Transfer of Good Practices between OGP Countries (SK0140)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? The Slovak Republic has been a member country of the Open Governanment Partnership since 2011. The Government of the Slovak Republic regularly declares its support for open governance, its principles, and the Open Government Partnership in the principal documents, including the current Program Statement of the Government of the Slovak Republic for the years 2021-2024. The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government for the Development of Civil Society has been entrusted by the Slovak Government with coordinating the activities related to the membership in the Open Government Partnership. Space for better use of Slovakia's membership in the Open Government Partnership Despite having been a member of the Open Government Partnership, the Slovak Republic has so far used the potential of other member countries and nongovernmental organizations only minimally. The main activities in which there was interaction with other member countries and non-governmental non-profit organizations associated in the Open Government Partnership, for reasons of capacity, primarily concerned the exchange of experience regarding the procedural functioning of the country's membership in the initiative and its coordination. The transfer of examples of good practices on concrete implementation of the principles of open governance from the Slovak Republic to the international level was also minimal - e.g. the presentation of the Slov-lex portal at the global OGP Summit in Tbilisi in 2018, or the presentation about beneficial ownership at the OGP Summit in Ottawa in 2019. Better use of good and bad practices of other Open Government Partnership member countries The 78 member countries of the Open Government Partnership, including 21 EU countries, together with established non-governmental non-profit organizations, provide the Slovak Republic with a network of concrete, effective, practical and verified experiences and activities in the challenges faced by many countries, including the Slovak Republic. However, the Slovak Republic has so far not sufficiently explored this potential and has not used the possibility of implementing interesting and innovative solutions offered by the Open Government Partnership community into the national context, thus taking away the opportunity to build on the experience of other OGP members and at the same time limiting the possibilities of critical evaluation of one's own practice - i.e. accountability. The introduction and subsequent adoption, or inspiration by the commitments of other member countries of the Open Government Partnership will enable: a) Evaluation of Slovakia's own solutions in comparison with other member countries b) Inspiration for the design of solutions to challenges c) Expansion of possible potential proposals for solutions to challenges d) More effective use of personnel and financial capacities (it is cheaper to take over or adapt an already devised solution than to invent a new one) e) Strengthening the accountability of own solutions against similar foreign experiences Low awareness of the Open Government Partnership and Slovakia‘s membership in it According to Google Trends analysis, public awareness of the Open Government Partnership and Slovakia's membership in it is very low. Based on many interviews with representatives of the public administration, awareness of the OGP is also at a very low level - officials often do not know about Slovakia's membership in the OGP, nor about the added value of our membership in the OGP, despite the initiative of the ÚSV ROS, which organizes an annual public event Open Government Week, as well as regular outreach events about open government. As a side effect, workshops, meetings and contacts between the officials from abroad under the umbrella of the Open Government Partnership can also contribute to raising awareness of the Open Government Partnership and its specific activities, as well as the benefits that the membership offers to the Slovak Republic. Sharing examples of good practices from the Slovak Republic within the intenational OGP community also represents an opportunity to raise awareness of the OGP itself, to establish partnerships between the public administration and non-governmental organizations, as well as with partners from the international environment.

