Open Government for Stronger Democracies

Annex A. Methodology

Background

On 14 December 2017, the Council adopted the OECD Recommendation on Open Government [OECD/LEGAL/0438], responding to a growing call from OECD Members to acknowledge and foster the role of open government as a catalyst for good governance, democracy, public trust and inclusive growth. To date, the Recommendation remains the only international legal instrument in the field of open government. As of today, all OECD Members, as well as Argentina, Brazil, Morocco, Romania and Tunisia, are Adherents to the Recommendation.

The Recommendation provides Adherents with a comprehensive overview of the main tenets of the governance of open government strategies and initiatives to improve their implementation and impact on citizens’ lives. The Recommendation includes ten provisions in the areas on the enabling environment for open government (including, for example, the policy and legal framework), the implementation framework for open government and the way ahead.

The main objectives of open government – to guarantee better implementation of the rule of law and fundamental civic freedoms, increase the reliability of government decision-making and breathe new life into the policy-making process, with citizens at the helm – remain a high priority for OECD Members and their citizens. The results of the inaugural OECD Survey on the Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions (the Trust Survey) show that citizens want public administrations that are more transparent, accountable and responsive, and which actively engage with stakeholders as partners to reach agreed-upon objectives (OECD, 2022[1]). Citizens expect public policies and services to address their needs and demands, and to take their inputs into account at every stage of public decision-making (OECD, 2022[1]). Recognising the need to deepen and protect the democratic model of governance, the PGC launched the OECD Reinforcing Democracy Initiative (RDI) in 2021. In the Declaration on Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy [OECD/LEGAL/0484], Ministers from OECD Members and four OECD accession candidate countries therefore committed to “maintain[ing] open government as a core element of our democratic systems (…)” and welcomed the OECD Action Plan on Enhancing Representation, Participation and Openness in Public Life (OECD, 2022[2]).

When adopting the Recommendation, the Council instructed the PGC to “develop process and impact indicators against which to measure the implementation of this Recommendation” and to “monitor the implementation of this Recommendation, including through the use of the developed indicators, open government reviews and comparative studies, and report thereon to the Council no later than three years following its adoption and regularly thereafter”. The Report responds to the Council’s instruction and provides an overview of the implementation of the Recommendation by Adherents. It also demonstrates the current relevance of open government approaches, policies and practices, in particular in the context of the RDI.

Methodology

The Working Party on Open Government (WPOG) was established by the PGC in 2019 [GOV/PGC/M(2019)2 and CE(2019)6] to support the implementation of the Recommendation and develop related indicators.

Evidence of Adherents’ implementation of the Recommendation was collected through two dedicated Surveys to inform the present Report: the 2020 OECD Survey on Open Government and the 2021 OECD Perception Survey for Delegates of the WPOG, as well as through OECD Open Government Reviews and Scans.

The 2020 OECD Survey on Open Government (SOG) (OECD, 2020[3]) covers all ten provisions of the Recommendation, organised into four sections. The data was collected between 16 November 2020 and 5 February 2021, and responses went through a data validation process. 35 out of 43 Adherents to the Recommendation completed the full Survey and 4 answered selected parts of the Survey. All Adherents that responded to the Survey, whether in full or in part, are referred to as “Respondents”.

The OECD conducted a Perception Survey at the WPOG meeting on 24 November 2021 (OECD, 2021[4]). The Survey captured the anonymous, individual views of 32 WPOG country delegates who work on implementing the Recommendation on a daily basis.

The Report also benefitted from the close partnership with the Open Government Partnership (OGP). At the time of the Report drafting, 29 out of 38 OECD Members and 34 out of 43 Adherents to the Recommendation were OGP members. The Report therefore includes several sections that specifically discuss how the design and implementation of those Adherents’ OGP Action Plans contributed to the implementation of the Recommendation.

