End of Commitment Report – “Transparency and the right to understand”: improving the usability and communication of the administration for real and effective accountability

Name of Evaluator

Daniel Catalá Pérez, Aida Vizcaíno Estevan y Borja Colón de Carvajal (Spanish Society for the Evaluation of Public Policies SEE)

Email

socevaluacion@gmail.com

Member Name

Valencian Community, Spain

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 – Valencian Community, Spain, 2022 – 2023

Commitment

“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 the right to understand”: improving the usability and communication of the administration for real and effective accountability

Action

The commitment consists of promoting the right to understand by improving the usability and communication of the administration for real and effective accountability. This translates, into the improvement and expansion of the information of the high officials of the Generalitat in GVA Oberta, including a search engine that allows easy consultation of the meetings that are held with the interest groups in which they intend to influence public decision-making. These changes will make it easier to consult and facilitate the possibilities of analysis, including, among other things, information search engines, data in a reusable format, and greater links between the contents. Along with this, and to comprehensively improve the effectiveness of the transparency and 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... portals, an evaluation of the usability and accessibility of these portals will be carried out. Thus, it is about establishing a roadmap for improvements in the portals so that they can be progressively implemented, so that citizens can easily access and better understand the contents of the portals and thus strengthen accountability. On the other hand, in order to prepare content and communicate it clearly to the public, it is also necessary to train and raise awareness among public employees. For this reason, a clear communication guide will be prepared for the preparation and communication of administrative information in the Generalitat, which will serve as a reference in the administration.

Problem

The transparency law obliges administrations to publish information to render accounts through their web portals or transparency portals. Many times, in digital communications and services, information is presented in an excessively technical or complex way, thus making it difficult to understand the texts by using jargon that is far from common uses or writing the information in a complex way. In order for transparency to fulfill the objective of facilitating real and effective accountability, it is necessary not only for the information to be published but also for citizens to be able to access it and to be able to understand it easily. In other words, the right to know must also include the right to understand. The use of unclear communication in digital communications and services is an obstacle for people to access public services, exercise their rights, or oversee the actions of governments, and affects the entire population and, above all, the groups of people affected by the digital divide or far from public administrations.

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 progress of the commitment is considered significant, as inferred from the accountability exercise of the X Legislature, where Axis 5, Democratic Quality, and Good Governance were established. Within this, Commitment 109 focuses on amending the Transparency Law and promoting Integrity Plans as prevention mechanisms. The commitment includes the following actions:

• Improvement of the transparency portal of the Generalitat, GVA Oberta.
• Development of a new system for managing requests for access to public information, GVA GIP, to effectively uphold the right to know of the citizens.
• Additionally, a comprehensive analysis of the usability and accessibility of GVA Oberta and Dades Obertes was carried out, positively impacting their evaluation and operation.
• Lastly, a policy promoting clear communication and easy reading is promoted.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

• Improvement of the transparency portal of the Generalitat GVA Oberta
• Development of a new system for managing requests for access to public information GVA GIP. Making the citizens’ right to know effective
• Additionally, a thorough analysis of usability and accessibility of GVA Oberta and Dades Obertes was carried out, positively impacting its evaluation and operation.
• Three pieces of evidence for this milestone:

1. Accessibility audit
2. Heuristic usability analysis: improvement recommendations
3. Easy Reading: Improvement recommendations

• Finally, a policy aimed at clear communication and easy reading is promoted
• Highlighting the development in July 2022 of the Clear Language Guide.

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

Regarding the internal factors that influenced the success of the commitment’s implementation, it is worth highlighting the technological variable, as it mainly involved developing new functionalities in the portals to provide citizens with clearer and more understandable access to the actions carried out by the Consell. In this regard, new viewers and search tools were implemented, such as:

• Interactive graphics of real-time navigation statistics.
• Search engine and statistical graphics for monitoring requests and resolutions for access to public information.
• Compatibility search for high-ranking officials and a historical record of high-ranking officials.
• Search engine for registered interest groups.
• Search engine for activities of influence.
• Search engine for real estate owned by the Generalitat.

The successful development of the commitment was also internally conditioned by the proper execution of the service contract for the “Analysis of Usability and Accessibility of GVA Oberta and Dades Obertes,” awarded in 2022 to the company Estudio Torres Burriel, as advertised here.

