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Leaders at OGP Summit call for greater government openness in response to worrying global trends

OGP Support Unit|
PARIS, FRANCE – December 7, 2016 – The 4th Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit began today with over a dozen heads of state, thousands of civil society leaders and other high-level open government reformers calling for greater openness in government to serve as a countervailing force to rising authoritarianism and closing civic space in many parts of the world. Over 4000 participants are attending the three-day event, to advance crucial open government issues such as the fight against corruption, opening up public contracts, harnessing the data revolution for the collective good, and encouraging public participation in climate change policies. The Paris Declaration on OGP will be launched to signal this new direction for the partnership. Senior Ministers and Heads of State from the governments of Burkina Faso, Germany, Jamaica, Luxembourg, and Pakistan are presenting their letters of intent to join OGP. Leaders from 15 subnational governments are also announcing their first OGP commitments, a sign of the growing political interest in open government reforms at the local level.
 
President François Hollande of France, current OGP government co-chair and summit host, opened the summit by reminding guests of the current global geopolitical backdrop: “All over, citizens are demonstrating their desire to engage, to be listened to, to participate in public life and to help build their society. Everywhere, civil society demands more transparency, more consultation by rejecting corruption and fraud, and the indifference and resistance of government. We therefore have to make a considerable effort together to renew our democracy. In order to become more open, participatory and impactful. So it can become again a symbol of hope for people.”
 
Manish Bapna, Executive Vice President of the World Resources Institute and OGP lead civil society co-chair said: “Safeguarding democracy will be this century’s greatest challenge and OGP’s most important test. As we come together in Paris, we must carve out a path to restore global commitment to inclusion, transparency and accountability. ”
 
This year’s Third Annual Open Government Awards were also presented today. Top prize went to ProZorro, which sheds light on corrupt procurement practices in Ukraine. Second place went to Indonesia’s API Pemilu platform, which centralizes election data to improve citizen engagement and streamline the elections process. The third place winner, the Honduran branch of the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST), works to make government more accountable for construction and infrastructure spending. Four initiatives also received honorable mentions: Malawi’s Transparency Infrastructure project, Mongolia’s Check My Service project, Mexico’s Budget Transparency Portal, and the Netherlands’ Open Spending portal.
 
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Notes to the editor:

About the Summit:

  • Daily Communications updates from the Summit
  • Join the conversation on Twitter with #OGP16 and #Act2open
  • Watch the livestreaming of all mainstage plenary events during the three day event (in English, French and Spanish) starting at 2:30 PM CET on our YouTube channel website

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About OGP:

OGP was formally launched on September 20, 2011, on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly meeting, when eight heads of state, along with nine civil society leaders, endorsed the Open Government Declaration and published the first cohort of OGP National Action Plans.

Today OGP is composed of 75 governments, 15 subnational governments, seven multilateral organizations, and thousands of civil society organizations who together have made over 3,000 commitments towards open government reform to promote transparency, increase civic participation, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to make governments more open, effective, and accountable to citizens around the world.

OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) holds governments accountable for their commitments by producing thorough, impartial reports that track progress on National Action Plans.

For more information about how Open Government Partnership works visit our website or read our brochure, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our Newsletter and Gazette, or watch our films 5 Years of OGP and The Story of OGP.

Open Government Partnership