WEBINAR: INTRODUCING THE LEGISLATIVE OPENNESS WORKING GROUP

Webinar Description

As countries continue to implement their Action Plans and develop new commitments, there has been an increasing interest in exploring commitments that open the legislative process within the executive and legislative branches. In response to this, the Open Government Partnership is launching the Legislative Openness Working Group (LOWG).

The LOWG is intended to deepen the exchange of knowledge across governments, parliaments, civil society and international institutions on the opportunities and challenges associated with legislative openness. The LOWG will be coordinated in partnership with the government and Congress of Chile and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and aims to:

– Provide a forum for peer-to-peer sharing of good practices, tools, experiences, and innovative use of ICTs through in-person and virtual meetings of the working group;

– Develop tools and resources to be shared within the broader OGP community for addressing issues of legislative openness in a country’s action plan;

– Identify particular issues within the field of legislative openness for research and sharing of expertise, which might be spearheaded by an individual member of the working group (e.g., the use of “e-petition websites”, efforts to engage citizens using web-based platforms for public comment, good practice regarding the transparency of legislative data, etc.);

– Identify technical assistance and partnership opportunities on legislative openness; and

– Increase the focus of OGP governments and parliaments on legislative openness.

This webinar seeks to introduce the LOWG, and its potential for fostering closer collaboration among governments, parliaments, and civil society for improving open government. Presenters from Chile and NDI introduce their work on this subject, including a presentation of Chile’s new legislative commitments as part of their OGP Action Plan, and NDI’s support for http://www.OpeningParliament.org .