Norway Action Plan Review 2023-2027

Norway’s fifth 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... includes commitments addressing 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..., digital inclusionPrioritizing digital inclusion — such as by expanding broadband access to remote areas or removing barriers to affordable internet — helps ensure all citizens have the opportunity to participate. ..., and anti-corruption. The action plan presents an opportunity to implement mechanisms for broader participation of civil society groups and other interested groups, beyond those stakeholders already participating in the process. The ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... of commitments can be enhanced by including actions that represent policy changes rather than intermediate outcomes of a process. Norway can take advantage of the action plan’s midterm refresh to account for emerging lessons from the first two years of implementation and adapt the action plan commitments accordingly.

Norway’s fifth action plan is the country’s first four-year action plan. It includes seven commitments in the areas of public procurement, government data management, and anti-corruption. It also introduces openness in the justiceTo address barriers that prevent citizens from having their justice needs met, OGP participating governments are working to expand transparency, accountability, and inclusion into all systems of justi... sector and digital inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... as emerging policy areas.

Highlighted as promising, 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... 1 continues a similar commitment on digitizing public procurement included in the previous action plan, which reached limited completionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin.... This time, the commitment focuses on promoting the publication of public procurement data and statistics, including green and environmentally friendly public procurement data. This commitment could improve the quality and availability of public procurement data and remove barriers to public procurement 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.

Initiatives on anti-corruption and openness in the justice sector propose activities that do not represent a change in public practices. Instead, they offer initial analyses without any clarity on further actions. The ambition of this action plan is similar to that of the fourth action plan, where only one commitment was rated as having transformative potential impact.

Compared to the 2019–2022 action plan co-creation process, the OGP Council met more frequently to discuss the action plan and created more opportunities for stakeholders to submit proposals. An initial consultation saw the government proposing seven priority areas. Afterwards, five priority areas that reflect both government and civil society priorities were chosen for inclusion in the final action plan.[1] Commitment 7 on openness in the justice sector was proposed by civil society.

The government Point of Contact (POC) highlighted that the Ministry of Digitalization and Public Governance made efforts to engage as many civil society organizations as possible, through a direct invitation, which was also published on Norway’s OGP website.[2] Both civil society representative and the government POC agree that facilitating the participation of a diverse range of civil society organizations, beyond those already participating in the OGP process, has remained a challenge.[3] This can at least be partly attributed to civil society organizations (CSOs) having multiple alternatives to engage with the government in the Norwegian context outside of the OGP process.[4] Better communication of the scope and benefits of engaging in the OGP process could help incentivize a more diverse range of CSOs and other stakeholders—such as industry groups or private entities—to participate. As a start, the Department of Digitalization and Public Governance (DFD) could try to bring some of the alternative avenues that CSOs use to engage the government under the OGP umbrella.

The co-creation of this action plan was supported through meetings between civil society and government representatives, with greater participation of press organizations under the Norwegian Press Association compared to previous cycles.[5] However, a civil society representative considered it crucial to ensure that stakeholders have timely and clear information on their expected role in the process to guarantee more effective participation. [6]

Four-year action plans include a midterm refresh at the two-year mark, where countries could review the progress of commitment implementation up to date and amend the action plan as needed. Countries can also include new commitments to the action plan. Norway is encouraged to use this opportunity to consolidate emerging lessons from the first two years of implementation as well as to accommodate unforeseen circumstances that may rise during implementation. In terms of thematic areas, Norway could also consider including the lobbyingLobbying transparency allows the public to ensure that there is diversity of participation and contribution to public decision-making. Technical specifications: Policies and actions affecting lobbying... transparency commitment that was submitted after the end of 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... by the DFD at the midterm refresh point, as it could prove promising for advancing sectoral transparency in the country.

Promising Commitments in Norway 2023-2027 Action Plan

The following review looks at the one commitment 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] “Norway Action Plan 2024–2027,” Government of Norway, 20 December 2023, https://www.opengovpartner ship.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Norway_Action-Plan_2023-2027_December_EN_Revised.pdf.

[2] Maria Egeland Thorsnes (Norway Point of Contact), written feedback during pre-publication review period, 6 November 2024.

[3] Tom Arne Nygaard (Former Norwegian OGP Point of Contact), correspondence with IRM researcher, 13 October 2022; Tor Dolvik (Special Advisor at Transparency International Norway), correspondence with IRM researcher, 4 June 2024.

[4] Nygaard, correspondence.

[5] Nygaard, correspondence.

[6] Dolvik, correspondence.