End of Commitment Report – Making transparency proactive in Nuevo León

Name of Evaluator

Ricardo Luevano

Email

ricardo.luevano@inai.org.mx

Member Name

Monterrey, 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 – Monterrey, Mexico, 2022 – 2024

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...

Making 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 proactive in Nuevo León

Title

Making transparency proactive in Nuevo León

Action

This commitment consists of generating a proactive transparency guide, which allows the regulated entities of the state of Nuevo León to have a guiding methodological tool that facilitates the identification, generation, publication and dissemination of proactive transparency practices in a clear and simple way for the population, from a citizen perspective. The construction of this instrument should be carried out through a collaborative process that contemplates 1) the generation of a diagnosis to determine the characteristics that favor the consultation of information by the population; 2) the identification of existing content and good national and international practices and 3) participatory processes to identify information needs and priority thematic content from the social perspective.Finally, the publication of the guide will be promoted through official media, including its use and implementation in the public entities that are part of the Coalition. The objective of the commitment is to increase the implementation of new proactive transparency exercises by public institutions that respond to the population’s demand for information based on the criteria defined in this guide.

Problem

The public information that institutions proactively make available is insufficient, difficult to access (media and formats) and fails to take into account the population’s information needs for the construction of socially useful knowledge in Nuevo León. Currently, the Law of Transparency and Access to Public Information of the State of Nuevo León contemplates that the obligated subjects of this Law must promote and implement proactive transparency policies ensuring their accessibility. However, proactive transparency exercises are isolated and lack social innovation to solve other public problems. This public problem stems from multiple causes. First, the information that public institutions proactively make available lacks a citizen perspective. Second, the means and formats for consultation are complex and difficult to access. Additionally, digital media is privileged, without taking into account the digital divide. Third, the methodological tools and technical training aimed at implementers are limited. Therefore, the implementation of proactive transparency exercises presents deficiencies for the interpretation, implementation and social innovation of the Guidelines to conform the catalogs and to carry out the publication of information of public interest; as well as for the issuance and evaluation of proactive transparency policies, issued by the National Transparency System.

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:

As outlined in the final report of the commitment, each of the established milestones was fully implemented.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

Evidence-TP6

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

When seeking participation and commitment from public institutions, one of the challenges was to change the vision of public servants so that proactive transparency is not seen as extra work but as a tool to make daily work more efficient.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

most of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Most of the milestones were met according to the original work plan, however, some had to be adjusted according to needs but without straying from the objective and problem to be addressed.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Evidence-TP7

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:

Outstanding

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

The Guide enables public institutions to implement open government practices, and is therefore considered a support channel for them to disclose information in a clear and simple manner.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Evidence-TP8

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:

Outstanding

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

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 mechanisms are a way of obtaining information that people require, and for this reason these mechanisms are encouraged for the development of proactive transparency practices. Furthermore, during the implementation of the commitment, the participation of civil society was counted on, being this a means through which the implementing institutions received feedback from citizens.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Evidence-TP9

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

Unclear

Degree of result:

Major

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

Within the participating jurisdictions, a series of training sessions were developed that promote the generation of proactive transparency practices, which may become a permanent activity within the units; however, it is not established anywhere that it will be a permanent campaign.

2.1.4 Other Results

Not Applicable

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 problem raised in the Local Action Plan is that the information that public institutions make available to citizens is insufficient and they do not really consider people’s information needs in order to generate useful public knowledge. The generation of more and better Proactive Transparency practices addresses precisely this problem.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Evidence-TP10

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.

One challenge identified is the work of socialization and generation of commitments with other public institutions outside of those implementing the commitment, since, as it is a proactive issue, many institutions limit themselves to fulfilling their transparency obligations, seeing other issues as an additional workload.