End of Commitment Report – Restructure active transparency tools using user-centered design

Name of Evaluator

Sidney Junior e Claudia Vieira da Silva

Email

Sidney.junior@tcesc.tc.br, claudia.silva@tcesc.tc.br

Member Name

Santa Catarina, Brazil

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 – Santa Catarina, Brazil, 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...

Restructure active 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 tools using user-centered design to improve quality, usability, and accessibility of public information, including the availability of open format files.

Action

The commitment seeks to improve active transparency enhancing the quality and accessibility of information, and restructuring tools and functionalities to facilitate social control. It is expected that the portals no longer focus only on legal requirements, they should also present relevant, easily accessible, and understandable information. Efficient communication channels between government and society and data presentation in a dynamic, intelligent, and interactive way also are expected. The commitment involves modifications in the information architecture to make the researches more intuitive and organic, improvement and optimization of the current search options aiming personalized queries according to the interest of the user, improvement of the data quality, insertion of new data and information, opening up of new bidirectional communication channels, and provision of more data in open file format.

Problem

The active transparency  tools basically provide financial and budgetary information. At same time, these tools should be an access point to information about the transparency of the bodies and entities of the Executive Branch.It is noteworthy that the amount of available information is increasing, and the computational resources grow exponentially, so the needs to improve technical and functional aspects of the Transparency Portals become evident.Among the main problems, the following might be highlighted: lack of bidirectional communication channels with all kinds of users; little or no involvement and commitment of other bodies and entities of the executive branch; lack of important information to citizens: lack of clarity, overly technical vocabulary and usability problems.The main challenges are to adopt an easier vocabulary and to organize the information so that the citizen can access, understand and use it to perform social control.

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

substantial

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment was not implemented in its entirety, considering that the Badesc Transparency Portal Initiative is still in progress, and the Santa Catarina State’s Transparency Portal Initiative has actions in progress and also some that haven’t even started, highlighting the already completed milestone about the Portal evaluation by users about their data and features. On the other hand, the initiatives related to the SCTransferencias Portal were concluded, with the improvement of the tool and the availability of open format data. In addition, virtual training and how to use tutorial videos were provided in order to encourage social participation.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

Compromisso 4 – Evidencia 1.1.

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

During the Action Plan implementation period, CIASC was on strike. CIASC is the government body responsible for informatic functions at the Santa Catarina public service, also in charge of the Transparency Portal changes. Therefore, the improving demands were undermined by this strike.

There were also two management exchanges of the Management responsible for the Transparency Portal, which was also responsible for 6 actions of the commitment, causing a delay in the progress of the actions.

There was some delays from the BADESC top management to analyze and approve the documents necessary to carry out the activities involving the action related to its transparency portal. This delay in the process and collaborate to the action was not completed on time.

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:

As explained in the previous items, most of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned, highlighting that if any difficulties caused delays in some of the milestones, did not prevent their continuity or adjustment, resulting in a substantial part of the commitment having been completed.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Compromisso 4 – Evidencia 1.3.

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.

The improvement of the SCTransferencias Portal and Santa Catarina States Transparency Portal, with the expansion of data available for consultation and the possibility of downloading in open format, has substantially improved the quality and quantity of information regarding the use of state public resources. Also, the provision of virtual training and tutorial videos on how to use the tool strengthened social accountabilityTransparency of public service delivery is not enough on its own; giving citizens opportunities to monitor progress on the ground and hold their governments accountable improves the quality of these s... and participation, positively impacting the performance of actors outside the Government.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Compromisso 4 – Evidencia 2.1.1.

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.

The availability of a quality assessment tool on the Santa Catarina State Transparency Portal allows citizens and civil society organizations to express their point of view on the usefulness and features of the data that has been made available, providing opportunities for effective participation and making possible for the Government to improve public management.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Compromisso 4 – Evidencia 2.1.2.

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

Not Applicable

2.1.4 Other Results

Not Applicable

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.

The Transparency Portal changes enabled the team to put in test some hypotheses that will be used to build a complete new Portal even more complete and robust.