Guatemala Results Report 2021-2023

The implementation of Guatemala’s fifth 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... reaffirms the need to strengthen spaces for dialogue and collaboration between the Government and civil society to achieve better results. The challenge for the next action plan will be to maintain the same levels of participation and ensure that these are not reduced in the implementation stage.

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...:

After the implementation period, 8 of the 12 commitments of Guatemala’s fifth action plan recorded moderate early results and none achieved significant early results. The Action Plan Review[1] identified four promising commitments: 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... 1 – Actions to Strengthen 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... Publication; commitment 5 – Strengthening 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 and Accountability Processes in Health; the grouping of commitments 7 and 8 – Addressing Irregular Migration; and commitment 10 –International Conventions on Transparency and Corruption Follow-up.

Two of these four commitments achieved moderate early results: commitment 1: Actions to Strengthen Open Data Publication, and the clustered commitments 7 and 8 addressing irregular migration. Among the early results achieved, commitment 1 defined a guiding framework for updating the National Open Data Policy 2022-2025, to be led by the new Government. Regarding the commitment on irregular migration a Multisector Roundtable for Migration Assistance (MMM) was established, bringing together several interested Government, civil society, and international cooperation actors. This Roundtable advanced the analysis process that will contribute to the inter-institutional coordination strategy and plan. These two commitments are analyzed in greater detail in Section II of this report together with commitment 2, which, although not identified as promising in the Action Plan Review, achieved moderate early results relevant to the national context.

Commitments 5 and 7 also achieved moderate early results. However, the IRM researcher could not verify if the guidelines for receiving health infrastructure works were published, one of the main milestones of commitment 5. While for commitment 7, part of the cluster on irregular migration, progress to improve dissemination of employment programs was limited.

Commitment 10 to follow up on international commitments on corruption did not achieve early results, mainly due to the lack of definition and implementation of a roadmap for monitoring the selected instruments.

Additionally, the IRM believes there are no notable results in commitment 3: Great National Crusade for Nutrition, commitment 11: Open Infrastructure Contracting Data Standard, and commitment 2 EITI Information Mechanisms. This is because the progress achieved was due to institutional strengthening processes; the achievement of intermediate products – such as recommendation documents – or because it was not possible to complete all the proposed milestones.

CompletionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin...:

The fifth plan maintained the themes included in previous plans such as health, 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 ..., anti-corruption, open data, and environment. Addressing irregular migration was included as a novelty through two commitments, 7 (to promote the temporary employment program abroad) and 8 (inter-institutional coordination to address this phenomenon). Half (6) of the commitments in this plan achieved a full level of completion, three were substantially completed, and three achieved a limited level of completion. Among the latter is number 10 for monitoring international corruption instruments, which was identified as “promising” in the Action Plan Review.

Implementation was favored in cases where external funding was available for activities, such as for commitment 11 related to the CoST initiative. In other scenarios, progress was limited because milestones that sought the institutional adoption of new guidelines on transparency and accountability through ministerial agreements were not reached. This would make them mandatory, as in the case of commitment 4. For commitment 8, the proposal’s complexity made clear the need to consider a longer period for implementation.

Participation and Co-creation:

The Presidential Commission on Open and Electronic Government is responsible for the OGP process in Guatemala. According to the organizations consulted by the IRM[2], the decrease in the participation of civil society organizations and citizens in general in the plan’s implementation was notable compared to co-creation.

This may respond, in part, to the weakening of the relationship between the Government and the organizations, which has been going on for several action plan cycles, generating an environment of mistrust. However, within the implementation process, some commitments revealed how coordinated work between civil society and the Government can achieve positive results.

On the other hand, when considering the criteria the country had to meet during the action plan, it is important to note that, although the publication and updating of a repository[3] were met, the evidence is not presented in a way that facilitates navigation by the user. This area of opportunity could be addressed in the next implementation cycle.

Implementation in Context:

For several years, the local political context has been characterized by protests, complaints of corruption, and accusations of political persecution, putting pressure on the civic space and CSO participation in spaces for dialogue with the Government[4]. Tensions have increased due to this year’s electoral process, which has generated questions at the national and international levels about the attempts not to make the electoral results official and leave the candidate of the Semilla Movement[5] out of the race. The IRM was unable to verify the existence of a strategy to address these challenges, which according to CSO affected the implementation climate towards the end of the cycle and co-creating the transition action plan

[1] Guatemala Action Plan Review 2021-2023: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/guatemala-action-plan-review-2021-2023

[2] Gabriela Ayerdi, Diálogos, Interview with IRM, November 3, 2023 and Julio Herrera, Red Ciudadana, Interview with IRM, November 3, 2023.

[3] Progress Board, Fifth Action Plan, Guatemala. Available here: https://gobiernoabierto.transparencia.gob.gt/tablero-5to-plan

[4] Guatemala: protests, blockades against Giammattei government, Los Angeles Times. Available here: https://www.latimes.com/espanol/internacional/articulo/2022-08-09/guatemala-protestas-bloqueos-contra-gobierno-de-giammattei

[5] The US, the EU and the OAS question the order of the Constitutional Court of Guatemala not to make the election results official. BBC Mundo. Available here: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cd1497098ejo