Action plan – Montevideo, Uruguay, 2023 – 2025

At-a-Glance

Duration

July 2025

Date Submitted

27th December 2023

Foreword(s)

The plan includes a couple of commitments, one linked to an environmental issue and the cleanliness of the city and another linked to cultural policies in the territory; In both cases, a technological component is included. They were prepared based on two discussions with the Civil Society and finally went through a public consultation process where the concerns raised were collected.

As a form of implementation and monitoring, a schedule has been planned with follow-up meetings where all the areas involved must participate.

Open Government Challenges, Opportunities and Strategic Vision

What is the long-term vision for open government in your context and jurisdiction?

Since 2016, Montevideo has worked on the use of new technologies to facilitate the development of new services to and from the community based on the Montevideo Abierto policy.

In all these aspects, it should be noted that openness is in two senses: publishing as much information as possible and listening carefully to the requests and suggestions made to incorporate it into what is published. On the other hand, it seeks to advance collaboration between State agencies and the community in general, to improve the infrastructure and services available to all inhabitants of the Local Government.

The construction of digital infrastructure, as well as the permanent search for forms of participation and the use of data in statistics, visualizations, applications by the community, and public policies based on evidence, is a central objective of the Municipality of Montevideo, seeking to give more services for citizens, as tangible as infrastructure and physical services.

What are the achievements in open government to date (for example, recent open government reforms)?

The Bloomberg Foundation’s What Works Cities, led by Results for America, awarded IM silver certification for using data as evidence for management decision-making.
Among the points approved in the certification, the 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... policy stands out.

On the other hand, hard work has been done on the development of open data observatories implementing the Montevidata Platform.

Work has been done to improve the Montevideo Participa participation platform as well as the platform for the publication of Open Data.

We have worked together with citizens in the Neighborhood Roundtables program to have a meeting space with citizens to develop joint projects.

What are the current challenges/areas for improvement in open government that the jurisdiction wishes to tackle?

The Municipality of Montevideo has been participating since 2016 in the last 3 National Open Government Plans. These plans included commitments on the most diverse topics: participation, 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, accountability, and 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.

Since 2022, Montevideo has joined the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP Local), thus developing its First Local Action Plan. In this case, a couple of commitments associated with the themes of Culture and Environment are included.

What are the medium-term open government goals that the government wants to achieve?

Within the framework of the Data Strategy that the Municipality is promoting, one of the aspects on which it wants to focus is to consolidate the communication and participation of citizens in the different projects carried out by the Municipality and in this way involve them in the very definition of public policies.

How does this action plan contribute to achieve the Open Government Strategic Vision?

The Montevideo action plan was prepared considering the objectives of the Open Government Strategic Vision
In particular, our plan emphasized objective 4, promoting the transparency of the actions carried out in the territory about the cleanliness of the city as well as the participation of citizens in cultural activities.

How does the open government strategic vision contribute to the accomplishment of the current administration’s overall policy goals?

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... of the Culture area contributes to ODS 10 (Reduction of Inequalities), since it promotes broad participation of citizens, regardless of disability, race, or gender characteristics.

This commitment of the Environmental area contributes to ODS 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) since motorcar personnel are involved in solving and addressing the cleaning problem. Motocars emerged as the replacement of horse-drawn carts with motorcycles with a coupler at the back. This action is part of the LaborTransparent workforce data and increased representation of workers in labor policy-making lead to policies that better protect workers’ rights and remove barriers for underrepresented groups in the ... Reconversion Program for Urban Solid Waste Sorters, which provides an opportunity to access a formal job for workers dedicated to waste recovery. It also translates into actions linked to environmental sustainability.

Engagement and Coordination in the Open Government Strategic Vision and OGP Action Plan

Please list the lead institutions responsible for the implementation of this OGP action plan.

• Intendencia de Montevideo

What kind of institutional arrangements are in place to coordinate between government agencies and departments to implement the OGP action plan?

At first, it is not considered necessary to carry out any interaction with other agencies at the national level since the proposed commitments fall within the scope of the Local Government.

What kind of spaces have you used or created to enable the collaboration between government and civil society in the co-creation and implementation of this action plan? Mention both offline and online spaces.

Primer conversatorio en formato presencial para comenzar a elaborar el plan.

Segundo conversatorio virtual.

Consulta pública realizada a través de la plataforma de Montevideo Participa.

What measures did you take to ensure diversity of representation (including vulnerable or marginalized populations) in these spaces?

As a measure, different communication channels were considered to invite civil society as a whole to participate in 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... both in person and virtually.

Invitations to these spaces were made through the press and social networks.

Who participated in these spaces?

Neighbors, Councilors, Members of the Local Open Government Network.

How many groups participated in these spaces?

5

How many public-facing meetings were held in the co-creation process?

3

How will government and non-governmental stakeholders continue to collaborate through the implementation of the action plan?

It is planned to hold quarterly follow-up meetings which will be convened using the same channels mentioned in point 5.4.

Please describe the independent Monitoring Body you have identified for this plan.

At first and following what was discussed at the Estonian summit, Gabriela Brelaz with whom we already had a first contact will probably fulfill the role of audit for monitoring the Action Plan.

As part of the monitoring stage, it is planned to include evidence for each of the milestones identified in the plan as well as follow-up meetings.

Provide the contact details for the independent monitoring body.

• Gabriela Brelaz, gabriela.brelaz@unifesp.br

What types of activities will you have in place to discuss progress on commitments with stakeholders?

• Follow-up and feedback meetings
• Broadcasts and surveys

How will you regularly check in on progress with implementing agencies?

Quarterly monitoring meetings.

How will you share the results of your monitoring efforts with the public?

It is planned to create a site on the Municipality’s website where the progress of each of the commitments will be shared.

Endorsement from Non-Governmental Stakeholders

Commitment: Map of cultural spaces in Montevideo
Commitment: Improve the flow of information with citizens regarding cleaning complaints