Announcing New Members of the OGP Steering Committee

We just completed an exceedingly important search for two new civil society members to join their fellow governments and civil society colleagues on the OGP Steering Committee (SC). The timing of these appointments could not be more opportune.  As I had outlined in my blog post after the civil society Steering CommitteeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru... members met in March, this is the year that we bring the strategic refresh to life, to ensure that OGP makes an impact on the lives of people by enabling ambitious open government reforms.  Moreover, the SC’s role becomes ever more critical as we focus our efforts to position OGP as a powerful, positive global movement for openness and deepening democracy, and as a countervailing force against the rise of closed government.

The SC has the responsibility of developing and helping execute strategy and representing OGP globally. Civil society members of the SC have an added responsibility: to ensure that the interests of OGP’s global civil society community are properly represented and addressed.

The call for applications to join the SC brought 29 highly accomplished and motivated candidates, who were then shortlisted to 10 (as outlined in the process below), from which 2 were finally selected.  We were heartened by the incredible interest in the open civil society slots on the SC.

The selection committee – consisting of Undral Gombodorj (Director, Democracy EducationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ... Center, Mongolia), Laura Neuman (Director, Global Access to Information Program, The Carter Center, United States), Mukelani Dimba (OGP Steering Committee), Aidan Eyakuze (OGP Steering Committee) and Paul Maassen (OGP Support UnitThe OGP Support Unit is a small, permanent group of staff that work closely with the Steering Committee and the Independent Reporting Mechanism to advance the goals of the Open Government Partnership....) – had the difficult task of shortlisting, and then finally selecting the final two candidates from the impressive candidate pool. The selection committee assessed how the candidates could bring with them a wide set of skills and experiences to play the various political and strategic roles that are required – from shaping a global agenda for OGP to advocating for the specific needs of civil society at the country level.  I’d like to emphasize that to be effective as a group, the civil society SC cohort needs to be diverse and balanced across experiences, skills, regions and genderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... – and this was an important consideration in the final selection.  

A few words on the process, which you can read more about on the OGP website and below. The OGP Steering Committee and Support Unit are committed to making the Steering Committee rotation process transparent and participatory. Some key elements include:

• There was an open call on the OGP civil society mailing list to invite volunteers to be on the selection committee.

• All candidate application information was published on the OGP website.  

• In addition to the open call for applications, the process also called for an open call for endorsements for the long list of candidates, where we received over 400 endorsements for the 29 candidates, the list of which was published on the OGP website.

• Details of the shortlisting criteria were also published on the OGP website, along with the candidates and scores.

• For the first time, the OGP Support Unit not only published the shortlist with their respective individual scores, but also the scores of each candidate of the long list on the OGP website.

• Furthermore, all shortlisted candidates were invited to participate in i) phone interviews with the members of the selection committee and ii) public webinars for discussion and dialogue with members of the OGP community.

• Questions for the webinars were also invited over Twitter, using the hashtag #OGPcivilsociety.

• Finally, the selected candidates are described below, along with the scores of all 9 candidates who were interviewed in the final round.  One of the short-listed candidates dropped out before being interviewed.

We would like to acknowledge and thank all who expressed an interest in being part of the Steering Committee. We hope you will continue engaging with OGP.  Your leadership and energyEnsuring universal access to sustainable, dependable, and affordable energy is critical to every aspect of prosperity. Increasing public oversight and transparency in the energy sector can help to ens... will be essential for the open government agenda to move forward!

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Results of the 2017 OGP Steering Committee civil society rotation

We are delighted to announce the names of the two new civil society members of the OGP Steering Committee: Giorgi Kldiashvili and Tur-Od Lkhagvajav.  You may know them already but for those who don’t, you would see and hear from them more in the near future as they take up their formal roles on the Steering Committee. They will be joining the nine other members of the OGP Steering Committee – you can read more about them here. Please join me in extending a warm welcome to them!

Here is a little bit more about Giorgi and Tur-Od:

• Giorgi Kldiashvili (@g_kldiashvili) is a founding member and Director of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), an NGO based in Georgia. He has conducted consultancy projects with international and multilateral organizations, such as USAID, UNDP, and the EU in Georgia and abroad. He is the author of a number of publications related to freedom of information, anti-corruption and good governance, accountability and transparency, e-Governance and e-Democracy, open data, civil service and public administration, media and internet. Giorgi is a civil society chair of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Forums at the Government and the Parliament of Georgia – https://ogpblog.wordpress.com/. Since 2013 Giorgi is the member of the Inter-agency Anti-Corruption Council of Georgia and co-chair of the Freedom of Information working group at the Council.

