Newsletter - Global OGP Summit next week & more

WELCOME TO THE UK OGN NEWSLETTER!

This edition of the UK OGN Newsletter has lots of news for you to digest, from the OGP Global Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia, an update on this year’s national action plan development, the launch of the UKSSD report on the Sustainable Development Goals, and the UK OGN Coordinator’s Report.

Read on for all the details.

1. OGP Global Summit 2018

Every two years, the Open Government Partnership holds a global summit to bring together the open government community.

As lead co-chair of the Open Government Partnership, the Government of Georgia will host the 5th OGP Global Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia, on July 17-19, 2018. The Summit will provide an opportunity to exchange ideas on how the 75 participating countries and local governments are making themselves more transparent, accountable, and responsive to citizens.

This year, the priority thematic tracks are Civic Engagement, Anti-corruption and Public Service Delivery, as well as other topics for an open track. The agenda for the summit includes a civil society day (co-hosted by civil society colleagues based in Georgia), an OGP government points of contact day, a parliament day (co-hosted by the Parliament of Georgia), a workshop for OGP Local Pioneers, and several side events hosted by OGP partners.

You can find out more about the summit here: https://ogpsummit.org/

If you are unable to come to the Summit, you can follow the conversation online via Twitter (#OGPGeorgia) or follow the live streaming for some sessions, including the opening and main plenary room sessions, which will be made available on the OGP Summit website.

2. Update on the UK Open Government National Action Plan

The UK is developing its fourth open government action plan.

This is part of the UK’s promise as a member of the Open Government Partnership since 2011, to work with citizens and civil society to develop and implement open government reforms.

In June, we published the Open Government Civil Society Manifesto 2018. The Manifesto has been developed following discussions by civil society; an online portal to suggest ideas, meetings and workshops in seven cities focusing on UK-wide commitments, as well as a conference in Northern Ireland. It outlines four key thematic areas:

  • Follow the money in government: Transparency of government budgets, grants, contracts and spending are central to the delivery of public services and scrutiny of spending.
  • Law, participation and policy: More open decision-making processes where citizens can participate effectively will help government and parliament make better decisions.
  • Strengthening accountability and anti-corruption efforts: Accountability mechanisms at the national, local and global level need modernising. The UK must tackle illicit financial flows and build on its work to increase transparency of aid, the extractives industry, and beneficial ownership data.
  • Building open data infrastructure for action: A public data infrastructure will support good governance and innovation, but it must also respect privacy and citizen rights.

The OGN and Government have so far held two Multistakeholder Forum meetings over the course of the development of the action plan. The first meeting was held on 9 May 2018. You can read more about what was discussed, here.

The second Multistakeholder Forum was held on 11 June 2018. You can read the notes of the meeting here, and more about what was discussed, here.

While the plan will not be launched in Georgia, there will be a public consultation launched on the draft text of the action plan. The Network will be updated about this as soon as we have more information.

3. Launch of UKSSD Report

Launched this month, the UKSSD report Measuring Up shows how the UK is performing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the first time.

It is the most comprehensive review of the current situation in the UK conducted to date, and tells us what is happening in the UK for people, the environment and the economy.

Out of 143 relevant targets, UKSSD found that the UK is performing well on 24% (green), with 57% where there are gaps in policy coverage or performance is not adequate (amber), and 15% where there is little or no policy in place to address the target or the performance is poor (red).

UK OGN members may be interested to read the particular chapter on SDG16 on peace, justice and strong institutions which was drafted by OGN Coordinator Andreas Pavlou and to which OGN members were specifically invited to provide peer review earlier in the year.

4. UK OGN Coordinator's Report

The OGN Coordinator’s Report provides the financial and activity report of the Open Government Network Coordinator from January 2017 to February 2018.

The activity report explains the various activities undertaken by the OGN Coordinator, including the internal operations of the OGN Steering Group, participation at domestic and international events representing the OGN, meetings with Government Ministers and recruitment.

It also covers the activities conducted as part of the 2017 General Election, as well as how the OGN Coordinator has supported the implementation of the 2016-18 National Action Plan and the Network’s contribution to public consultations.

Finally the report also gives recent information about the development of the 2018-20 Open Government National Action Plan.

Throughout the activity report, efforts have been made to identify areas for improvement which are open to comment and changes as agreed by the OGN Steering Group.

What do you think?

If you have any comments about this newsletter, please feel free to send them to the UK OGN Coordinator by email: andreas@involve.org.uk!