What is the commitment? The aim is to create conditions that will enable a fact-based comparison of the successful commitments between the OGP countries with Slovak practice and to put selected commitments into practice, as well as to identify good examples from Slovak practice and transfer them to the international platform that the Open Government Partnership provides. Content of the commitment: a) Support the transfer of experiences from selected member countries of the Open Government Partnership to the state administration environment. Suitable commitments of Open Government Partnership member countries may include, for example: i. Presentation of public services at a local level (Estonia): http://www.minuomavalitsus.fin.ee/ ii. Increasing the transparency of NGO funding (Estonia): https://heakodanik.shinyapps.io/parkudus iii. Financial transparency tools (North Macedonia): https://indicatori.opstinskisoveti.mk/ iv. Building awareness about climate change (North Macedonia): https://klimatskipromeni.mk/ v. Greater control and transparency of public grants (Spain): https://www.infosubvenciones.es/ vi. Follow The Money (Public Money) (Italy): http://soldipubblici.gov.it/ b) Identify and support the transfer of experiences from the domestic practice internally as well as to the international Open Government Partnership community. The multistakeholder forum (forum of multiple interested partners) has identified the Public Policy of Open Communication, championed by the Public Procurement Office: The public policy of open communication determines the framework of the activity of the state, which is also represented by the central bodies of the state administration, in an effort to increase the information and communication of the state towards representatives of the civil society, the investigative journalistic community, local government, representatives and participants of labor and business relations and other subjects acting in the public interest. The aim of the policy is to increase society's trust in the activities of the state (public authority) and to strengthen prevention and public control. Open communication of public authorities supports the professional activity of public administration, the pillars of the rule of law and builds public trust in the state. Open communication thus becomes a realized obligation towards the society to act professionally, honestly, legally and in accordance with the public interest. Some of the activities that are part of this policy include: proactively providing information to increase transparency and public control while complying with the provisions of special regulations governing the legal obligation to maintain confidentiality, carrying out publication, formal and informal training or educational activities, applying the principles of open governance and transparency through active communication with the public, support for providing information and data through digitization, structured open data datasets or through APIs. Open communication also includes more modern methods of communication, such as social networks and social media. In general, the implementation of this public policy is intended to support activities aimed at increasing awareness, expertise, good administration of public affairs and the development of civil society, and in relation the international community to present the validity and credibility of the public policy of open communication of the state. This can serve as an example, inspiration, or stimulus for further development.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? To support the transfer of experience from the practice of selected member countries of the Open Governance Partnership to the environment of the Slovak state administration: a) Identification of relevant experience b) Transfer of examples from the practice of member countries of the OGP to the environment of the state administration of the Slovak Republic c) Documentation of examples and creation of a methodology aimed at introducing the principles of open governance into state administration Mapping of suitable, inspiring and transferable examples of support for the principles of open governance from the state administration of the Slovak Republic: a) Identification and mapping of relevant practical examples b) Promotion of good practices from the the state administration within the Slovak Republic and to the international members of the Open Government Partnership c) Documentation of examples and creation of a methodology aimed at introducing the principles of open governance into state administration

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? The commitment supports the development of all principles of open governance within the public administration: The principle of transparency By mapping examples of good practice from abroad and from the domestic environment and subsequently publishing them in a publicly available database, it improves access to information and the principle of transparency. The principle of participation Through the exchange of experience between the representatives of the OGP member countries and representatives of the Slovak public administration, it supports partnership, mutual learning and the principle of participation. The principle of accountability By presenting examples of good practice from abroad as well as from domestic practice, it motivates self-reflection and evaluation of one's own procedures within the Slovak public administration, thereby supporting the principle of internal accountability.

Additional information Relevance to the strategic and partial objectives of the OGP National Action Plan 2022-2024: 1.1.: Improve access to information about the activities of central state administration bodies and promote transparency. 1.2.: Motivate institutions to reevaluate their own practice and learn through mechanisms supporting accountability to different audiences. 2.1.: Identify examples of Slovak and foreign good practices and ensure their exchange. 2.2.: Improve the involvement of the Slovak Republic in the OGP community. 3.2.: Raise awareness of the principles of open governance in central state administration bodies. Relevance to programs/projects of the Slovak government and international documents: a) Program statement of the government 2021-2024 b) Recovery and resilience plan c) UN Sustainable Development Goals

Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable Start Date: End Date: Support the transfer of practical experience of selected OGP member countries to the environment of the Slovak state administration 1 July 2022 30 September 2023 Map good, inspiring and transferable examples of support for the principles of open governance in the state administration of the Slovak Republic 1 July 2022 30 September 2023

Action Plan Review

Commitment 4. Sharing of open government good practices

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Unclear