London 2013 OGP Global Summit

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Open Government Partnership Annual Summit (Overview)

Over 1,000 delegates from over 60 countries will come together in London from 31 October to 1 November 2013 for the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Annual Summit.

Two years since the Open Government Partnership was formed, the London Summit presents an incredible opportunity for the open government movement to consolidate and build momentum, to reflect on what is working and what is not, and to inspire all participants to return home equipped to pursue an even more ambitious reform agenda.

Summit participants – including representatives from civil society organizations, businesses and governments – will share experiences from their respective countries and provide real examples of how openness can improve public services, drive economic growth, reduce poverty and corruption, and restore public faith in government.

Each government coming to London has been asked to announce an ambitious new open government commitment to be integrated in their OGP action plan.  OGP will also welcome new participating countries, and will announce the launch of five thematic working groups, four multilateral partnerships, and a new Open Government Prize Competition.

At the G8 earlier this year, British Prime Minster David Cameron pledged that the UK’s leadership of the OGP would “drive a transparency revolution in every corner of the world.” As the host of this year’s Summit, the UK government hopes this remarkable gathering of open government reformers will advance measurable progress in at least five key policy areas:

·         Open Data: Radically opening up government data for greater accountability, public service improvement and economic growth

·         Government Integrity: fighting corruption and strengthening democracy through transparent government

·         Fiscal Transparency: helping citizens to follow the money

·         Empowering Citizens: transforming the relationship between citizens and governments

·         Natural Resource Transparency: ensuring natural resources and extractive revenues are used for public benefit

Find out the UK’s priorities for the Summit and Achievements this year.(link is external)

Summit Agenda

The Summit agenda is designed to encourage participants to learn from others about what is and isn’t working, reflect on results achieved to date, set ambitious new commitments for greater openness, and demonstrate what transparency really means for people on the ground. We also hope to energize and diversify civil society participation in OGP, as this is the best way to stimulate innovation and hold governments’ to account.

The agenda of the London Summit reflects the following objectives that are fundamental to OGP’s success:

Defending SPACE for Civil Society to Engage: For government to be responsive to people, it is essential to have a vibrant and independent civil society that collaborates with, and challenges government as necessary. This requires basic guarantees of the space for civil society to participate, including freedom of association, freedom of expression and a free press. At the Summit we plan to continue, and advance, a conversation initiated by President Obama on 23 September 2013 on how initiatives like OGP can help defend civic space and advance effective models of civil society engagement.

Sharing INSPIRATION from across the Partnership: The Summit presents an opportunity to share inspiring stories from OGP countries that will motivate other domestic reformers and advocates around the world. During the Summit we will feature lightning talks from the finalists of the new OGP ‘Bright Spots’ competition, who will share their OGP success stories with their peers. The delegates will vote to select a winner.

Ensuring ACCOUNTABILITY for Results: Commitments alone are not good enough – they must translate to concrete actions and deliver results. Once a country signs up to OGP, the rest of the world is watching to see how much progress is made. At the Summit we will launch the first IRM Progress Reports for the eight founding OGP countries and discuss what we are all learning from the first year of OGP implementation.

Promoting AMBITION: OGP was designed as a race to the top, but we need to keep raising the bar. The United Kingdom has asked each country to bring a flagship commitment to the October Summit, and we plan to highlight the most ambitious and innovative commitments throughout the two days. In addition, we plan to encourage a debate on some of the ‘new frontiers’ of open government that have to date been largely absent from OGP action plans.