Tunisia has joined the Open Government Partnership, the 63rd member.
Tunisia in December published its executive budget proposal, an action that gave them two more points on OGP’s 16-point eligibility scale. Tunisia’s score of 13 is just above the necessary 12.
Abderrahman Ladgham, Minister for Governance and Anti-Corruption, wrote: “Tunisia has achieved, since the revolution of January 14th 2011, major steps towards a more democratic and open country. A significant number of measures related to the enhancement of transparency, accountability and citizen participation were introduced in the government program aiming to strengthen openness and good governance in government work.” The letter of intent, barely decipherable on the OGP website, was announced Jan. 14.
On behalf of the four co-chairs, Minister Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Head of the President’s Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight in the Government of Indonesia, said:
“I would like to congratulate Tunisia for their profound efforts to undertake necessary measures in enhancing good and open governance exemplified through various government reforms which include the recent publication of Tunisia’s executive budget for the year 2014. This practice heralds a milestone in Tunisia’s effort to pursue more inclusive governance, particularly in the sphere of fiscal transparency. Tunisia’s commitments and hard work towards this endeavor will set an example across the Arab world and add great value to what OGP seeks to achieve, that is to improve the quality of governance and public services around the world.”
The OGP blog post credited the OECD with have played a major role in supporting Tunisia’s effort to join.
Only 16 of the then 58 OGP countries joined with perfect scores according to a December 2012 FreeedomInfo.org report.
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