Africa and the Middle East

The government of South Africa will serve as Support Chair on the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Steering Committee from October 2014, and Lead Chair in October 2015. Deputy Minister for Public Service and Administration, Ms Ayanda Dlodlo as Special Envoy…

Freetown.jpg The Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership has successfully submitted the Sierra Leone National Action plan on time mainly due to its citizen’s engagement strategy using the media as a major instrument in the engagement plan. Work on…

Martin Tisne of the Omidyar Network in his blog The Missing Link: How to Engage the Private Sector in Open Government Partnership, discusses the nascent Private Sector Council, which was set up to provide recommendations to the OGP Steering Committee…

The past years of turmoil in the Middle East as well as anti-austerity protests in Europe and other on-going struggles for freedom of expression and political participation remind us of the importance of stable, transparent, and accountable government. In light…

The South Africa IRM report captures well a reality which has been evident for a while. There is strong government commitment to accountability and responsiveness – but citizens are often excluded from decision-making and able to ensure that government does…

The Open Government Partnership's Independent Reporting Mechanism releases the first in a series of reports looking at the initial cohort of eight countries that submitted OGP action plans. First up is the IRM report on South Africa, which can be found below.…

Devolution of government to the counties in Kenya requires civil society to be ever more vigilant if the objectives of devolution have to be achieved. This vigilance is especially required because Kenyan citizens have invested their hopes in these devolved…

The late President John Atta Mills signed Ghana up to the OGP in September 2011, after which there was a prolonged period of inertia. It took a long time for the information to trickle down to the relevant ministry. ‘The initiative…

This post originally appeared on open up. I worry that civil society advocates working on Open Government Partnership are making a tactical mistake. There has been a lot of activity - rightly - around which OGP countries should be 'in…

The following blog originally appeared on OGP Africa. “What will distinguish the Africa’s OGP plan?” was a question Alison Tilley posed to the participants at the first Open Government Partnership Africa Regional Meeting. “We all know the common challenges that we…