OGP’s 2023-2028 Strategy sets out a renewed vision for the Partnership as a more political, values-based partnership rooted in specific actions, innovations, and ideas.
In this communications guide, you will find resources, messaging, and suggested social media posts to share OGP’s latest five-year strategy with the wider community of open government champions and those not yet working with OGP. Please take a moment to explore this guide and feel free to contact communications@opengovpartnership.org if you have any questions.
KEY RESOURCES
Since OGP was founded in 2011, it has become a home for thousands of relentless, creative, and inspiring trailblazers, innovators, and deeply committed reformers taking action to make a difference. Their efforts have seen reforms implemented that have made government more open and accountable to citizens.
But the past decade has also seen a prolonged period of democratic backsliding and closing of civic space, while systemic challenges like climate change, conflict and inequality have put major pressure on governments to deliver better for their people.
Open government and stronger democracy are intrinsically linked, and in OGP’s second decade the opportunity is to create a partnership that builds on lessons learned to date and positions open government as a central part of the answer to the complex challenges the world is facing in 2023.
PROCESS FOR DEVELOPING THE NEW STRATEGY
The Strategy is a result of a year-long consultation process that commenced in May 2022 and saw contributions from over 1000 individuals, groups, networks and OGP multistakeholder fora throughout the process. It was approved unanimously by the OGP Steering Committee on 20 March 2023. Detailed information on the process and how feedback received throughout it are available on the OGP website in the Strategy Phase 1, 2, and 3 reports.
KEY SHIFTS AND WHAT'S NEW
A more political Partnership:
OGP will seek to to invest in mobilizing a much broader spectrum of political support for open government and OGP, including from mayors, members of parliament, ministers, and heads of state and government. OGP will also act more proactively when political windows of opportunity open up to quickly ally with leaders who have the authorizing environment, and citizen backing, to take bold steps in a short period of time. Finally, OGP will partner more closely with other global and regional initiatives and organizations to build this political coalition, including leveraging the many regional and global summits that now focus on democracy.
A more people-centered Partnership:
OGP will invest more in the people - community, coalitions and leaders - that make bold change happen at the local, national and international level, equipping them with the capabilities skills they need to secure public and political support, engage new actors and help spread open government principles and practices far beyond OGP plans. The strategy also places emphasis on scaling and deepening public participation reforms.
A more inspiring Partnership:
A key contribution in scaling open government approaches beyond the OGP platform will come from the OGP community providing the inspiration, evidence, stories and connections on how open government makes a difference, with the aim of making OGP the home for inspiration and connections that influences, incentivizes, and recognizes leaders to take risks and innovate.
TOP 5 HIGHLIGHTS IN THE NEW STRATEGY
1. A bigger focus on supporting reformers and leaders in developing the capabilities, competencies and connections are needed to create support for, lead and sustain open government reforms. This will be done through partnerships with and between schools of government, and other learning partners. For example, it would meaning working with institutions such as the Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública in Spain, the Regional School of Public Administration in the Western Balkans, or the Organization of American States’ School of Governance, that are working on training public officials on core open government concepts and skill, to expand their offerings and encourage similar institutions elsewhere to provide training opportunities for reformers. It will also involve expanding and diversifying leadership development programs such as the Open Government Leadership Collaborative.
2. Retaining the emphasis on action, but going beyond OGP action plans, with the ambition of mainstreaming open government in all levels and branches of government: While OGP will retain its unique value-add – an action-oriented approach with co-creation, commitment, implementation and accountability at its heart – OGP will provide a more flexible framework for action that will allow members to go beyond standalone OGP action plans and commitments to also work on longer-term integrated reforms in national or local priority areas or on open government strategies. This new action framework will be developed in 2023 and rolled out in 2024-2025.
3. Setting partnership-wide policy goals: OGP will set partnership-wide, collective policy goals which all members will be encouraged to show results in. This partnership-wide challenge will be launched at the 2023 OGP Global Summit An initial set of these challenge areas where OGP will invest time and resources will include the priorities that surfaced prominently from the strategy consultations such as open government approaches to tackle corruption, develop and use digital technologies, advance action on climate change, advancing legal empowerment and access to justice, and a cross-cutting focus on participation and inclusion. While members and partners will continue to be able to focus on topics beyond these challenge areas, OGP’s incentives, guidance, coalitions, events, peer learning opportunities, and communications will be aligned behind the collective goals.
4. Elevating civic space as a strategic goal: The trend of declining civic space globally means that it has become an existential threat to OGP. Without civic space, civil society cannot advocate for reforms to make government more open, and hold leaders to account. Civic space has therefore become a priority in the new strategy. The emphasis is on action rather than rhetoric, including cultivating champions who can make progress in their own contexts and inspire others, building on efforts such as the Democratic Freedoms Learning Network It will also include reviewing and better enforcing OGP policies on civic space such as the Values Check, Response Policy and Rapid Response Mechanism.
