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Open Contracting

One in every three dollars spent by governments is on contracts. People should know how well this money is being spent, which can be achieved through open contracting. Opening up the public procurement process can improve government efficiency and effectiveness, which includes combating corruption. However, governments publish open data on approximately less than three percent of the billions spent on public contracts. When paired with greater public scrutiny and accountability, open contracting principles and data practices can save money, improve public service delivery, and increase competition.


The Open Gov Guide

The Open Gov Guide is the go-to resource for open government reformers. The guide provides concrete recommendations for policy makers, civil society representatives, and more on how to apply open government principles to real-world challenges. Readers can also use the guide to learn more about how governments at the national and local level are putting these values into practice through OGP action plans and beyond.

Learn more about this policy area in the “Open Contracting” chapter of the Open Gov Guide.


Challenge Commitments

As part of the Open Gov Challenge, the OGP Support Unit would like to recognize some of the most inspiring commitments made by participants to date. Read more about these exciting reforms on open contracting below.

For a full list of Challenge commitments submitted by members, visit our Open Gov Challenge Commitment Tracker.

Open Contracting for Federal Infrastructure Projects

This commitment will address the lack of transparency and enhance CSO collaboration in the public procurement of federal infrastructure projects in Brazil. The government will apply open contracting principles to federal infrastructure projects by improving the public procurement portal and disclosing information for all projects.

Read more

Increase Citizen Monitoring of Public Infrastructure

There is limited access to reliable, complete and comparable data on contracts and infrastructure projects in Honduras. This commitment will make this data more accessible by publishing information on the entire project cycle. The government also aims to raise public awareness of this data to promote citizen monitoring and control of public infrastructure projects.

Read more


All Commitments by OGP Members

Explore all open contracting commitments from OGP members.

The following list reflects commitments submitted through national or local action plans. For more details, visit OGP’s Data Dashboard.

Filter the commitments according to three categories evaluated by the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM): ambition, completion, and early results.

  • Ambition: Beginning with 2020 action plans, the IRM assesses ambition using an indicator called “Potential for Results.” This indicator is an early marker of a commitment’s potential to yield meaningful results, based on how the commitment is articulated in the action plan and the state of play in the respective policy area.
  • Completion: For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlined in the commitment were implemented.
  • Early Results: Beginning with 2021 action plans, the IRM assesses commitment results using an indicator called “Early Results”. This indicator compares the state of transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability before the action plan with the state at the end of the action plan.

Commitment List

150 Commitments related to Open Contracting by all members
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Showing 5 of 150
What is this showing?

This table shows all commitments that match the filters selected at the top of the page. At least one filter must be selected to populate this table. Use the tags above the table to further filter by commitment quality (e.g. ambitious, complete). Click on commitment titles to learn more about each commitment. Click on “Featured” icons to access stories, where available.

Why is this data helpful? (why did we choose it?)

This table enables finding existing commitments in specific policy areas, regions, and years, as well as top-performing commitments by using the built-in table filters.

How is this calculated?

The commitment performance metrics (e.g. ambitious, complete) are derived directly from IRM reports. See the terms below for details. The Year field shows the year in which the commitment was first submitted. Icons in the Featured field indicate that a story is available on the OGP website.


Learn More

Data Dashboard: Explore data on how OGP members are implementing reform in key policy areas, including information on the ambition and early results of commitments

OGP Resources: Find all of OGP’s stories of reform, IRM reports, fact sheets, and other information in one place.


Open Contracting Stories

Training of CoST District Monitors

Building Trust: Infrastructure Transparency in Kaduna and Sekondi-Takoradi

Sekondi-Takoradi, Kaduna State, and other OGP Local members joined the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST), recognizing the pivotal role of local governments in infrastructure provision. These cities have embraced CoST’s core principles of multi-stakeholder collaboration, disclosure, assurance, and social accountability and have used their OGP action plan to improve infrastructure transparency. 

European Parliament 2024

We Must Protect Our Democracies Before It Is Too Late

In this pivotal moment, our response will shape the future of democratic resilience and security. It's time to clean our own houses and strengthen our democracies, reinforcing the global fight against kleptocracy and corruption. The urgency of these reforms cannot be overstated. We must act now, before it is too late.

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Take the Challenge

The Open Gov Challenge is a call to action for all members of OGP to raise ambition in ten areas of open government to help strengthen our democracies.

Join hundreds of reformers around the world – in government and civil society – who are working to make their communities stronger, more open, participatory, inclusive, and accountable.

Open Government Partnership