Open Government the Global Context and the Way Forward Open Government the Gl the O Bal C Bal O N T Ex T T and Wayhe F O R W Ard
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Open Government THE GLOBAL CONTEXT AND THE WAY FORWARD Open Government Government Open THE GL O BAL C O N T EX T AND T HE WAY F WAY O R W ARD Open Government THE GLOBAL CONTEXT AND THE WAY FORWARD This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries. This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. Please cite this publication as: OECD (2016), Open Government: The Global Context and the Way Forward, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264268104-en ISBN 978-92-64-26809-8 (print) ISBN 978-92-64-26810-4 (PDF) The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law. Photo credits: Cover © @Maksim Kabakou-Fotolia.com. Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/about/publishing/corrigenda.htm. © OECD 2016 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgement of OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) at [email protected]. FOREWORD – 3 Foreword Open government has come a long way. In the past decade, reformers from public sector and civil society from all around the world have gathered into a global movement, epitomised by establishment of the Open Government Partnership in 2011. The diverse nature of countries’ open government agendas has led them to include many different policy objectives, evolving from an initial focus on increasing transparency towards more ambitious goals such as fostering democracy and generating inclusive growth. However, until now, open government reforms in general, and citizen participation initiatives in particular, were built on loosely defined concepts, implemented with methodologies that were far from being standardised, and were not linked to strategic national policy outcomes. Nowadays, there is an increasing awareness of the wider implications of what it takes to implement successful open government and citizen participation practices and how they can help to better interpret and respond to citizens’ demands and to restore their trust in public institutions. This report provides a holistic, data-driven analysis of how countries are currently implementing open government practices, the main challenges they face and the untapped opportunities that exist for enhancing transparency, accountability and citizen participation both in the policy-making cycle and in service design and delivery. The questionnaire and analytical framework on which the report is based stem from more than a decade of work on open and inclusive policy making by the OECD Secretariat. This work includes thematic reports and country-specific open government reviews, and was enriched by the policy dialogue that has taken place in the OECD Public Governance Committee and in the three regional networks on open and innovative government that the OECD hosts in Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and Southeast Asia. The report finds that countries are moving from an intrinsic to an instrumental understanding of open government reforms, using them to achieve broader policy objectives such as good governance and inclusive growth, rather than as a goal in themselves. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a case in point, as open government policies and initiatives can not only contribute to Goal 16 (on Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) but they are potentially beneficial to reach all the other SDGs as well. In line with this new approach, the report highlights ways to improve whole-of- government co-ordination of the national open government agenda; such co-ordination is needed in order to achieve more integrated and strategic policy outcomes. There is a need to consolidate the multitude of scattered initiatives into a single national open government strategy, based on a country-specific understanding of what open government reforms entail and seek to accomplish. To support the ensuing national discussion and provide a reference model, the OECD has developed its own definition which can be adapted to countries’ specific historical, legal, social and economic contexts: Open government is “a culture of governance based on innovative and sustainable public policies and practices OPEN GOVERNMENT: THE GLOBAL CONTEXT AND THE WAY FORWARD © OECD 2016 4 – FOREWORD inspired by the principles of transparency, accountability and participation that fosters democracy and inclusive growth.” The success of open government reforms greatly depends on the how their impact and outcomes are monitored and evaluated. Yet, findings from the report show that there is an important divide between the many countries that only monitor open government initiatives and the few that evaluate them. Admittedly, the lack of internationally recognised guidelines that define the policy areas relevant to open government reforms and of standardised process and impact indicators impede sound data collection and rigorous monitoring and evaluation systems. This report arrives at a time when countries increasingly acknowledge that the complex policy issues characterising today’s political discussions cannot be addressed by the executive branch alone. Some of them are already including the other branches of government (the legislature, the judiciary, and independent state institutions) and subnational governments, thereby moving towards what the OECD defines as an “open state” by including them in the national open government agenda. Nevertheless, the results of these noteworthy endeavours are not always in line with citizens’ expectations and demands. With accurate data and evidence-based analyses, this report will help ensure that open government reforms adapt to the current circumstances and deliver on their promises. OPEN GOVERNMENT: THE GLOBAL CONTEXT AND THE WAY FORWARD © OECD 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS – 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The report was prepared by the Governance Reviews and Partnerships Division, led by Martin Forst, of the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate, headed by Rolf Alter. The report was elaborated under the strategic direction of Alessandro Bellantoni, senior manager of the OECD Open Government Project, who provided comments on all chapters and harmonised the narrative, and was co-ordinated by Emma Cantera, with the support of Simon Schmitz who was also responsible for the data collection. The Survey was drafted by Alessandro Bellantoni and Katharina Zuegel, who also provided support during the data collection and cleaning process. Editorial work and quality control were done by Julie Harris and Elisabeth Zachary. Ciara Muller prepared the manuscript for publication. Administrative support was provided by Michelle Ortiz. The report was written by a number of authors, including Emma Cantera and Simon Schmitz (Chapter 1 and parts of Chapter 2), Eva Beuselinck (Chapter 3 and parts of Chapter 2), Daniel Gerson (parts of Chapter 2 on Strategic Human Resources), Jacob Arturo Rivera Perez and Barbara Ubaldi (parts of Chapter 2 on Digital Government and Open Data) and Jamie Berryhill and Marco Daglio (parts of Chapter 2 on Public Sector Innovation), Craig Matasick (parts of Chapter 2 and parts of Chapter 6), Tim Hughes (Chapter 4), David Goessmann (Chapter 5 and parts of Chapter 6) and Paqui Santonja (parts of Chapter 6). The report benefitted from the strategic comments of Luiz De Mello, Deputy Director of the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate. The OECD Secretariat wishes to express its gratitude to all those who made this report possible, especially to all the countries' representatives who participated in the 2015 OECD Survey on Open Government Co-ordination and Citizen Participation in the Policy Cycle. In order to ensure that the report included the perspective of civil society, the OECD asked the United Kingdom non-governmental organisation "Involve" to contribute to it. The OECD would like to especially thank Tim Hughes, Open Government Programme Manager at Involve and coordinator of UK Open Government Network, who drafted Chapter 4. The OECD moreover wishes to thank the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Data for LAC countries were collected in the framework of a strategic partnership between the OECD and the IDB to produce the 2017 Latin American Government at a Glance (LAC G@G). The LAC G@G was financed by the IDB, including the data collection of 2015 OECD Survey on Open Government Co-ordination and Citizen Participation in the Policy Cycle in LAC countries. OPEN GOVERNMENT: THE GLOBAL CONTEXT AND