2 of 10

In OGP’s first decade:

Open government community has grown
OGP commitments and processes have become more diverse, inclusive, equitable
Hundreds of meaningful reforms

– Successes not adding up

– Decline in civic and democratic liberties

Context

World is increasingly complex + democratic backsliding.
Design principles stand: action oriented; flexible but ambitious; genuine partnership; country ownership; innovation and exchange

Key question: how do we change the culture of government and have a bigger societal impact through open government at all levels and branches of government - and what is the role of OGP?

Context and Background

OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP

Since OGP was founded in 2011, it has become a home for thousands of relentless, creative, and inspiring trailblazers, innovators, and deeply committed reformers taking action to make a difference. Their efforts have seen reforms implemented that have made government more open and accountable to citizens.

But the past decade has also seen a prolonged period of democratic backsliding and closing of civic space, while systemic challenges like climate change, conflict and inequality have put major pressure on governments to deliver better for their people.

Open government and stronger democracy are intrinsically linked, and in OGP’s second decade the opportunity is to create a partnership that builds on lessons learned to date and positions open government as a central part of the answer to the complex challenges the world is facing in 2023.

3 of 10

Process to develop the strategy

Community Conversations

MAY–AUG, 2022

— Community conversations about the future of OGP

— Open discussion on OGP‘s website

— Stakeholder survey

Strategy Development

AUG–NOV, 2022

— Summary of community conversations

— Targeted community conversations

on OGP‘s models and strategies

— Open discussion on OGP‘S website

Finalizing & Operationalizing

NOV, 2022–MAR, 2023

— Feedback on OGP‘s draft strategy

— Final strategy, approved by the

OGP Steering Committee

OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP

4 of 10

Vision

OUR VISION IS OF OPEN GOVERNMENTS WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CIVIL SOCIETY AND PEOPLE TO STRENGTHEN DEMOCRACY AND DELIVER BETTER SOCIETAL OUTCOMES.

Mission

OUR MISSION IS TO INSPIRE, CONNECT, AND ENABLE AN EVER-GROWING COMMUNITY OF REFORMERS AND CHAMPIONS FROM GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY TO TAKE ACTION TOGETHER.

OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP

5 of 10

A more political partnership�
A more people-centered partnership�
A more inspiring partnership

OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP

Key Shifts

A more political partnership: OGP will seek to to invest in mobilizing a much broader spectrum of political support for open government and OGP, including from mayors, members of parliament, ministers, and heads of state and government. OGP will also act more proactively when political windows of opportunity open up to quickly ally with leaders who have the authorizing environment, and citizen backing, to take bold steps in a short period of time. Finally, OGP will partner more closely with other global and regional initiatives and organizations to build this political coalition, including leveraging the many regional and global summits that now focus on democracy.

A more people-centered partnership: OGP will invest more in the people - community, coalitions and leaders - that make bold change happen at the local, national and international level, equipping them with the capabilities skills they need to secure public and political support, engage new actors and help spread open government principles and practices far beyond OGP plans. The strategy also places emphasis on scaling and deepening public participation reforms.

A more inspiring partnership: OGP will expand its work in providing the inspiration, data evidence, stories and connections on how open government makes a real difference, with the aim of making OGP the home for inspiration and connections that influences, incentivizes, and recognizes leaders to take risks and innovate.

6 of 10

Strategic Goals

OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP

Goal 1: Build a growing, committed, and interconnected community of open�government reformers, activists and champions

→ Stronger, more political global coalition

→ Invest in leadership development

→ Expand strategic alliances and partnerships

Goal 3: Protect and expand civic space

→ Encourage civic space action and cultivate champions

→ Enforce and periodically review OGP policies on civic space

Goal 5: Become the home of inspirational open government innovations, evidence, and stories

→ Develop, curate, and share high quality content

→ Create spaces for people to share their stories and connect

Goal 2: Make open government central to

how all levels and branches of government function and deliver on their priorities

→ Provide a flexible action framework fit for diverse contexts

→ Mainstreaming open government at all levels and branches

→ Be more responsive to windows of political opportunity

Goal 4: Accelerate collective progress on open

government reforms

→ Raise the bar on transparency, accountability, participation, and inclusion

→ Launch a partnership-wide challenge to promote collective action

The strategy is organized around 5 goals and some priorities within each:

