First Steps Towards a Future of Open Government for Bosnia and Herzegovina

This blog is part of IRM Week: A Year in Review. Throughout the week, the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) shared findings and analysis from recent reports through a series of events, report launches blogs, and fact sheets. Learn more here.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) complex, decentralized and asymmetrical political system impairs reform. Yet the OGP process has demonstrated that even in contexts as complex as this, stakeholders can overcome political deadlock to make commitments in important areas of governance. Five years after joining OGP, BiH has started to implement its first open government action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen.... 

It was a political standstill that led to a long and winding OGP co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive... lasting years. Early on, the state-level government established a multi-stakeholder forumRegular dialogue between government and civil society is a core element of OGP participation. It builds trust, promotes joint problem-solving, and empowers civil society to influence the design, imple... (‘Advisory Council’), and held a series of workshops to discuss potential commitments with civil society organizations and governmental institutions. However, the Advisory Council was drawn into a political deadlock that hindered formal decision-making for two years. The lack of engagement from some lower levels of government meant the Council was unable to take decisions.

The resolve of state-level institutions and the most active civil society organizations led to the restructuring of the forum to enable participation of members from four additional state-level institutions. Since then, the dialogue and collaboration between public institutions and civil society organizations has been successful. The group jointly adopted the 2019-21 action plan soon after the restructuring and has established collaborative approaches even outside of the OGP process.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 2019-21 action plan has seven commitments such as the adoption of the Open ContractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... Data Standard (OCDS) in the state-level public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... online platform, even for low-value procurements. This will significantly improve the readability, usability and 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 of public procurement data and could be used to systematically detect, investigate and prosecute against fraud and the misuse of public funds. Another commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... seeks to improve state-level public consultation procedures online that will promote wider participation of civil society. The third notable commitment will make state-level budget plans and spending transparent via the preparation, in participation with civil society, of  a Budget for Citizens.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first action plan demonstrates a commitment to OGP values from reformers in government and civil society. However, the recent design report produced by the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) recommends that timely and proactive publication of information from the Advisory Council, including timelines, minutes of meetings, reasoned responses to input, progress with implementation, and other process-related information, would improve access to information about co-creation and the work of the Council. Furthermore, efforts need to be made which would implement wider and meaningful consultations with the public beyond the minimum legal standards. Yet while there are areas of improvement, BiH would do well to continue and expand on the collaboration it has seen so far. This kind of approach to decision- and policy-making could produce positive results and have far-reaching consequences across institutions – by reducing suspicions, and increasing public trust. 

Moreover, such advances could then lead to much more ambitious commitments that could also address shortcomings in BiH’s efforts towards EU accession. This includes amending the Free Access to Information to bring it into line with European transparency standards, developing cross-institutional strategies on open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici..., or strengthening transparency mechanisms and investigating and sanctioning abuses of public procurement. Indeed, Bosnia and Herzegovina may find that adopting open government approaches to other complex, contentious or sensitive policy areas may help build a more constructive political culture and ultimately lead to more successful outcomes for all its citizens.