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Cabo Verde Transitional Results Report 2018-2021

The Open Government Partnership is a global partnership that brings together government reformers and civil society leaders to create action plans that make governments more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. Action plan commitments may build on existing efforts, identify new steps to complete ongoing reforms, or initiate an entirely new area. OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) monitors all action plans to ensure governments follow through on commitments. Civil society and government leaders use the evaluations to reflect on their progress and determine if efforts have impacted people’s lives.

The IRM partnered with Luciana Tuszel to carry out this evaluation. The IRM aims to inform ongoing dialogue around the development and implementation of future commitments. For a full description of the IRM’s methodology, please visit https://www.opengovpartnership.org/about/independent-reporting-mechanism.

This report covers implementation of Cabo Verde’s first action plan (2018–2021). In 2021, the IRM began to implement a new approach to its research process and the scope of its reporting on action plans, approved by the IRM Refresh.[1] The IRM adjusted its implementation reports for 2018–2020 action plans to fit the transition process to the new IRM products and enable the IRM to adjust its workflow in light of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on OGP country processes.

II. Action Plan Implementation

The IRM transitional results report assesses the status of the action plan’s commitments and the results from their implementation at the end of the action plan cycle. This report does not re-visit the assessments for “verifiability,” “relevance,” or “potential impact.” The IRM assesses those three indicators in IRM design reports. For more details on each indicator, please see Annex I in this report.

2.1. General highlights and results

Cabo Verde’s first action plan contained three commitments on (1) ease of doing business, (2) public infrastructure, and (3) open data. Commitments 1 and 2 had limited relevance to the open government values of civic participation, transparency, or public accountability. During implementation, all three commitments saw low levels of completion, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and limited resources. Consequently, Cabo Verde’s first action plan resulted in few changes to open government practices. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cabo Verde took advantage of the option to extend their implementation period by one year, ending in 2021.

Implementing Commitment 2 led to the publication of calls for tenders and the development of guidelines around public infrastructure planning. Commitment 3 led the state technology company (NOSi) to establish the backend tools for an open data portal. Yet the portal was ultimately not launched within the implementation period. Overall, Cabo Verde’s first action plan resulted in the development of some foundational technical and organizational infrastructure for opening government. However, these tools are not yet implemented to the extent that Cabo Verdeans have greater information or influence in government decision-making.

Cabo Verde did not constitute a multistakeholder forum with civil society during either the development or implementation of this action plan. Therefore, Cabo Verde continues to fall below the minimum level of public influence required throughout the action plan cycle.[2] Cabo Verde has also not yet established an OGP repository with information on the progress of open government reforms.[3] Due to these factors, Cabo Verde continues to act contrary to OGP process. Cabo Verde must establish a multistakeholder forum or space with equal representation of civil society and government members to avoid procedural review under OGP policy.[4] Cabo Verde should also prioritize establishing an OGP repository to meet OGP’s minimum requirements and provide transparency around open government reforms.

2.2. COVID-19 pandemic impact on implementation

COVID heavily impacted implementation of Cabo Verde’s action plan. Most of the new platforms (including the open data portal, land registry, and public infrastructure map) were not released due to budgetary restrictions and the prioritization of actions to combat the pandemic.[5] The repository for publishing documents related to the OGP was not realized either, also due to budget constraints. Tourism accounts for up to 25% of Cabo Verde’s GDP and it is estimated that the economy shrank 14.8% in 2020.[6]

Commitment 3, which aimed to establish an open data internet portal, was heavily impacted by the pandemic. The IT public company Núcleo Operacional da Sociedade da Informação (NOSi) was the agency that would support the commitment, but it had to prioritize needs arising from the pandemic. NOSi was responsible for developing several internet portals and new systems to deal with the effects of the pandemic and sanitary management needs, such as a health information website for the public, issuing certificates and authorizations, and information management for health management actors like the government and the WHO.

[1] For more information, see: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/process/accountability/about-the-irm/irm-refresh/.

[2] IRM, “IRM Guidance for Meeting the Minimum Participation Requirement During Co-Creation” (OGP, 13 Jul. 2021), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/irm-guidance-for-meeting-the-minimum-participation-requirement-during-co-creation/.

[3] IRM, “IRM Guidance for Online Repositories” (OGP, 1 Mar. 2020), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/irm-guidance-for-online-repositories/.

[4] OGP, “Procedural Review” (accessed Feb. 2022), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/procedural-review/.

[5] Harold Tavares (Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Cabo Verde, Prime Minister’s Office and OGP Point of Contact), interview by IRM researcher, 8 Nov. 2021.

[6] World Bank, “A Pandemia da COVID-19 colocou desafios sem precedentes à economia de Cabo Verde e expôs as vulnerabilidades do Modelo de Crescimento” [The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Posed Unprecedented Challenges to Cabo Verde’s Economy and Exposed the Vulnerabilities of the Growth Model] ( 9 Sep. 2021), https://www.worldbank.org/pt/news/press-release/2021/09/09/the-covid-19-pandemic-has-posed-unprecedented-challenges-to-cabo-verde-s-economy-and-exposed-vulnerabilities.

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