Local Roundup | April 2024

Here’s our monthly roundup of updates from the OGP Local community for April 2024. If you missed any of the previous roundups, you can now find them here!

NEW OGP LOCAL MEMBERS

• 55 new local governments joined OGP Local with enthusiastic celebrations from both current and newly welcomed members such as Anambra East (Nigeria), Renca (Chile), Navarra (Spain), Medellin (Colombia), Greater Manchester Combined Authority (UK), Lisboa (Portugal), Quezon City (Philippines), San Joaquin (Chile), State of Goias (Brazil).

EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

• More than 90 government and civil society representatives from all regions participated in the OGP Local Start of the Year virtual meeting and shared their accomplishments and inspiring initiatives. 
• Osasco (Brazil) hosted the 5th Brazilian Open Government Meeting, where the Brazilian Open Government Network was launched. 
• Local government and civil society representatives from 15 different OGP Local members completed the People Powered Climate Democracy Accelerator program this month. Check out Nuevo Leon’s (Mexico) LinkedIn post about it. 
• Join the next Consul Democracy Online Community Meet-up on April 24 where Maja Cimerman, Consul implementation specialist, will share insights from the use of the platform in Slovenian municipalities.
• The call for session proposals and interventions for the 2024 International Observatory on Participatory Democracy Conference in Valongo (Portugal) is now open! Submit your application by filling out this online form before June 2. You can still apply to the IOPD Award “Best Practice in Citizen Participation” until May 15. 
• Join People Powered’s “Democratic Innovations Accelerator” launch event on May 8, to learn how this program can help you start or improve an innovative democracy initiative. Register here.

PROGRESS AND LEARNINGS

• West Nusa Tenggara (Indonesia) stakeholders shared the challenges and successes in advancing the One Data NTB Portal, a commitment from their first action plan.
• DEAN Initiative hosted a session of the Open Government Steering Committees of three local councils in Abuja Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria) to discuss on Participatory Budgeting and Planning. 
• Bogota (Colombia) met with various youth organizations, to discuss the Statutory Law of Youth Citizenship.
• Aragon (Spain) initiated a public consultation for the creation of the “Aragon Autonomous Community Senior Citizens Awards” for 2024.
• The Valencian Community (Spain) initiated a new Citizen Audit to assess the promotion of citizen participation and association through project grants, a public policy developed by the regional government. Register as an auditor and check past results.
• Scotland (United Kingdom) is to become the first part of the UK to make it mandatory to register all public sector use of artificial intelligence, aiming for transparency and ethical AI deployment.
• Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas (Ecuador) presented key projects involving citizen participation to citizen assembly members from rural areas, such as a nursery producing 150,000 plants annually for land restoration and nearing completion of critical road improvements.

MEET THE OPEN GOV CHALLENGE

• Ahead of Earth Day, consider implementing a climate and environment roadmap or strategy  through open government approaches. Just like Sekondi Takoradi (Ghana), which is co-creating a local climate resilience plan and Yerevan (Armenia), who co-created a “Green development” program for a comprehensive approach towards sustainable practices at all levels of municipal management.

• Take a look at the resources below to co-create a climate strategy with your community.