This chapter introduces the report. It includes the OECD Recommendation on Open Government – the framework for this report – and provides an overview of the concept of open government.
Open Government for Stronger Democracies
A Global Assessment
1. Monitoring the implementation of the OECD Recommendation on Open Government
Abstract
Introduction
The present Report takes stock of the progress that Adherents have made in implementing the Recommendation (Box 1.1). The Recommendation has one operative paragraph structured around ten (10) specific provisions. The Report discusses open government reforms in light of these ten provisions of the Recommendation, assessing the implementation of each of them independently.
Box 1.1. The 10 provisions of the OECD Recommendation on Open Government
RECOMMENDS that Adherents develop, adopt and implement open government strategies and initiatives that promote the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in designing and delivering public policies and services, in an open and inclusive manner. To this end, Adherents should:
1. Take measures, in all branches and at all levels of the government, to develop and implement open government strategies and initiatives in collaboration with stakeholders and to foster commitment from politicians, members of parliaments, senior public managers and public officials, to ensure successful implementation and prevent or overcome obstacles related to resistance to change.
2. Ensure the existence and implementation of the necessary open government legal and regulatory framework, including through the provision of supporting documents such as guidelines and manuals, while establishing adequate oversight mechanisms to ensure compliance.
3. Ensure the successful operationalisation and take-up of open government strategies and initiatives by: (i) Providing public officials with the mandate to design and implement successful open government strategies and initiatives, as well as the adequate human, financial and technical resources, while promoting a supportive organisational culture; (ii) Promoting open government literacy in the administration, at all levels of government, and among stakeholders.
4. Co-ordinate, through the necessary institutional mechanisms, open government strategies and initiatives – horizontally and vertically – across all levels of government to ensure that they are aligned with and contribute to all relevant socio-economic objectives.
5. Develop and implement monitoring, evaluation and learning mechanisms for open government strategies and initiatives by: (i) Identifying institutional actors to be in charge of collecting and disseminating up-to-date and reliable information and data in an open format; (ii) Developing comparable indicators to measure processes, outputs, outcomes and impact in collaboration with stakeholders; and (iii) Fostering a culture of monitoring, evaluation and learning among public officials by increasing their capacity to regularly conduct exercises for these purposes in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
6. Actively communicate on open government strategies and initiatives, as well as on their outputs, outcomes and impacts, in order to ensure that they are well-known within and outside government, to favour their uptake, as well as to stimulate stakeholder buy-in.
7. Proactively make available clear, complete, timely, reliable and relevant public sector data and information that is free of cost, available in an open and non-proprietary machine-readable format, easy to find, understand, use and reuse, and disseminated through a multi-channel approach, to be prioritised in consultation with stakeholders.
8. Grant all stakeholders equal and fair opportunities to be informed and consulted and actively engage them in all phases of the policy-cycle and service design and delivery. This should be done with adequate time and at minimal cost, while avoiding duplication to minimise consultation fatigue. Further, specific efforts should be dedicated to reaching out to the most relevant, vulnerable, underrepresented or marginalised groups in society, while avoiding undue influence and policy capture.
9. Promote innovative ways to effectively engage with stakeholders to source ideas and co-create solutions and seize the opportunities provided by digital government tools, including through the use of open government data, to support the achievement of the objectives of open government strategies and initiatives.
10. While recognising the roles, prerogatives, and overall independence of all concerned parties and according to their existing legal and institutional frameworks, explore the potential of moving from the concept of open government toward that of open state.
Source: OECD Recommendation on Open Government (2017[1]) https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0438
Open Government is an umbrella concept
While the concept of Open Government has only been widely used in the past decade, initiatives to foster the open government principles of transparency, accountability, integrity and stakeholders’ participation have existed for a long time (OECD, 2022[2]). With the emergence of the global open government movement, for the first time, countries started seeing them as one integrated cluster and developing holistic approaches to promote all of open government principles in synergy (OECD, 2022[2]).
