Canada, Italy, South Africa, and South Korea Elected to Lead the Open Government Partnership

WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 16, 2017 – The governments of Canada, Italy, South Africa, and South Korea have been elected by their peers to join the leadership of the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP). OGP has led the charge for open governance and citizen-centered democracy for over five years, promoting cooperation and collaboration between governments and civil society to create policy for the people, by the people. 93% of eligible OGP participating governmentsOGP participating countries and locals – often referred to as OGP members – are committed to working with civil society to strengthen their adherence to open government values. To join OGP as a pa... voted in the election.

OGP CEO Sanjay Pradhan welcomed the new 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... governments. “I welcome the election of Canada, Italy, South Africa and South Korea to the OGP Steering Committee, and congratulate them on being elected to this important global leadership body. Our job is to build a positive global movement for openness and deeper democracy, and act as a countervailing force against the rise of closed government and its manifestations, including restrictions on civic space, corruption and distrust in government. OGP can be a platform for citizens to engage their governments in new ways, and to tackle the toughest political problems in the world today.”

The OGP 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 ... require all OGP participating governments to vote to elect new government representatives to the Steering Committee each year. Countries that also applied to leadership positions on the OGP Steering Committee were Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Paraguay, Philippines, and Sri Lanka.

As the executive, decision-making body of OGP, the Steering Committee’s main role is to develop, promote and safeguard the values, principles and interests of OGP. The Steering Committee also establishes the core ideas, policies, and rules of the partnership, and oversees its functioning. The Steering Committee consists of 22 members – 11 from government and 11 from civil society. This is the fourth rotation of the OGP Steering Committee since OGP was launched in September 2011.

New Steering Committee members begin their three-year term on October 1st.

ENDS

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 national governments, 15 subnational governments, seven multilateral organizations, and thousands of civil society organizations who together have made over 3,000 commitments towards open government reforms to promote transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More, increase civic participation, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to make governments more open, effective, and accountable to citizens around the world.

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

For questions or to set up interviews please contact:
Rachel Ostrow, Communications Officer, rachel.ostrow@opengovpartnership.org

Further information about the OGP Steering Committee elections, schedule, eligibility criteria can be found here.