held. As an external factor, fluency coordination with non-governmental actors can also be identified. Within the process of strengthening and institutionalizing the Roundtable, two technical roundtables and two talks were held to continue the path of building agreements and future work. The meetings opened a space for dialogue between the three branches of the Buenos Aires City Government, representatives of civil society, and the academy, on different exceptions of article 6 of Law 104 (Law on Access to Public Information). In a collaborative way, a document was prepared on the agreements reached regarding the construction of a participatory diagnosis methodology and measurement system for access to information in the three branches of government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The evidence gathered from interviews with the intervening actors observes that the greatest internal factor that could have hindered coordination are the regulatory aspects and the external factor could be identified as the situation that each state branch must resolve in turn.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

All of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The first milestone corresponds to the consolidation of the articulation and coordination table on access to public information and transparency of the three branches of the State. This instance was achieved thanks to the good synergy provided by all the participating actors. The second milestone is linked to the design of a participatory methodology for the elaboration of the diagnosis on the state of the situation of access to public information in the three branches of the State. The evolution in the fulfillment of this milestone was given through the realization of four meetings between all the participating actors and as a result, it was possible to design a proposal for the design of an evaluation methodology. The third and sixth milestone corresponds to the realization of technical tables. The topics of the technical roundtables were “Exceptions regarding personal and sensitive data”, “Exception regarding risks to public security”, “Obligations of Active Transparency”.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Summary Evidence

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Unclear

Degree of result:

– Select –

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The commitment aims to strengthen the existing channels through the institutionalization and coordination of the actors that participate in each instance of open government initiatives. Through the data collected and the evidence from primary sources obtained from interviews with the actors involved, it can be seen that the commitments do not make clear the degree to which the channels for disseminating or requesting information have been improved. This will improve the commitment verified through the training of the personnel of the three branches of the State, and the design of a diagnosis that will allow observing the possible improvements to be made to meet the objective. In addition, the design of the diagnosis allows unifying measurement criteria throughout the State.

The interviews with the actors who participated in the development of the training programs highlighted that the work carried out through the three training institutes that correspond to each State branch is a fact of great importance. These have managed to coordinate and work together to design a training program with content applicable to their different particularities. The impact of these training sessions is expected to strengthen open government practices and, in turn, lead to improvements in citizen accountability.

Although the training program has been carried out and the training will begin to take place in September 2022, its impact is unknown and there is no evidence of a possible evaluation of the impact that these training sessions could have on the dimension of opening the government.

Final document – Collaborative Balance

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Unclear

Degree of result:

– Select –

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The purpose of the commitment is to strengthen the policy of access to public information and transparency as a transversal axis of government management based on three key points: a) the institutionalization of a space for articulation and coordination of the three branches of the State; b) the establishment of standards for access to public information and transparency and; c) the consolidation of exchange spaces between the three branches and civil society. Through the evidence obtained, this objective has been completed and, in particular, it can be seen that the government seeks to improve capacities in order to improve the way in which the government seeks feedback from citizens and allows participation. The aforementioned is manifested in the training program in the three branches of the State, the three branches have been participants in the proposal, and the design and they will be the ones who carry out the implementation. The content of the training program will be the first part of the unification of criteria and concepts common to open government, precisely the OAS model. It continues in another chapter with the regulatory evolution and legal aspects of internal procedures, guarantor agencies, and passive transparency. Lastly, it devotes an entire chapter to active transparency, user experience tools, inter-area collaborative work, a 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... More approach, and a segment also focused on open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici.... Through this initiative, it can be seen that it strengthens and improves the capacities of the government with the aim of improving 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 feedback.

Even so, no evidence was found as to how the monitoring and/or evaluation of the impact of the training sessions will be carried out. Therefore, the result of the commitment to strengthening communication and feedback channels with the citizen is not clear.

Capacitación Acceso a la Información Pública 

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Not Applicable

Degree of result:

– Select –

2.1.4 Other Results

Not Applicable

Degree of result:

– Select –

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment was implemented in accordance with the design of the action plan. In the design stage of the plan, both the three branches of the State and civil society organizations participated. According to the documentary evidence, it is observed that the implementation has been carried out according to the action plan and the planned activities have been fulfilled. After the evidence collected through interviews with the participating actors, it is concluded that the resolution of the absence of an institutionalized environment has been resolved from the formation and consolidation of the Articulation Table and this same aim at strengthening the access policy to public information and transparency.

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

The commitment has taken a great step in the coordination of the three branches that make up the State. This relationship, which is consolidating over time and generating products that favor the open government, became the basis for open state policies. This observation is reflected in the use of the table for the different actions that are carried out in the matter.
After the survey of primary sources through interviews with the participating actors, the following suggestions can be pointed out:
-Design a collaborative methodology for the joint monitoring of the result of the product achieved “Version of Law 104 in Plain Language”. Highlighting the importance of the dimension of access to rights over public information.
-Design a roadmap with clear and measurable objectives for the Articulation and Coordination roundtable on access to public information and transparency of the three branches of the State.
-Encourage the participation of the members of the Roundtable of articulation and coordination on access to public information and transparency of the three branches of the State, in the monitoring and evaluation of the commitments assumed.
-In the design of commitments, take into account the perspective of their evaluation. This will allow you to set clear and measurable objectives. It is suggested to take into account the use of the tools used to measure the SDGs, such as “Evaluative thinking” or “Collaborative evaluations”.