Finland Mid-Term Progress Report 2015-2017

In early 2017, the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM)The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is OGP’s accountability arm and the main means of tracking progress in participating countries. The IRM provides independent, evidence-based, and objective ... published the progress report for Finland’s second 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.... The report covers the development and first year of implementation of the action plan July 2015 through June 2016.

This report was prepared by the IRM staff with contributions from Juho-Matti Paavola from Oxford Research Finland. The findings are summarized below:

“Finland’s action plan focused on improving citizen engagement and making government information easier for citizens to understand. The government applied new methods to collect citizens’ views and successfully increased the number of plain language documents in high priority areas, such as health and pension regulations. Going forward, the government could prioritize issues that are of high value to civil society, such as corporate 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, by using the OGP platform to coordinate ministerial support and multiagency consultation.”

And in Finnish:

“Suomen toimintasuunnitelma keskittyi kansalaisten osallistamiseen ja hallinnon julkaiseman tiedon tekemiseen helpommin ymmärrettäväksi kansalaisten näkökulmasta. Julkinen hallinto keräsi kansalaisten mielipiteitä uusilla tavoilla ja lisäsi onnistuneesti selkokielisten asiakirjojen määrää keskeisillä alueilla, kuten terveydenhuolto- ja eläkelainsäädännössä. Tulevaisuudessa julkinen hallinto voisi priorisoida kysymyksiä, jotka ovat tärkeitä kansalaisyhteiskunnalle (esim. liiketoiminnan avoimuus), käyttäen OGP-hanketta ministeriöiden tuen ja virastojen yhteisen kuulemisen koordinointiin.”