Process

The Report process began in early 2020 with the development of the OECD Survey on Open Government which was piloted in seven Member and non-Member countries. The OGP and numerous non-public stakeholders provided comments on early drafts of the Survey over the course of 2020. The results from the WPOG Perception Survey in November 2021, and discussions and comments from the delegates at the meeting provided the basis for the first draft of the Report.

The main findings and conclusions of the first draft of the Report [GOV/PGC/OG(2023)3] were presented and discussed at the March 2023 meeting of the WPOG, with a deadline of 18 May 2023 for comments. No substantive comments were received.

A revised version of the Report was approved by PGC written procedure on 23 June 2023 [GOV/PGC/OG(2023)3/REV1]. The final version was shared with the PGC and includes adjustments requested by delegations [GOV/PGC/OG(2023)3/FINAL].

Dissemination

The dissemination of the Recommendation has raised awareness and promoted the relevance and benefits of open government policies and practices among Adherents. It has proven to be a valuable instrument for securing political support for open government, shaping policy debates at international, national and sub-national levels, and providing guidance to Adherents in the implementation of open government agendas. The implementation assessment also shows that, while dissemination efforts have been successful overall, more attention could be given to dissemination at the sub-national level and in all branches of the State. Dissemination can be promoted further by translating the Recommendation into relevant languages, including Arabic.

Continued relevance

The Report’s findings show that the Recommendation continues to be highly relevant and is a key component of the RDI and its Action Plan on Enhancing Representation, Participation, and Openness in Public Life. The Recommendation therefore in its current form continues to be fit for purpose and does not raise a need for further actions.

At the same time, the Report identifies areas of work which have become more relevant in recent years and are not fully reflected in the Recommendation’s focus on open government policies and initiatives. Areas for further consideration include the need for a whole-of-government approach to participation, and an examination of the most appropriate ways to engage different stakeholders at different stages of the policy process and on different types of policy issues in a representative and innovative way. The need for promoting and protecting civic space as a precondition for open government practices in general, and participation in particular, has also emerged as a priority area for Adherents.

More comparative analysis is needed to fully understand issues related to participation and representation and how they affect the evolution of representative democracy. Once understanding is more mature, Adherents may consider the development of high-level policy principles that could be embodied in a new standard taking into account developments since the adoption of the Recommendation, including emerging trends and challenges in the area of participation and civic space. The PGC’s work on reinforcing democracy, including the OECD Citizen Participation Index, provides a context to align efforts in Adherents’ policy communities to ensure recognition of the Recommendation's continued relevance in today’s challenging times and complement it with guidance in related policy areas.

Based on a presentation of selected key findings of the Report during the March 2023 WPOG meeting, delegates invited the Secretariat to prepare a scoping note on how to better advance work on civic space and participation, including by identifying high-level principles that could be embodied in a new standard. The Chair of the WPOG stressed that such an initiative would be in line with the mandate given to the OECD through the Action Plan on Enhancing Representation, Participation, and Openness in Public Life.

When approving the Report, the PGC supported a number of follow up actions for Council’s consideration, in particular to continue supporting the Recommendation and report back on its implementation, dissemination and continued relevance in five years [GOV/PGC/OG(2023)3/FINAL].

References

[2] OECD (2022), ANNEX B. ACTION PLAN ON ENHANCING REPRESENTATION, PARTICIPATION AND OPENNESS IN PUBLIC LIFE, https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/api/download/?uri=/private/temp/738eb876-e834-4df3-b75d-bfd8899d71bd.pdf&name=Annex%20B.%20Action%20Plan%20on%20Enhancing%20Representation,%20Participation%20and%20Openness%20in%20Public%20Life.pdf.

[1] OECD (2022), Building Trust to Reinforce Democracy: Main Findings from the 2021 OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions, Building Trust in Public Institutions, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b407f99c-en.

[4] OECD (2021), Perception Survey for Delegates of the OECD Working Party on Open Government.

[3] OECD (2020), OECD Survey on Open Government.