With the only a few days to go before the Sept. 20 launch event, 43 countries have agreed to join the Open Government Partnership.
The latest seven to appear on the official list are: the Czech Republic, El Salvador, Latvia, Peru, South Korea, Sweden and Ukraine.
The list is: Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Peru, Slovak Republic, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey and Ukraine.
The original eight member countries are: the United States and Brazil (co-chairs), South Africa, the United Kingdom, Norway, Mexico, Indonesia and the Philippines. Seventy-nine countries were eligible under OGP criteria.
At 2 p.m. Sept. 20 in New York, U.S. President Obama and Brazilian President Rousseff, along with other heads of state, will appear at the kick-off event.
The founding eight countries will endorse an Open Government Declaration, still undisclosed, and announce their national action plans, according to information from the State Department. “The founding governments will also welcome the commitment of a large number of governments to join OGP and to deliver their action plans in March 2012 in Brazil.”
Also that day, a “Power of Open” event is being held, at the New York headquarters of Google, to be attended by 150 invited openness activists and officials.
The agenda includes a speech by Philippines President Benigno Aquino, who is under criticism for his still uncertain stance on long-ending freedom of information legislation. The Philippines coalition supporting FOI legislation earlier this week sent a strong letter to Aguino. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
(For other FreedomInfo.org reports on the OGP, click on “open government partnership” under “latest tags.”)
OGP organizers have indicated on the OGP website that the Sept. 20 events will be live streamed on OpenGovPartnership Youtube Channel.
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