Colombia Action Plan Review 2023-2025

Colombia’s fifth action plan[1] prioritizes public governance, 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, an Open State with 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... perspective, open parliamentEnsuring access to legislative information and creating mechanisms for public participation are critical to building an open, trusting relationship with citizens. Technical specifications: Commitments..., and open justiceAn open, independent, and impartial justice system serves as a foundation for better access to justice by fulfilling all people’s civil liberties and allowing individuals to more effectively protect.... A key feature of the plan is the strong collaboration with civil society and the support of the OGP throughout the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive.... To effectively achieve the plan’s goals, it is essential to strengthen its commitments and identify and tackle obstacles and incorporate best practices early in the implementation phase. Ongoing collaboration between implementing agencies and civil society will be crucial for success.

The collaboration between civil society organizations and public institutions in the multi-stakeholder forumRegular dialogue between government and civil society is a core element of OGP participation. It builds trust, promotes joint problem-solving, and empowers civil society to influence the design, imple... gained importance during the October 2023 regional electionsImproving transparency in elections and maintaining the independence of electoral commissions is vital for promoting trust in the electoral system, preventing electoral fraud, and upholding the democr... in Colombia, leading to new authorities taking office in January 2024. Engaging and discussing with mayoral candidates during the co-creation process emerged as a key success factor for ensuring the continuity of this work.

In commitments carried over from the previous plan, the involvement of the Council of State and the Constitutional Court is noteworthy. Their participation has increased the ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... of these commitments, aiming to enhance 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 in the judicial sector and improve the accessibility of information in a user-friendly format for citizens.

The co-creation process for this 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..., conducted in 2023, included itinerant work and feedback between civil society organizations through eight face-to-face regional dialogues and one virtual one. This process included the participation of allied organizations in the territories and representatives of at least 15 government institutions who worked with the 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... proposals. In addition, the Government launched a public consultation through social networks and the institutional portal Urna de Cristal, for citizens to issue comments and recommendations on the commitment proposals.

In terms of ambition, the fifth action plan continues the Government and the multi-stakeholder forum’s efforts to include commitments with modest or substantial potential for results related to OGP values and the main concerns of Colombian citizenship. The areas of judicial transparency, fiscal transparency, fight against corruption, 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..., environment, and gender continue from the previous plan. Transparency in the transportation sector, human rightsAn essential part of open government includes protecting the sacred freedoms and rights of all citizens, including the most vulnerable groups, and holding those who violate human rights accountable. T..., and open parliament emerge as new thematic areas.

Commitments 9, 13, 15, 21, and 22, identified as promising, stand out for the specificity in their design, relationship with OGP values, and a clear definition of their contribution to improving an initial situation with implications in the national context. In contrast, one of the main weaknesses of this plan is the limited specificity of many of the commitments’ milestones, which has restricted its overall assessment. Within the action plan, commitments with weak diagnoses or a limited approach to their theory of change may be found, either because they are shown incompletely or they establish a high number of processes and procedural activities as results, which do not contribute to the improvement of the status quo.

According to the multi-stakeholder forum’s civil society organizations, this plan’s design has many lessons about success factors for future processes. Among these, the Government’s willingness to actively participate and collaborate in the consultation meetings and commitment design stands out, as well as its openness to continue and include public policy areas such as the fight against corruption, gender equality and human rights, access to information, open data government transparency, and citizen participation.

To improve the plan’s implementation, the commitments should be revised and strengthened, with a focus on refining their approach and milestones to ensure they effectively meet their goals. Implementers are particularly encouraged to identify potential obstacles, best practices, and critical success factors early on. Additionally, maintaining strong collaboration between implementing agencies and civil society is essential, both for exchanging ideas on how to enhance the commitments and for promoting the monitoring of their implementation.

[1] The Technical Secretariat of the Open State Committee published a second version of the fifth action plan in April 2024. This version includes 24 commitments instead of the 23 initially proposed, including style corrections and additional information. Following IRM practice regarding adjustments to action plans, these changes will be considered in the Results Report of the fifth plan. The version evaluated in this report is available here: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/colombia-action-plan-2023-2025-december/. This plan’s updated version is available here: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Colombia_Action-Plan_2023-2025_December_Revised.pdf.