The Open Government Guide Special Edition: Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
The overarching theme of the 2015 Mexico OGP Global Summit next week is the role of open government in accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Early efforts to link these two mutually reinforcing agendas are already under way with the OGP Steering Committee’s call to civil society and government to endorse the Joint Declaration on Open Government for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda. By endorsing the Declaration, governments commit to use OGP national action plans “to adopt commitments that serve as effective tools to promote transparent and accountable implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
Many OGP countries are already tackling these challenges in their national action plans by promoting 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 and accountability, empowering citizens and civil society, fighting corruption, and harnessing new technologies in specific sectors directly related to the development goals. This means that there is already a lot to learn from each other.
Take, for example, the 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... by the government of the Philippines to promote grassroots participatory planning and budgeting processes in order to identify poverty-reduction projects that will be funded by the national government. If fully implemented, this tool could have an important impact on Goal 1 to end poverty.
Consider, as well, the United States’ commitment to publish government spending on fossil-fuel subsidies and share it with G-20 countries and other relevant international bodies. Regular public reporting on spending on fossil-fuel subsidies could increase accountability on the effects of this policy. This, in turn, could contribute to bolstering the implementation of Goal 13 on climate action.
To support participating countries in using OGP’s action plan framework to spur progress on the 17 SDGs, the OGP Support Unit and the Transparency and Accountability Initiative will launch a special edition of the Open Government Guide at the 2015 Mexico OGP Global Summit. The special edition showcases examples of commitments that address the SDGs. It also highlights illustrative commitments drawn from the Open Government Guide to inspire ideas for future action plans. This edition can be accessed here; hardcopies will be available at the OGP Summit.
Don’t miss the session where we will launch this special edition. We hope this will kick off a wider conversation on how participating countries can use OGP action plans to adopt concrete commitments aligned with SDGs. Government and civil society open government champions around the world are invited to build on these ideas in the coming months with their own ideas and suggestions. We hope you will join us.