Panama Results Report 2021-2023

Panama’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... is one of the best developed by the country to date, with clearly defined problems and objectives, ambitious goals, and a higher percentage of commitments with potential for “substantial” results. However, it was one of those that achieved lower levels of 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... during its implementation. The country faced challenges such as the lack of resources and availability of those in charge of the executing institutions, which delayed the start of activities to meet the milestones and reduced the time available to execute them.

Early ResultsEarly results refer to concrete changes in government practice related to transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Inde...

None of the eight commitments in the fourth action plan achieved significant early results. Six of them achieved modest early results, and two did not achieve early results at all. Thus, the fourth action plan can be classified as one of the Panamanian plans that have generated the least impact within the two years of the implementation period, even though several of the milestones of the commitments were completed. The reason is that those milestones that offered the potential for achieving early results, such as the implementation of open purchasing standards for all 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..., were among those not implemented. One of the main reasons for this situation was the lack of budgetary and personnel resources necessary to carry out the actions in agreement with the schedule defined in the action plan.

Completion

The limitations delayed the start of implementation, reducing the available time to complete each of the commitments. Of the eight commitments, five achieved a limited level of completion, one substantial level of completion, and two were completed.

Regarding the commitments’ potential, four were rated as having substantial potential for results since they intended to implement measures that would have a national impact. However, three of them did not reach substantial levels of completion because the milestones that would generate value for more people throughout the country were not implemented. The Open Budget 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... achieved a substantial level of completion by developing and publishing national budget review documents at mid-year and year-end, as well as the citizens’ budget. The latter holds valuable and understandable information for people about the development and approval process of the national budget, complemented by data on how it is allocated between the different geographical areas and sectors of the Panamanian economy.

Participation and Co-Creation

In Panama, the action plans and processes related to OGP are coordinated by the National Open Government Commission of Panama (CNGAP), a multi-stakeholder forumRegular dialogue between government and civil society is a core element of OGP participation. It builds trust, promotes joint problem-solving, and empowers civil society to influence the design, imple... made up of three Government institutions and three civil society organizations. The National Authority for 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 Access to Information (ANTAI) is the public entity in charge of its coordination and promotes the commitments from the Government.

In 2019, prior to this open government cycle, the ANTAI authorities in charge of the open government agenda changed. These changes did not significantly affect the co-creation of the plan, as the new ANTAI team invested the necessary time and resources to ensure the continuity of the work agenda within the OGP framework.

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... took place between March 2019 and August 2021. This period was longer than usual due to the extension requested by Panama given the impact of the

COVID-19[1] pandemic. The country successfully solved the pandemic’s challenges and carried out an in-person and virtual process, which relied particularly on technologies to generate participation remotely and collect information virtually. The sectors represented in the topics addressed by the action plan are still limited. Still, this time people and organizations outside the CNGAP participated, such as agricultural producers and academia, who proposed commitments included in the action plan.

During implementation, Panama faced challenges that affected levels of citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More, in part due to inactivity that followed the co-creation period. Some civil organizations that were initially involved, such as those in the agricultural sector, later withdrew. This situation meant several initiatives did not reach their potential for early results.

Implementation Context

The situation that most affected the completion of the action plan was the COVID-19[2] pandemic, which forced Panama to redirect resources. Also, a high turnover of the liaisons in the implementing institutions and the fact that Panama[3] was prevented from timely using the funds granted by the OGP Multi-Donor Trust FundWith the support of development partners and working together with the World Bank, OGP established the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) to support World Bank client countries and local entities that part... to implement the Open ContractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... and Transparency in Public Infrastructure commitment, affected the attention that the liaisons gave to the commitments and delayed the start of activities. This reduced the available time to complete them and resulted in lower levels of completion concerning previous action plans. It also produced moderate early results in most commitments.

[1] Panama requested a first extension of the delivery deadline for the action plan to August 31, 2020, due to the electoral transition and the institutional changes caused by the leadership changes in the Executive Branch. Subsequently, the country decided to take advantage of the extension of an additional year to deliver the document, granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[2] Panama exceeded one million confirmed COVID-19 cases as of December 31, 2023, and suffered 8,652 deaths, almost 2,000 per million inhabitants (“Expansion”, Datosmacro.com, January 7, 2024).

[3] It is explained in detail in the commitment analysis, in the “Implementation and Early Results” section.