The Open Government Partnership has disclosed the members of its four Steering Committee subcommittees and indicated that its governance plan will be out before the April 17-18 OGP general meeting in Brazil.
While the names of the four subcommittees could be derived from the minutes released of the governance working group, their membership had not been revealed until their inclusion in a March 12 OGP inaugural “update.”
There are four members on each subcommittee. On three of the subcommittees there are two members from the government and two from civil society. The peer learning committee has three members, all from civil society, including one not representing the Steering Committee, but drawn from the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, the London-based coalition of funders that have encouraged and funded much of the OGP effort.
No names are provided, but the organizations on each subcommittee are:
– Governance and Leadership (Brazil, United States, International Budget Partnership (IBD), Twaweza):
– Peer Learning and Support (Transparency and Accountability Initiative, Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos (INESC), The Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG);
– Finance and Audit (Norway, Philippines, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), National Security Archive (NSA); and
– Standards and Criteria (United Kingdom, Indonesia, Revenue Watch Institute (RWI), and the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness IMCO).
The 17 members of the Steering Committee are listed on the OGP website.
These subcommittees will begin meeting on a regular basis in March 2012 with the support of the OGP Support Unit, the OGP said. The OGP disclosure policy, still not released, did not specifically pledge issuance of subcommittee minutes.
However, the governance subcommittee released “points of agreement” following a late January meeting. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) Among other things, the plan will allow a civil society representative to become a third co-chair, along with two government representatives.
That document concluded by noting, “Participants agreed to create a working group to help plan the April meeting in the near term and create a branding/communications strategy for the meeting. Members of the group will be: Tim Kelsey, Nathaniel Heller, Rakesh Rajani, Suneeta Kaimal, Martin Tisne, Roberta Solis Ribeiro, Chris Vein/Caroline Mauldin, and Joel Salas.”
Governance Plan Still in the Works
The OGP Steering Committee is “working to finalize the draft Articles of Governance, and will be circulating this document to all Steering Committee members for their consideration and approval by mid-March,” the newsletter said. The draft governance plan has not been released, notwithstanding a sentence in the draft disclosure plan: “OGP will actively seek public feedback on draft policies that relate to the overall practices of the initiative (such as the OGP Disclosure Policy itself).” However, some elements of the governance pan have been available, notably in the subcommittee “points of agreement.”
According to the newsletter, “Following agreement on this document, it will be posted, translated and shared with all OGP member countries and the general public no later than the April 2012 annual meeting.”
Filed under: What's New