In 2014, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) is asking participating countries to nominate initiatives that expand and sustain “citizen engagement”to improve government policies and services. OGP defines citizen engagement as:
… the mechanism(s) by which citizens participate in and have influence on the design and implementation of public policy and services, with the ultimate goal of making government more open, responsive, and accountable to their needs.
The theme reflects a principle that is at the core of the OGP model. The OGP is seeking applications from countries and their partners, to celebrate initiatives that have demonstrated marked improvements in the design or implementation of public policies and services. The application requires governments to strongly make the case for how they engaged with citizens in bringing about this improvement – and the scoring process is designed to reward those initiatives that are able to clearly describe any success in practice.
For this year’s theme, a government agency should be responsible for submitting each application and making a compelling case that their initiative is effectively engaging citizens AND is being institutionalized within government. Governments are required to consult with civil society when selecting initiatives for consideration. Governments are also strongly encouraged to submit a joint application with one or more civil society partners.