Reflecting the way OECD Members have used and understood the concept, the OECD Recommendation on Open Government defined it as “a culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in support of democracy and inclusive growth” (OECD, 2017[3]). Open Government constitutes a change of paradigm for governments, public administrations, civil servants, citizens and stakeholders in general. Intended as such, Open Government touches upon the functioning and working methods of every institution and every individual public official and it has profound implications for the relationship between governments and citizens (OECD, 2022[2]). The answers that delegates to the WPOG submitted to the 2021 OECD Perception Survey on Open Government confirmed the community’s broad understanding of the concept (OECD, 2021[4]) (Figure 1.1).
Figure 1.1. In your opinion, what actions of a state are the best indications of its level of openness?
Note: N=32. Multiple selection possible.
Source: OECD (2021[4]).
Definitions of the concept of open government are now common practice in Adherents. Only six (17%) Adherents did not have a definition in place while ten (28%) had one or several official definition(s) and 26 (72%) had one or several working definition(s) in place (Figure 1.2). Adherents’ definitions of open government are often inspired by those promoted by the OECD (19, 61.3%) and/or the OGP (21, 67.7%) and, according to text-mining conducted by the OECD most commonly associate the concept of open government with transparency (90.5%), accountability (76.2%) and participation (76.2%).
Box 1.2. Examples of definitions of the concept of open government in Adherents
Argentina: “Open government is an approach that seeks to strengthen and democratise institutions, involve citizens in public policy and increase trust and collaboration between governments and society. This approach promotes citizen participation, transparency, accountability and collaboration as a means to innovate in public management and build an open, present and federal state that develops effective policies, generates well-being and inclusion and expands rights.”
Australia: “Australia adopts the OECD and Open Government Partnership's key values of transparency, participation and accountability and their working definitions:
(i) Transparency means the public understands the workings of their government.
(ii) Participation means the public can influence the workings of government by engaging with public policy processes and public service providers.
(iii) Accountability means the public can hold the government to account for its policy and service delivery performance.”
Canada: “A governing culture that holds that the public has the right to access the documents and proceedings of government to allow for greater openness, accountability and engagement.”
Greece: “Open and participatory governance aims to establish channels for meaningful and direct communication with citizens in order to enable every citizen to be informed in a simple way about the procedures of the public administration processes that concern them, but also to be able to shape them according to their needs, to the extent possible, so that public administration processes cease to be time-consuming and ultimately inefficient.”
Korea: “Open government is a principle for the government to promote anti-corruption, transparency and civic space in order to protect the rights of citizens and provide better public services.”
Lithuania: “[Open government] is a culture of governance based on innovative and sustainable public policies and practices inspired by the principles of transparency, accountability, participation and integrity that fosters democracy and inclusive growth.”
Mexico: “[Open government] is a model of collaborative and open public management between government and society based on the principles of transparency, accountability, citizen participation and innovation.”
New Zealand: “[…] Open Government is about ensuring that all New Zealanders have a place to stand, with a sense of identity, connectedness and ownership. It’s about empowering our people, as individuals, whānau, hapū and communities. It’s about strengthening the reciprocal relationship between government and New Zealanders. That means a government that is open, inclusive and responsive, and citizens who willingly get involved in issues that are important to them. When government is more open, transparent and inclusive, people understand what government does and why it does it.”
Spain: “Open Government is a new way of governing our societies and understanding governments and public administrations, based on transparency, participation and collaboration, with the aim of harnessing the knowledge of citizens to involve them in the improvement of our societies. It is a journey in stages that requires the involvement of the whole of society, including children.”
“Open Government is a model of governance in our societies that promotes transparency in the actions of governments and public administrations, accountability for their actions, citizen participation and collaboration with other actors. All of this is based on greater dialogue and balance between those who govern and the rest of the citizenry.” Open Government teaching guide for secondary education.
United States: “We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.”
Source: OECD (2020[5]), OECD Survey on Open Government; Canada: Official definition, 2014 Directive on Open Government, https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=28108#appA Greece: p. 200, Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-25, https://digitalstrategy.gov.gr/website/static/website/assets/uploads/digital_strategy.pdf; Mexico: General Provisions on Archives and Open Government for the Federal Public Administration and its Single Annex, published in the Official Journal of the Federation on 15 May 2017, http://www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5482571&fecha=15/05/2017; Spain: Government teaching guide for primary school pupils, https://transparencia.gob.es/transparencia/dam/jcr:60484b3e-1029-4e9c-88ae-ba470646d3c9/Gu%C3%ADa_GobAb_Primaria_EN_enl%C3%ADnea_definitiva.pdf: United States: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/transparency-and-open-government
Figure 1.2. Definitions of open government in Adherents
Note: N=36. Multiple selection possible. Data for Denmark not validated.
