Germany’s fourth 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... features commitments on a range of topics, mainly in the fields of 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 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.... The most promising commitments come from the coalition agreement and include the introduction of a Federal Transparency Act and transparency guidelines for public-private partnerships (PPPs). Civil society mentioned that the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive... did not offer them sufficient opportunities to shape the content of the action plan. The IRM restates recommendations to institutionalize the OGP process for better co-creation of future action plans.

Germany’s 2023–2025 action plan passed under the new coalition government in power since October 2021. The coalition government had also been responsible for the implementation of the previous action plan. The OGP portfolio has remained within the Federal Chancellery. The action plan features 15 commitments, four of which are led by Länder (states). Two commitments directly continue from the second and third action plans: decentralized citizens’ dialogues for communicating foreign policy (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... 5) and public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... (Commitment 9). The overall thematic focus is on transparency and open data, although the action plan features a diverse range of commitments and participating public bodies. Notable new areas in the fourth action plan are transparency of arms exports and public-private partnerships (PPPs).

Most commitments anticipate positive changes, although as stand-alone initiatives or without expected sustainable changes in practice. The most ambitious commitments originate from the coalition agreement, namely the introduction of a Federal Transparency Act (Commitment 1) and transparency guidelines for PPPs (Commitment 3). These commitments address the IRM’s recommendation from the 2021-2023 Action Plan Review to align the OGP process with the goals of the coalition agreement.[1] The IRM identified as promising the commitments on the Federal Transparency Act, federal guidelines on PPPs transparency, continuation of the digitalization of public procurement, and the efforts of Schleswig-Holstein on linked open data. These commitments promise sustainable positive changes towards a more transparent and digital government and address important political topics.

For the co-creation process, the Federal Chancellery organized two rounds of consultation. The list of commitments was decided in advance through an internal government procedure. No notable changes were made to the commitments and no new commitments were taken up. Members of the Open Government Network (OGN)—Germany’s network of organizations and individuals working on open government—mentioned there was insufficient opportunities and time allocated to discussing the commitments, which limited their desire and ability to participate in the co-creation process.

The IRM reiterates recommendations from the Co-Creation Brief to formalize the participation structure for the OGP process and organize outreach with thematic organizations working in the priority areas for the action plan.[2] This could be achieved by institutionalizing the federal OGP process—possibly through a formal multistakeholder forum. The Federal Chancellery and the OGN could also organize thematically focused consultations for civil society and relevant ministries and agencies to jointly discuss and develop commitments. Lastly, the IRM recommends continuing to encourage collaboration between subnational governments and between the federal and subnational governments on designing and implementing commitments. In this action plan, Commitments 12–14 on linked open data from Schleswig-Holstein and Berlin show the potential of subnational cooperation for open government, which could be expanded in future plans.

Promising Commitments

The following review looks at the three commitments and one cluster that the IRM identified as having the potential to realize the most promising results. Promising commitments address a policy area that is important to stakeholders or the national context. They must be verifiable, have a relevant open government lens, and have modest or substantial potential for results. This review also provides an analysis of challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to contribute to the learning and implementation process of this action plan.

Table 1. Promising commitments

[1] “IRM Action Plan Review: Germany 2021–2023,” Open Government Partnership, 18 February 2022, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/germany-action-plan-review-2021-2023.

[2] “IRM Co-Creation Brief: Germany 2022,” Open Government Partnership, 2 December 2022, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Germany_Co-Creation-Brief_2022.pdf.