Open Government Partnership and UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, supported by IBM Philippines, co-organized the 2016 OGP Asia-Pacific Regional Dialogue, hosted by the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines, on 21-22 July 2016. Over a 100 civil society group representatives, civil servants and champions of open governance gathered to exchange knowledge, challenges and perspectives on how to ensure transparent and efficient institutions, delivering high quality public services for their citizens.
The dialogue aimed at raising the ambition level of individual countries’ commitments to open governance, while promoting and deepening collaboration between government and civil society.
The discussions covered a range of diverse topics, including open data, fiscal and legislative openness, openness in natural resources, public service delivery, how the implementation and monitoring of open government initiatives can be strengthened to deliver better results and how open governance can be used to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Open government is not an end, it is a means to engage citizens in the public affairs of their country, founded on the pillars of transparency, accountability and citizen engagement.
The linkages to the Goal 16, whose targets also address access to information, inclusive, accountable and transparent institution, rule of law, are evident. However open governance brings opportunities for an improved public service delivery across all sectors, thus contributing to the achievement of many other SDGs (health, education, gender equality, etc.).
Recently UNDP and OGP mapped out open government initiatives that are contributing to or have the potential to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region (“Transforming our world through open government”). Initiatives from 15 countries are implemented to achieve open government, enhance transparency and accountability, improve service delivery: they ranged from involving citizens in auditing public service delivery, increasing access to justice for victims of environmental pollution, using mobile technologies to allow citizens and CSOs to monitor activity in the extractives sector, to improving the ease of doing business and linking parliamentarians to rural communities, just to name a few.
The top three initiatives (Check My Service – Mongolia, Community Initiative for Common Understanding – Nepal, Citizen Satsifaction Index – Pakistan), selected for their innovative approach to enhance transparency, accountability and citizen engagement and for their focus on “leaving no one behind”, were presented at the dialogue.
More than 100 civil society group representatives, civil servants, and champions of open governance gathered to exchange knowledge, challenges, and perspectives on how to ensure transparent and efficient institutions, delivering high quality public services for their citizens.
Recently UNDP and OGP mapped out open government initiatives that are contributing to or have the potential to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region.
Initiatives from 15 countries are implemented to achieve open government, enhance transparency and accountability, improve service delivery.
The top three initiatives (Check My Service – Mongolia; Community Initiative for Common Understanding – Nepal; Citizen Satisfaction Index – Pakistan), selected for their innovative approach to enhance transparency, accountability and citizen engagement and for their focus on “leaving no one behind”, were presented at the dialogue.
Visit the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub website for more information: http://www.asia-pacific.undp.org/content/rbap/en/home/ourwork/democratic-governance-and-peacebuilding/responsive-and-accountable-institutions/open-government-for-sustainable-development/
Links to references in this article:
2016 OGP Asia-Pacific Regional Dialogue – http://www.asia-pacific.undp.org/content/rbap/en/home/presscenter/articles/2016/07/27/top-open-government-initiatives-from-asia-pacific-showcased-at-regional-dialogue.html
“Transforming our world through open government” – http://www.opengovpartnership.org/blog/liviana-zorzi/2016/05/17/mapping-open-government-initiatives-are-helping-contribute-sdgs-asia
Initiatives from 15 countries – http://issuu.com/undpasiapacific/docs/ogp_transforming_our_world_initiati/1
