End of Commitment Report – Generate alliances with the municipalities of the State of Mexico to disseminate the use and benefits of access to information.

Name of Evaluator

Carlos de la Peña Jiménez O’Farril, Daniel Rosemberg Cervantes Pérez, Jesus Ponce Rubio

Email

carlos.delapena.j@gmail.com, drosemberg@gmail.com, jponce9911@gmail.com

Member Name

Mexico State, Mexico

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... Title

Action plan – Mexico State, Mexico, 2021 – 2022

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...

Generate alliances with the municipalities of the State of Mexico to disseminate the use and benefits of access to information.

Action

The publicity and accessibility of information generated, obtained, acquired and administered by government institutions is a right that must be guaranteed to all citizens. Therefore, citizens should be made aware of the mechanisms available to them to exercise their right of access to information, not only through requests for information, but also through the information that is publicly available. To this end, it is important to promote the generation of useful and easily accessible information for citizens. Likewise, the institutions should have personnel trained in 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 access to information, and therefore the professionalisation of public servants in this area should be promoted.

Problem

Citizen lack of knowledge or interest in the right of access to information, as well as in the existence of a guarantor body and the process for accessing it.

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

complete

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

This commitment yields results in the 6 lines of action that compose it, being the following: There is the QUIO virtual guide as an auxiliary in the navigation within the institutional page; the “Digital Violence” section was created to promote the protection of personal data and prevent violence in virtual environments. There is a section with infographics on different topics related to transparency and the exercise of access to information. Likewise, 18 collaboration agreements were signed to disseminate the agenda of access to information, the Commissioners visited different regions of the State with the “Itinerant Plenary”, and there is a Virtual Classroom where citizens can access various courses. And finally, there are certification processes for public servants of the different Obligated Subjects.

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

Given that it is about generating alliances with the municipalities depends largely on the political will of the authorities, therefore the effort made by Infoem in getting 18 municipalities to adhere to the Regional Transparency Model is recognized.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

All of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The actions proposed from the beginning were carried out with the purpose of promoting and encouraging the exercise of the right to public information, with the support of the authorities that generate public information, making this task easier and its use contributes to the construction of solutions to public problems.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• INFOEM News
• INFOEM Initiatives
• INFOEM Content
• INFOEM Open Government
• INFOEM Trainings 

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Each participating municipality contributed to the dissemination of transparency and access to information, assistants as the QUIO helps citizens to better search and the Open Government microsite is a relevant element of the dissemination.

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Even with the efforts for the creation of mechanisms that allow knowing the interest in the public information that is generated and its usefulness, there is little 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 in issues of access to information, its use, and benefits.

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Yes, although it is worth mentioning that the Institute of Transparency, Access to Public Information and Protection of Personal Data of the State of Mexico (INFOEM) is an autonomous body, guarantor of the right of access to public information and protection of personal data in the State of Mexico, through the timely and dynamic promotion of the culture of transparency, but it is not part of the governmental structure.

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The objective of disseminating and promoting the accessibility of public information generated by government institutions, as well as generating clear, simple, systematized, and standardized information on the information published was met.

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

Its implementation was not an easy task, however, INFOEM managed to create tools that are available to citizens on public information and the mechanisms to access it. Likewise, it was able to sign agreements with 18 municipalities to generate actions to disseminate the access to information agenda.