5. Doubling down on OGP Local: OGP’s local government members have produced some of the most innovative and citizen-centered reforms in the partnership over the past several years. Local members are a key driver of thematic ambition, innovation and inspiration, and will be central to OGP’s work on building a stronger coalition of interconnected open government leaders. There will be a bigger emphasis on partnerships with local and regional associations or autonomous institutions that work with subnational governments to support them in becoming advocates and custodians for OGP-like co-creation processes and action plans, adopted at scale and adapted to local needs. This would mean supporting and growing initiatives such as Moroccan Network of Open Local Governments where more than 60 local governments are working on co-creating open government programs with local civil society. Additionally, the OGP Local track will be grown sustainably to serve as a cohort of champions and innovators who are leading on ambitious open government reforms and inspiring action in other places Membership processes will be open to local jurisdictions from both OGP participating and eligible countries.
FROM CONTRIBUTION TO IMPLEMENTATION
Our collective challenge is now to begin implementing this ambitious strategy together. We are suggesting three immediate ways the open government community can come together to begin this journey:
- Convene your national or local OGP multistakeholder fora and other domestic stakeholders to discuss the opportunities presented by the strategy and how it can be implemented in your own domestic or regional contexts.
- Attend the 2023 OGP Global Summit in Tallinn in September with a high level delegation of Ministers, Local Government Leaders, Civil Society and others from across your government or organization. The Summit will be organized to take this new strategy forward, and there will be opportunities for members of the community to volunteer to lead in different areas.
- Model ambition and action in the partnership-wide policy goals, and inspire others to do the same.
Social Media Tools
Thank you for sharing OGP’s 2023-2025 strategy and helping us build a stronger open government community. Your support in spreading the word about this new direction for the Partnership by tweeting and posting to social media will help make governments more open, inclusive, and accountable around the world. If you have any questions, please reach out to communications@opengovpartnership.org
- HASHTAGS: #OpenGov
- SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPHICS: Download here.
- TWITTER: @opengovpart
- LINKEDIN: @OpenGovernmentPartnership
- FACEBOOK: @opengovernmentpartnership
- INSTAGRAM: @opengovpartnership
SUGGESTED SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS
General
Excited to see @opengovpart’s new five-year strategy! The #opengov community has a unique opportunity to build a stronger movement of reformers and make our democracies more open, transparent, and resilient. opengovpartnership.org/strategy
To build more open and accountable governments, we must build a more political, people-centered, and inspiring @opengovpart. Incredibly excited to see this new direction for the Partnership and can’t wait to work with the #opengov community to see it to fruition. opengovpartnership.org/strategy
How can we leverage #opengov to make our democracies stronger? I’m very excited to join @opengovpart reformers to explore ways to make open government the key to the future of democracy and push our #opengov agenda forward. opengovpartnership.org/strategy
OGP’s renewed mission to inspire, connect, and enable an ever-growing community of reformers and champions from government and civil society to take action together offers a fresh direction for the Partnership moving forward. Check out @opengovpart’s new strategy here: opengovpartnership.org/strategy
After co-creating it with the entire #opengov community for a year, @opengovpart is finally launching its plan for the next five years to make the Partnership even stronger and more capable of addressing the challenges of today and tomorrow. opengovpartnership.org/strategy
Shifts and Goals
To be transformative and tackle the challenges of today, @opengovpart will work to be:🧑⚖️A more political partnership 🧑🤝🧑A more people-centered partnership 🌟A more inspiring partnership. This is how they’ll do it: opengovpartnership.org/strategy
To increase the impact of #opengov, @opengovpart will: 🙋Build a growing community of open gov reformers 🏢Make open gov central across all levels & branches of govt 🗣️Protect & expand civic space 📈Accelerate collective open gov progress 🌟Become the home of open gov inspiration opengovpartnership.org/strategy
Over the next five years, @opengovpart will invest more in the reformers of the #opengov community that make bold change happen and equip them with the skills they need to secure political and public support. See OGP’s new strategy: opengovpartnership.org/strategy
Over the next five years, @opengovpart will build an even more committed & interconnected community of #opengov champions by building stronger political coalitions, investing in leadership, and expanding current partnerships. Learn more here: opengovpartnership.org/strategy
How can we make #opengov central to how government works? @opengovpart will work to provide a flexible action framework for different contexts, support mainstreaming open gov at all levels/branches of govt, & be more responsive to windows of political opportunity. opengovpartnership.org/strategy
Protecting and expanding civic space has become a priority for @opengovpart and in the next five years, it will encourage civic space action and cultivate champions and enforce and review OGP policies on civic space. Read more here: opengovpartnership.org/strategy
To accelerate progress on #opengov reforms, @opengov will raise the bar on transparency, accountability, participation, and inclusion & will also launch a Partnership-wide challenge to promote collective action on a number of policy areas! Read more here: opengovpartnership.org/strategy
Did you know @opengovpart will strive to become the home of inspirational #opengov reforms and stories? This will include a refreshed approach to storytelling, a new Open Gov Guide, Open Gov Awards, and more! opengovpartnership.org/strategy