The change management resulting from the implementation of improvements in the portals was addressed through transparency training within the annual training plan for GVA public employees, coordinated by the Valencian School of Public Administration (EVAP), as can be seen here.

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 specific commitment aimed to ensure that both transparency and the accountability resulting from it were always available and easily accessible to the public, a circumstance that has been achieved abundantly through the GVA Oberta portal and the Accountability Portal.

Likewise, it was intended, through the fulfillment of the objective, that the right to know also encompasses the right to understand, using clear and visual language that is accessible and understandable to everyone. This has been achieved through the creation of a specific website aimed at promoting the following issues:

• Easy-to-read guides
• Rules and plans in easy-to-read format
• Other documents and content of interest in easy-to-read format
• Educational guides on open government
• Easy reading
• Other materials (Plena inclusión)

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.

To the extent that GVA implemented a policy exclusively aimed at improving the usability of the portals that provide its information, we understand that it did enhance accessibility. This was achieved by first conducting a thorough diagnosis of the situation through an Accessibility Audit and subsequently publishing a comprehensive Easy-to-Read Guide, which included some improvement recommendations.

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.

We understand that all spaces dedicated to the communication of public activity information were improved to the extent that they were developed for the same specific functionalities in the enhancement of viewers and search engines. This also includes the launch of the newsletter for updates from the GVA Oberta and Open Data Portal.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• GVA Oberta
  • TEP Platform – Transparency of Private Entities
  • Registry of Interest Groups of the Generalitat (REGIA)
• Open Data Portal
• GVA Participates
• News

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.

We understand that to the extent that a heuristic analysis of usability was carried out on the web portals designed to provide public information on government actions and some improvement recommendations were proposed, public employees had sufficient tools to enhance their activities and provide feedback with an independent expert perspective that identified barriers to service improvement.

Additionally, all portals are equipped with communication mailboxes that allow the public to establish direct channels of communication with public officials so that the latter can collect feedback from the former.

2.1.4 Other Results

Yes

Degree of result:

Marginal

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

Indirectly, by improving the web services available for accessing public information from GVA, there was a greater openness of all institutions and, consequently, a reduced disenchantment with public activity. However, these statements cannot be contrasted with data because the time required for the development of commitments in GVA’s First Open Government Plan prevents a sufficiently relevant comparative measurement.

In any case, there is an intimation of a trend towards increased interest from the public and other public institutions collaborating with GVA to participate, understand, and collaborate on public matters that affect everyone.

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:

Yes, it addresses the public policy problem in the sense of understanding that public transparency is not an end in itself but rather a mechanism to make government actions clear and comprehensible.

In this regard, all the actions of this commitment have the specific objective of empowering GVA sufficiently to ensure that both transparency and accountability become true engines of government action. Simultaneously, they are intended to be seen as a genuine window to public action, without limitations or counterclaims from all involved parties.

There is substantial evidence that leads us to believe that GVA’s true purpose is to communicate its entire activity clearly and effectively, utilizing all the means and resources at its disposal (financial, human, and technological) to achieve this goal.

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.

A key barrier to the implementation of inclusive transparency and the right to understand in GVA is undoubtedly the lack of equitable access to information. This is due to the digital divide, where certain population groups lack access to technology or the internet, excluding them from the information and online services provided by GVA.

To address this barrier, some of the following strategies could be implemented:

• Offline information access: The public administration must ensure that key information is available not only online but also in inaccessible offline formats, such as printed brochures, audiovisual materials, and other traditional means.
• Public access centers: Establish community centers or public access points where people without internet access at home can freely access online information. These centers could be located in libraries, community centers, or educational institutions.
• Training and digital literacy: Implement training and digital literacy programs targeted at communities facing the digital divide. These programs can help individuals acquire the necessary skills to use technology and access information online effectively.
• Collaboration with community organizations: Work closely with community organizations and non-profits to identify and address the specific needs of marginalized communities. These organizations can play a crucial role in distributing information and raising awareness.
• Inclusive design: When developing online platforms and services, it is essential to follow inclusive design principles to ensure accessibility for individuals with diverse abilities and levels of technology access.