The first assessments by independent examiners of the national action plans by the founding eight members of the Open Government Partnership are on track for announcement in mid-September.
These will be the first evaluations to emerge from the OGP Independent Review Mechanism (IRM).
The IRM is a multi-step, multi-deadline evolving process. The impending issuance of the first reviews will be an important milestone. The credibility of reports, done by experts from each country, is considered by OGP insiders and observers to be an important component of the OGP’s overall reputation.
Looking ahead, the IRM is gearing up for evaluations of the “second cohort” of 39 OGP members. The three-person IRM staff and its oversight panel are nearly ready to hire 39 experts to do the next group of reviews. September training sessions are planned.
While the process grinds forward, thought is being by OGP leaders of how to encourage members to add “stretch” goals, and how to evaluate such ambitions.
The founding eight countries are already at various stages in the process of devising their second national action plans. The action plans contain the commitments made by OGP members, now numbering 60. (See OGP timelines chart.)
Multiple Schedules
The schedules for writing action plans and the IRM review deadlines vary with the time of membership. The OGP decided recently to make the basic cycle run for two years instead of one as originally envisioned.
For the first eight countries, the process has been somewhat extended. They submitted action plans in September of 2011 when the OGP officially formed. There were some delays in gearing up the IRM.
The eight governments provided the required “self-assessments” this spring. The IRM hired eight independent experts to take another look. Their draft reports are due the week of July 29. The governments will then have eight business days to look them over for factual errors or omissions.
Announcement of the reports will occur in September, probably at the national level.
Second Plans in Process
In the meantime, the founding eight governments are looking at a Sept. 30 deadline to publish their second action plans.
Consultations are expected to be part of the process, and a few of the countries have prepared draft plans. Only the United Kingdom has posted its draft on the OGP website.
At the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 OGP summit meeting in London, the IRM oversight body and staff members will present lessons-learned reports.
Second Cohort Deadline
There’s a Jan. 31 publication deadline for the IRM reports on the second cohort of countries, sometimes called the “Brasilia cohort” because they joined by the time of first OGP summit in April of 2012 in Brasilia, Brazil.
For these 39 countries, self-assessments are due by Sept. 30. They are supposed to hold public consultations on the draft self-assessments several weeks before the deadline.
For these governments, new action plans should be prepared by the end of March 2014, with a draft plan out earlier.
OGP staffers are giving some consideration to providing additional guidance on the consultation process for governments after they have submitted a first action plan. The existing guidance generally calls for the creation of an ongoing mechanism for engaging with civil society, a concept adopted in various ways by some, but not all OGP countries.
A series of reports about the creation of action plans and the early history of OGP in specific countries has been running on the OGP Civil Society Hub website, created by the OGP civil society coordinator. There are now seven, on: The Netherlands, Mexico, Croatia, Peru, Indonesia, Ghana and Moldova.
List of Self-Assessments
United States
United Kingdom
Draft second action plan
Indonesia:
English version:
Mexico
English version
Norway
Brazil
http://www.opengovpartnership.org/countries/brazil
English
http://www.opengovpartnership.org/countries/brazil
South Africa
Philippines
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