Source: OECD (2020[5]), OECD Survey on Open Government.
The concept of Open Government and its implications sometimes remain unclear or underutilised. Indeed, in the OECD Perception Survey on Open Government (OECD, 2021[4]), more than half of the delegates responded that only few or some public officials in their country knew about the integrated approach promoted concept of Open Government. Moreover, 61% of delegates responded that there continues to be a large variation in the understanding of open government among public institutions within their countries (OECD, 2021[4]). While all Adherents could make further efforts to disseminate the benefits of open government reforms within their public administration and the wider society, OECD research also indicates that public officials and citizens do not necessarily need to be aware of the exact meaning of the concept of Open Government and of the integrated approaches it promotes, but that citizens do care about the implementation of open government principles, policies and practices. Indeed, according to the OECD Trust Survey, citizens expect to have a government that gives access to government information, provides opportunities to engage in the policy-making process and responds to public feedback and demands (OECD, 2022[6]), no matter the name of the approach taken to achieve these results.
Just like citizens and public officials do not necessarily need to be aware of the integrated approach promoted by the concept of Open Government, initiatives that aim to foster governments’ capacity to inform, respond to or interact with citizens do not have to be labelled as “open government initiatives” or be part of an “open government agenda” to be impactful. In fact, in many/most cases they are not. In practice, many Adherents are promoting the different elements that, when taken together, make up an Open Government in a disaggregated manner (i.e., without seeing them as part of one coherent cluster) and, by doing so, have nevertheless achieved high levels of openness. For example, most Adherents have long-standing policy agendas to provide citizens with more high-quality access to public information which predate the global open government movement and, by themselves, have achieved important results.
Nevertheless, the benefits of Adherents joining the open government community and designing integrated approaches to promote Open Government can be very tangible, as further discussed throughout this Report. These benefits including bridging the gaps between existing policy communities within countries (e.g., those focusing on access to information and open government data) to bringing in new, innovative forms of participation or promoting cutting-edge topics such as beneficial ownership transparency. Evidence collected also shows that integrated open government approaches foster policy dialogue, promote policy alignment, avoid policy fragmentation and, ultimately, promote synergetic outcomes that are greater than the sum of their parts.
The approach that the Recommendation proposed back in 2017 was therefore one of integration. The Recommendation made an offer to countries to speed up their transformation and achieve a synergetic and harmonious implementation of reforms that aim to open the government to citizens’ inputs and scrutiny, thereby saving resources and increasing policy coherence.
Protected civic space is widely recognised as an enabler of successful open government reforms
The OECD defines civic space as the set of legal, policy, institutional, and practical conditions necessary for non-governmental actors to access information, express themselves, associate, organise and participate in public life. The preamble of the Recommendation recognises that open government is a key contributor to achieving policy outcomes in the domain of civic freedoms (OECD, 2017[3]). Moreover, civic freedoms and rights are essential to “grant all stakeholders equal and fair opportunities to be informed and consulted” as mandated by provision 8. As described in the assessments of provisions 2 and 8, more and more Adherents recognise a protected civic space as an essential enabler of successful open government initiatives. By directly linking the protection and promotion of civic space with good governance, countries are creating the conditions for more effective, inclusive and impactful civic participation in decision making.
When fundamental civic freedoms such as freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association and the right to privacy are protected, citizens and civil society organisations (CSOs) can engage with government, participate throughout policy-making cycles, evaluate results, express their views and provide oversight of government activities. A thriving civic space emerges from joint efforts by a range of governmental institutions and across the public sector to protect civic freedoms and to foster meaningful opportunities for civic engagement. By promoting and protecting civic freedoms and providing concrete opportunities for collaboration with citizens and civil society, governments can better align services, policies and laws to societal needs. In the longer term, a vibrant civic space that enables civil society to flourish can contribute to more citizen-centred policies and programmes, help to improve government effectiveness and responsiveness, and help to enhance trust in government and societal cohesion.
