At the core of OGP is the belief that governments should serve citizens, not themselves. To truly serve all citizens, open government reformers must recognize that citizens are not all equally affected by policy choices. Government policies and practices often systematically exclude gender groups like women, girls, non-binary individuals, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Placing all citizens back at the center of governance demands that policymakers and civil society advocates actively bring these communities into policy-making and commitment drafting processes. This means actively consulting these communities and asking specific questions about how policies address their needs and close gaps in services, applying a gender and inclusion lens to all aspects of their work.

Across the Partnership, civil society, governments, and other key actors are doing just that: using OGP action plans to review open government commitments with a gender perspective and include more gender groups in their national and local OGP processes. In addition to gender-informed commitments, open government reformers are joining forces with gender and inclusion advocates across OGP to better recognize and respond to the lived realities of women, girls, and those across the gender and sexual-identity spectrum. Commitments include interventions to reduce gender-based violence by working across government to collect and analyze data holistically, initiatives to increase women-owned businesses’ access to public procurement bids, and platforms to expand citizen knowledge of health care clinics and solicit feedback on the quality of care they receive.

An increasing number of OGP members have incorporated gender and inclusion commitments in their action plans over time. 61 OGP members are implementing 149 inclusion commitments from their 2020 or 2021 action plans. 56 of these commitments make specific reference to gender. Since OGP was established in 2011, 106 members have made 432 total inclusion commitments. Of these, 63 members have made 181 commitments explicitly related to gender.

A small subsection of OGP gender commitments focus on or engage with LGBTQIA+ communities. As of 2022, 5 percent of OGP members are implementing LGBTQIA+ commitments, with one-quarter of members in the Americas having made at least one commitment in this area.

These commitments range from improving policy-making by engaging with LGBTQIA+ communities, collaborating with LGBTQIA+ organizations as part of the co-creation process, or designing commitments that specifically advance LGBTQIA+ rights and anti-discrimination reforms.

OGP works with members to support actively involving women, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, and under-represented communities in the co-creation process; designing commitments that directly target inclusion; and applying principles of inclusion and intersectionality across open government reforms. We seek opportunities to better connect local, national, and global gender initiatives to core government transparency and accountability action.

• Inform best practices in open government, gender, and inclusion through the OGP Gender Coalition, which is made up of more than 20 countries and civil society organizations, including OGP members Argentina, Canada, Italy and Kenya.
• Engage women, gender groups, and LGBTQIA+ communities across the OGP co-creation process and implementation. When Morocco joined OGP in 2018, it recognized the gender imbalance of its OGP steering committee as a barrier to being representative of all citizens. To address this, they actively recruited women’s organizations to join the body. While early, this has already led to a commitment to review of the national action plan for gender-sensitive language. Côte d’Ivoire is engaging women’s groups as a target community for participatory budgeting to help set priorities and fund public services that better respond to their needs.
• Mainstream gender across all commitments. Prior to finalizing their action plan, Canada conducted a gender-based analysis of draft commitments to ensure the full plan took into consideration the needs and priorities of women and other equity-seeking groups. Argentina and Finland conducted gender reviews of their action plans to ensure implementation addressed specific concerns of women and gender diverse communities.
• Design commitments that advance gender-focused priorities.Germany used a commitment to conduct regular monitoring on the status of women and men in leadership positions in the private and public sectors. In Sri Lanka, the government used OGP to implement targets under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), including using OGP as an implementing body for a 25 percent quota for women in local public office. Brazil developed a unified information system for data on violence against women and a new reporting system for gender-based violence. Colombia drafted LGBTQIA+ legislation as part of its 2015-2017 action plan to ensure equal rights and non-discrimination.

The Feminist Open Government Initiative uses research, guidance, and collaboration to encourage governments and civil society to pursue reforms leading to gender advancements. The Initiative began as a priority of the 2018-2019 OGP co-chairship of Nathaniel Heller of Results for Development and the Government of Canada and continues today with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Global Affairs Canada (GAC), and Open Data for Development Network (OD4D).

Under the Feminist Open Government Initiative, a first round of research included case studies from Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Indonesia, the Philippines, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Mexico, Jordan, and Tunisia. A second round of research identified opportunities to accelerate gender and women’s participation in OGP processes and commitments. Today, OGP continues to document best practices and tools through the Feminist Open Government Initiative, Multi-Donor Trust Fund projects, and collaboration with members of the Gender Coalition.

This research underpinned Break the Roles, a 2019-2021 campaign to inspire action to increase gender equality through OGP Learn more about that work and hear from some of the inspirational gender champions in the OGP community here.

• Africa Freedom of Information Centre
• The B Team
• CARE International
• Center for Global Development
• Instituto de Liderazgo Simone de Beauvoir (ILSB)
• Equal Measures 2030
• Hewlett Foundation
• Hivos
• International Development Research Centre
• Natural Resource Governance Institute
• Open Contracting Partnership
• Open Data Charter
• Open Heroines
• Oxfam International
• Técnicas Rudas
• United Nations Development Programme
• Afghanistan
• Argentina
• Canada
• Italy
• Kenya
• Republic of Korea
• INMUJERES
• UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
• Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, Government of the UK