Bringing New Voices into OGP Action Plans: Stories from the Field
In this new series, OGP Multi-Donor Trust Fund recipients share their challenges and successes in making OGP co-creation processes more collaborative and inclusive.
Stories from the Field: Multi-Donor Trust Fund
To support the vision of inclusiveness, beginning in 2018 a Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) managed by the World Bank has been providing funding to civil society organizations working to bring new voices into the co-creation process. Realizing this vision is central to making governance more participatory and responsive, ultimately reflecting the needs of citizens in improving public service delivery and their daily lives.
This is a series of firsthand stories shared by members of civil society organizations working at the forefront of the open government movement. In these stories, open government actors explain challenges and successes they have experienced in trying to make the process of developing OGP action plans more collaborative and inclusive.
Every Voice Counts: Towards a More Inclusive OGP Co-Creation Process – Sekondi-Takoradi
“Initiatives such as the Open Government Partnership open new and improved communication channels between government and citizens, and enable local government to have better information and be more accountable to the needs of their citizens,” declared Mayor Anthony K.K. Sam.…
Living with Tension and Learning from Different Perspectives – São Paulo, Brazil
In 2019, after following the city’s work on open government for a year, I began representing WRI Brasil (the Brazilian office of the World Resources Institute) in the Fórum de Gestão Compartilhada (Shared Management Forum) of the Municipality of São…
Why Citizen Ownership Matters – Elgeyo Marakwet County
“I’ve liked the discussion today,” commented Alan Kipchumba, an Elgeyo Marakwet County-based contractor, “because the approach used was inclusive, thus participants represented various sectors and segments of society and gave opinions and discussed issues reflective of real-life experiences and not…
The OGP story in Kenya: Building Political Will for Open Government
Since joining the Open Government Partnership in 2011, Kenya has been on a meandering journey. The process of co-creating and implementing Kenya’s OGP Action Plans has been marked by a multitude of challenges, from political transitions to limited civil society…
When Art Makes the Invisible Visible – Paraguay
In November 2017, it was time to initiate the process of co-creating Paraguay’s fourth Open Government Action Plan (PAGA). The previous action plans had come together through collaboration between government agencies and a variety of NGOs, including our organization, Fundación…
Bringing Democracy to the People, One Municipality at a Time – Tunisia
"You know, since the revolution, no one has taken the initiative to listen to us. It was only shortly after the uprising that we lost hope that things would change for the better. Today, for the first time since then,…
OGP Goes Local with a Push from CSOs – Serbia
My first recollection of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Serbia is of a meeting held in late 2013 on the premises of what was then called the Ministry of State Administration (now the Ministry of Public Administration and Local…
Building a Democratic Process in Our University – Tunisia
Academia could be considered the link between society and policy makers, as scholars diagnose, analyze, and make recommendations for public policy. The academic world offers space to discover the truth underlying sociological and political forces and ideological dogma. More than…
Chasing after Collective Intelligence: Crowdsourcing Widely and Wisely – Armenia
“When will it finally be our turn to use water? I’ve seen my neighbor water his crops ten times by now, but the water distribution hasn’t reached us even once this month! I cannot understand this water register at all,”…