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Civil Society Coordination Newsletter - supporting independent engagement with the OGP
March 2013 (#5)
Highlights CSC Editorial on Ghana and Liberia New countries to present action plans Caribbean Network on Freedom of Information Launched Founding Countries SelfAssessments
Dear Colleagues, Ghana and Liberia are two countries that are often discussed within OGP. Both eligible and early signatories to OGP, but also two of the three countries (with Mongolia) that have not submitted a final action plan yet. Last week I visited them for the first time and had a long range of meetings with civil society actors and government officials. The very good news: both countries have a draft action plan, and are planning to present these during the next Steering Committee meeting later this month in London! Liberia has a troubled past, but is on a steep upward curve, with for example, a leading global role in defining the new MDGs and a president with star-status among world leaders. I was impressed by the political will I saw to make OGP work, by a draft Action Plan that aims to focus on implementation of their FOI law, on further strengthening its fiscal transparency and on introducing an open data platform (of course) and a whistle-blower law. Their progress on open budgets is impressive: they scored 2 points on the Open Budget Index in 2008 and 43 in 2012. People like Del Francis Wreh from the Ministry of Finance are the young energetic reformers we need in OGP. He put his own cell phone number on the public budget brochures just in case people had budget questions. And many people had. Now he is working on creating more information and feedback options. He wants to team up with civil society to reach citizens. Their information commissioner Africas first might be able to do many good things as well, but so far he has no budget to run an office or respond to information requests and appeals. My main concern: so far broader civil society has not been involved in preparing or discussing the draft Action Plan. The national Steering Committee only has one CSO member, invited by the government and not self-selected. The positive thing here is that the government is willing and planning to address both. Ghana was preparing for a long Easter weekend when we arrived, which made Accra even more bustling then normal. Ghana has been silently preparing for a lead role on the OGP stage I think. With the support of the World Bank (Gabriel Dedu) they have had a pretty solid consultation process including regional outreach. It was not perfect of course perfection not being a label often used by civil society. For example the RTI coalition felt they had not had the opportunity to make concrete suggestions. Hopefully they will still have the coming weeks. The Ghanaian Action Plan for 2013 and 2014 is relatively bulky ( 30 pages, 13 main commitments and many subs). What I like is that it unravels commitments into smaller steps and spells out who will be involved from both government and civil society side. Two important positive things: they have a permanent secretariat to support OGP and they have a 20 person Steering Committee with equal CSO representation. I see it as a role for the people on the SC to set up good communication with the rest of civil society and make sure their suggestions are included as well. Finally passing the RTI law after more than 10 years campaigning is the commitment that would be great to see rather sooner than later. The government is in favour and has a majority in parliament, so politically it should be possible, no? Let me stop here for now. Next week we will get back to you with more detailed information about the agenda of the next Steering Committee meeting to which 11 countries are invited to present their draft Action Plans (including Costa Rica, Serbia and Russia). Also coming up are the updated eligibility scores, which probably will bring some additional eligible countries. And last but not least, early next week I will be able to finally inform you on who will be the three new civil society representatives on the Steering Committee! Have a great week, Paul
SEATTI Launched in 2 Southeast Asia Legal Setbacks for 2 NGOs in Russia and Azerbaijan Germany: Holding 2 Governments Accountable Self-Assessments 3 Due OKCon Dates Announced New Countries to Present Action Plans 3
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April 12 National Development Plan Consultation on Mexico and the OGP at the Federal Access to Information and This week, the Southeast Asia Technology and Transparency Initiative (SEATTI) was launched. The purpose of the initiative Data Protection (IFAI) Headquarters. April 18. 12:00 GMT Videoconference on Lessons and Experiences for African CSOs around OGP. Organized by the Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) in collaboration with the World Bank Institute For more information Mainly driven and managed by OGP founding states Indonesia and the Philippines, the initiative will also support countries in contact peter@africafoicentre.org. April 22-24 Steering Committee Meeting, London; Agenda will be posted shortly at the OGP website. April 25, 10-11 AM EST OGP Networking Mechanism Webinar on Citizen Engagement on Law Making. With Andrew G. Mandelbaum, Senior Program Officer, National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Cristiano FerriFaria, Manager, Legislative e-Democracy Program, Brazilian House of Representatives.
is to support civil society organizations that use or intend to use technology and media platforms to empower citizens in their respective countries to hold their public institutions transparent and accountable.
the region like Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar. SEATTI is a joint initiative between Omidyar Network and Hivos.
The OGP weblog on Scoop It! that was created by Twaweza is seeking a new enthusiastic editor to keep up it up to date. Contact maassenpaul@gmail.com if you are interested and many thanks to Tiffany Tong for initiating and maintaining it the last year.
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