  Giorgi’s second on the OGP Steering Committee is Levan Avalishvili, Programs Director, IDFI.

• Tur-Od Lkhagvajav (@TurodLkhagvajav) holds several leading civil society positions, including as Co-Founder & President of Transparency International – Mongolia, a member of the National OGP (Open Government Partnership) Task Force and National Council for EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative), and an elected member of Coordinating Council for Publish What You Pay/PWYP – Coalition of 30 Mongolian NGOs. Since 2013, he has also functioned as first Country Facilitator for LOGIN – Local Governance Initiative and Network for South and East Asia. He is founding Chair of the Mongolian Foundation for Democracy and first Convener/Secretary General of Mongolia Democracy Foundation & Network. He is also National Coordinator for 11th Asia-Europe People’s Forum (http://www.aepf.info) within the ASEM process and Co-Convener & Steering Committee member of Asia Democracy Network (http://www.adn21.asia). In addition, he was appointed by the President of Mongolia as member and elected Chairman of the Public Oversight Council (with 15 leading CSOs and mass media representatives as its members) at the Independent Authority Against Corruption in May 2014 until 2018. Prior, Tur-Od was Legal Assistant to the President of Mongolia and Special Adviser to the Minister of JusticeTo address barriers that prevent citizens from having their justice needs met, OGP participating governments are working to expand transparency, accountability, and inclusion into all systems of justi... in 2012-2014.

  Tur-Od’s second on the Steering Committee is Anselmo Lee, co-founder of the Asia Development Network.

The Selection Process: A Brief Recap

Open Government Partnership (OGP) invited nominations for two new positions on the civil society side of the OGP Steering Committee in February 2017 through a public call for nominations. The Support Unit received a highly competitive and accomplished list of 29 candidates, representing a diversity of regions and thematic expertise. The call for nominations specified that at least one of the two seats would need to filled by a candidate from Asia-Pacific, to keep to the rules of diversity on the Steering Committee, as stated in the Articles of GovernanceThe OGP Articles of Governance establish the mandate and high-level policies of the Partnership, including the Steering Committee, the Support Unit, and the Independent Reporting Mechanism. They also .... Of the long list of candidates, 14 were from Asia Pacific, 6 from the Americas, 5 from Africa, and 4 from Europe. Out of the total, 12 were women.

The selection process involved two key rounds – an initial shortlisting based on the nomination statements, endorsements, and other material submitted by the candidates. According to the criteria and process, as shared on the OGP website, the selection committee examined the nominations according to three key criteria: leadership; working across stakeholders; and ability to read and represent the interests of civil society. In addition, the committee also took into account the candidate’s track record of working on open government and related cross-cutting themes, as well as engagement with open government networks. In that discussion the selection committee also took note of other crucial factors including diversity across open government issues, regions, and gender.

This initial assessment resulted in individual candidate’ scores of up to a maximum of 75 points (3 criteria, 5 points max per criterion, 5 members of the selection committee). All successful candidates scored between 46 and 62 points on the three criteria combined (and non selected candidate scores ranged from 8 to 44).

In the second round of the selection process, each shortlisted candidate was invited for an hour-long interview over Skype with three members of the selection committee. After each interview the selectors scored the candidates on 6 criteria across two categories, drawn from the roles and responsibilities of the Steering Committee, as outlined in the Articles of Governance and the Steering Committee Terms of Reference. These two categories are: job criteria and the desired skills/attributes. Candidates could get a maximum of 30 points from each selector, 10 for job criteria and 20 for skills/ attributes.

After the scoring (where the highest-ranking candidate scored 70 out of 90, and the lowest 52 out of 90), the selection committee decided to ask for references of all shortlisted candidates, to consult on issues like the nature of strategic political engagement and advocacy styles of the candidates.

The selection committee virtually convened to discuss the 9 shortlisted candidates and agree on the two final candidates that would be presented to the current civil society Steering Committee members for endorsement, per the process outlined the Articles of Governance. The selection committee took the individual scores into account, the references, the performance during the interviews and webinars, in addition to their own professional interactions with the candidates at the regional/global level. The criteria helped guide the discussion, as did the ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... to balance candidates across regions.

Last week the current civil society members of the OGP Steering Committee endorsed the selection made by the selection committee, after which all shortlisted candidates were informed of the outcome.

Presented below is the scoring matrix, in full. The names of the two candidates selected by the selection committee be part of the Steering Committee are highlighted in green.