A bigger focus on supporting reformers and leaders in developing the capabilities, competencies and connections needed to create support for, lead and sustain open government reforms. This will be done through partnerships with and between schools of government, and other learning partners. For example, it would meaning working with institutions such as the Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública in Spain, the Regional School of Public Administration in the Western Balkans, or the Organization of American States’ School of Governance, that are working on training public officials on core open government concepts and skill, to expand their offerings and encourage similar insititutions elsewhere to provide training opportunities for reformers. It will also involve expanding and diversifying leadership development programs such as the Open Government Leadership Collaborative.
Retaining the emphasis on action, but going beyond OGP action plans, with the ambition of mainstreaming open government at all levels and branches of government: While OGP will retain its unique value-add – an action-oriented approach with co-creation, commitment, implementation and accountability at its heart – OGP will provide a more flexible framework for action that will allow members to go beyond standalone OGP action plans and commitments to also work on longer-term integrated reforms in national or local priority areas or on open government strategies This new action framework will be developed and rolled out in 2024-2025.
Setting partnership-wide policy goals: OGP will set partnership-wide, collective policy goals which all members will be encouraged to show results in. This partnership-wide challenge will be launched at the 2023 OGP Global Summit An initial set of these challenge areas where OGP will invest time and resources will include the priorities that surfaced prominently from the strategy consultations such as open government approaches to tackle corruption, develop and use digital technologies, advance action on climate change, advancing legal empowerment and access to justice, and a cross-cutting focus on participation and inclusion. While members and partners will continue to be able to focus on topics beyond these challenge areas, OGP’s incentives, guidance, coalitions, events, peer learning opportunities, and communications will be aligned behind the collective goals.
Elevation of civic space as a strategic goal: The trend of declining civic space globally means that it has become an existential threat to OGP. Without civic space, civil society cannot advocate for reforms to make government more open, and hold leaders to account. Civic space has therefore become a priority in the new strategy. The emphasis is on action rather than rhetoric, including cultivating champions who can make progress in their own contexts and inspire others, building on efforts such as the Democratic Freedoms Learning Network. It will also includereviewing and better enforcing OGP policies on civic space such as the Values Check, Response Policy and Rapid Response Mechanism.
Doubling down on OGP Local: OGP’s local government members have produced some of the most innovative and citizen-centered reforms in the partnership over the past several years. Local members are a key driver of thematic ambition, innovation and inspiration, and will be central to OGP’s work on building a stronger coalition of interconnected open government leaders. There will be a bigger emphasis on partnerships with local and regional associations or autonomous institutions that work with subnational governments to support them in becoming advocates and custodians for OGP-like co-creation processes and action plans, adopted at scale and adapted to local needs. This would mean supporting and growing initiatives such as Moroccan Network of Open Local Governments where more than 60 local governments are working on co-creating open government programs with local civil society. Additionally, the OGP Local track will be grown sustainably to serve as a cohort of champions and innovators who are leading on ambitious open government reforms and inspiring action in other places Membership processes will be open to local jurisdictions from both OGP participating and eligible countries.

7 of 10

Partnership-wide roles for implementation

2023 transition year into new programs and ways of working, with engagement of key stakeholders.

Annual SU-IRM work plans to drive implementation

OGP global summits and regional events, and biennial stakeholder surveys will be used to help advance implementation, take regular stock of progress and solicit input for the Support Unit and Steering Committee’s biennial work plans

Implementation

OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP

8 of 10

To be designed with measurement methods that can track both the systemic and individual, and tangible and intangible change. Illustrative questions underpinning an updated learning framework

Goal I: Where and how are the open government pedagogy and leadership capabilities we offer helping to strengthen individual reformers? What are effective strategies to enable coalition building and collaboration between government and non-government actors?

Goal II: Which sets of incentives provided by the new action framework are working to drive greater ambition in open government reforms?
Goal III: What types of coalitions are emerging within the partnership? What do we know about how they design learning and action that makes them effective?
Goal IV: Where and how are benchmarking & maturity models incentivizing ambition in our thematic priority areas? How are peer learning, convening and resource mobilization for reforms at domestic and regional levels leading to global level action and norm building? What about the other way round?

Goal V: How will we know that OGP’s resource and inspiration hub are helping to make open government the norm? How is the partnership leveraging it differently than before?

Learning Approach

OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP

9 of 10

Convene your national or local OGP multistakeholder fora and other domestic stakeholders to discuss the opportunities presented by the strategy and how it can be implemented in your own domestic or regional contexts.

Attend the 2023 OGP Global Summit in Tallinn in September with a high level delegation of Ministers, Local Government Leaders, Civil Society and others from across your government or organization. The Summit will be organized to take this new strategy forward, and there will be opportunities for members of the community to volunteer to lead on different areas.

Model ambition and action in the partnership-wide policy goals, and inspire others to do the same.

What you can do

OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP

1 of 10

2 of 10

3 of 10

4 of 10

5 of 10

6 of 10

7 of 10

8 of 10

9 of 10

10 of 10