(*Originally posted at www.ogp.org)
Written by Warren Krafchik (Executive Director, International Budget Partnership) and Juan Pablo Guerrero (Network Director, Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency)
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) aims to improve the quality of citizens’ lives and their relationship to government. In order to do this, the countries in the Partnership have pledged to work through National Action Plans to improve access to government information, fiscal transparency, citizen participation, and accountability. It is a powerful but ambitious aim: OGP is swimming against a global tide of rising inequality and declining public trust in government.
What’s more, there is no guarantee that improving public information and participation will bring about greater accountability or improved effectiveness and responsiveness on the part of government, let alone decrease poverty. The evidence supporting this notion is promising, but to date not yet conclusive. The Partnership is the bold bet that 66 governments and thousands of civil society organizations (CSOs) have voluntarily posted.