By fully integrating civic space into its public governance agenda, the OECD is promoting an expansive, joined-up and holistic understanding of open government that explicitly recognises that transparency, accountability, integrity and participation are only possible when the broader national legal and policy frameworks are conducive to them (see Table 1.1). To take concrete examples, open data do not lead to transparency if citizens are unable to access, use and critique them; similarly, access to information yields little accountability if journalists are threatened or arrested for using it; and participation in public decision-making is hindered if CSOs are struggling to operate, arbitrarily dissolved or drowning in red tape. In 2021, the OGP launched a high-profile Call to Action to encourage its members to protect civic space and enhance citizen participation as a fundamental part of open government. In 2022, the OECD launched a report, The Protection and Promotion of Civic Space: Strengthening Alignment with International Standards and Guidance that explicitly links open government, civic space and strengthened democratic governance (OECD, 2022[7]).
Table 1.1. Links between the OECD’s open government principles and civic space
1. Targeted transparency initiatives “have the fundamental characteristic of using information disclosure as a way of achieving a concrete public policy goal, such as improving public service delivery in healthcare, education and transportation, among other sectors” (OECD, 2022[8]).
2. Hard accountability refers to measures that “explicitly name a means of enforcing or brokering compliance”. In other words, there are consequences for failure to comply and the means to achieve relevant aims (Foti, 2021[9]).
Source: Based on (OECD, 2022[8]), Open Government and Targeted Transparency: Trends and Challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean; (Foti, 2021[9]) Foti, J., “Past due: Leveraging justice for ‘hard accountability’ in OGP”; and unpublished OECD documents.
In 2021, the Open Government Partnership launched a high-profile Call to Action to encourage its members to protect civic space and enhance citizen participation as a fundamental part of open government. In 2022, the OECD launched a report, The Protection and Promotion of Civic Space: Strengthening Alignment with International Standards and Guidance that explicitly links open government, civic space and strengthened democratic governance (OECD, 2022[7]).
Data from the 2021 Perception Survey on Open Government (OECD, 2021[4]) confirms that civic space is firmly anchored in open government for many Adherents. A total of 56% of delegates to the WPOG responded that civic space was “fully” relevant to their work, while 19% said it was “mostly” relevant and 25% “somewhat” (see Figure 1.3). However, only 16% respectively said that civic space was “fully” or “mostly” integrated into the open government agenda in their country. 59% said it was “somewhat” integrated and 9% “not at all”, illustrating a need for greater cohesion at national level.
Figure 1.3. Integration of civic space into national open government agendas
Source: OECD (2021[4]), Perception Survey for Delegates of the OECD Working Party on Open Government.
References
[9] Foti, J. (2021), Past due: Leveraging justice for “hard accountability” in OGP, Open Government Partnership, https://opengovpart.medium.com/past-due-leveraging-justice-for-hard-accountability-in-ogp-f3a66b913997.
[6] OECD (2022), Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy: Preparing the Ground for Government Action, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/76972a4a-en.
[8] OECD (2022), Open Government Review of Brazil: Towards an Integrated Open Government Agenda, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3f9009d4-en.
[2] OECD (2022), Taking an integrated approach to the promotion of transparency, integrity, Internal paper presented to the Working Party on Open Government, GOV/PGC/OG(2020)4/REV1, https://www.oecd.org/gov/open-government/open-government-an-integrated-approach-promotion-transparency-integrity-accountability-and-stakeholders-participation.pdf.
[7] OECD (2022), The Protection and Promotion of Civic Space: Strengthening Alignment with International Standards and Guidance, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/d234e975-en.
[4] OECD (2021), Perception Survey for Delegates of the OECD Working Party on Open Government.
[5] OECD (2020), OECD Survey on Open Government.
[1] OECD (2017), Multi-level Governance Reforms: Overview of OECD Country Experiences, OECD Multi-level Governance Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264272866-en.
[3] OECD (2017), Recommendation of the Council on Open Government, https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0438 (accessed on 23 August 2021).