Capacity-Building of Civil Servants and Citizens in the Area of Open Governance (TN0011)

- Set up a training program for civil servants in the open government field considering subjects related to open government, corruption fight, information access, open data and electronic participation
- Include training programs and sessions about the open government in the training programs of the national school of administration and in other institutions specialized in public sector training

Clustered Commitments 11, 12: Civil servant capacity building

11: Open governance training

Commitment Text:

•       Set up a training program for civil servants in the open government field considering subjects related to open government, corruption fight, information access, open data and electronic participation.

•       Include training programs and sessions about the open government in the training programs of the national school of administration and in other institutions specialized in public sector training.

Responsible Institution(s): Presidency of the Government: Secretariat of State in Charge of Governance and Civil Service and General Committee of Public Service (General Direction of Training and Capacity Building)

Supporting Institution(s): Public institutions specialized in civil servants training

Start Date: July 2014 End Date: June 2016

12: Open governance training academy

Commitment Text: Create a structure specialized in academic training in the governance area for civil servants in collaboration with experts in this field. This training will allow trainees to have broader knowledge about governance and corruption fight trends at the international level.

Responsible Institution(s): Presidency of the Government: Secretariat of State in Charge of Governance and Civil Service, the General Committee of Public Service

Start Date: July 2014 End Date: December 2015

Commitment aim

These two commitments were geared toward building the capacity of civil servants in the area of open government. Specifically, they sought to establish an open governance training program and academy.

Status

Midterm: Limited

In September 2013, the Chief of Government signed Executive Order 2013-3803, creating the International Good Governance Academy of Tunis. According to the government’s self-assessment report, the academy was expected to open in September 2015 within the National School of Administration (Ecole Nationale d’Administration, ENA). Training materials and programs were developed, and topics related to open governance were included. Some of the material was published on the ENA’s website. For more information, please see the 2014-2015 IRM Midterm Progress Report.^{[Note 40: OGP, Tunisia IRM Midterm Progress Report 2014-15, http://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Tunisia2014-15_IRM%20Progress%20Report_Eng.pdf.]}

End of term: Complete

Commitments 11 and 12 were both completed.

•       Commitment 11: The government’s self-assessment and the IRM researcher’s media monitoring both confirmed that the Chief of Government signed a note (#21) on 23 September 2015 requiring that all civil servant training programs include materials on good governance and open government. These civil servants participated in a 45-day training session between 5 December 2015 and 15 January 2016. The government partnered with two organisations to provide complementary trainings to civil servants. Some of the training was held at the new academy, and some took place in Germany and France. On 19 and 20 October 2015, ten civil servants attended a training seminar about open data that was organised with the OECD. In November 2015, ten civil servants from the Presidency of the Government attended a training seminar about the fight against corruption, in partnership with the French National School of Administration (ENA).

•       Commitment 12: On 3 November 2015, the Academy officially launched its operations. The first class to attend was awarded graduation certificates in December 2016. This first group had worked on transparency of calls for tenders in the health sector.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Did not change

Civic participation: Did not change

Public Accountability: Did not change

At the time of the end-of-term assessment, there were no clear indicators of change in government behaviour because of the implementation of these two commiments. M. Karim Bani from the Presidency of the Government,^{[Note 41: Interview with M. Karim Bani, 25 October 2016.]} who was reponsible for the training of civil servants, stated that the concrete effects on the administration’s practices would require “at least some months or years.” A leading watchdog organisation, I-Watch, noted that, because the academy itself had no clear indicators to follow up on its goals, civil society could not monitor the training effects. I-Watch, therefore, believes that the training alone will not sufficiently improve public administration practices, at least in the short term.

Carried forward?

This commitment is complete and has not been carried forward. However, there is a similar commitment in the second action plan which seeks to develop a practical guide on the principles of open government at the local level (commitment 4).^{[Note 42: OGP, Tunisia National Action Plan 2016-2018, pg. 12, See: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/country/tunisia/assessment.]} To improve the quality and effectiveness of the Academy, regional chapters could be established for public servants to benefit from the training programs. Another recommendation would be to create an Academy board to involve and consult with CSOs to monitor the program and make recommendations.