Bosnia and Herzegovina officially joined the multilateral global initiative Open Government Partnership on September 24, 2014.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a global multilateral initiative for the transparency and openness of the work of public authorities. Its participants are states that, by joining the Partnership, commit to concrete measures and actions in the areas of transparency, empowering citizen participation in government, fighting corruption, and introducing new technologies that make public administration as efficient as possible.
To implement the Initiative, the Council of Ministers of BiH, in late 2016 (“Official Gazette of BiH,” No. 94/16), adopted a decision on the formation of the Advisory Council – a body with an advisory and coordinating role aimed at encouraging transparency and openness of public administration bodies, as well as involving citizens and civil society organizations in shaping public policies in accordance with the “Open Government Partnership” initiative. The task of the Council is to prepare a proposal for a Framework Action Plan for the implementation of the “Open Government Partnership” initiative.
The Advisory Council was constituted at a session on June 15, 2018.
In 2018, three sessions were held where steps and a timeline were agreed upon for the preparation of Action Plans for the relevant levels of government, as well as the process of consultations with the interested public. Drafts of the action plans for the Council of Ministers of BiH, the Government of the Federation of BiH, and the Brčko District of BiH were prepared and submitted for public consultation, while the preparation of the Action Plan for the Government of Republika Srpska is in the preparatory phase.
At the session held on April 4, 2019, the Council of Ministers of BiH, on the proposal of the Ministry of Justice, adopted the Action Plan of the Council of Ministers of BiH for the implementation of the Open Government Partnership initiative for the period 2019 – 2021.
This is the first Action Plan, adopted after Bosnia and Herzegovina officially joined the multilateral global initiative for the transparency and openness of the work of public authorities, the Open Government Partnership (OGP), in 2014.
The Action Plan is aimed at strengthening the integrity of institutions, more efficient management of public resources, improving public services through the use of open data, increasing the transparency of institutions, and improving cooperation and greater participation of civil society in creating public policies.
The measures from the Action Plan relate to the more proactive publication of information on the websites of BiH institutions and the fulfillment of proactive transparency standards, open data in the areas of statistics and public procurement, the construction of a web platform for the creation of integrity plans of BiH institutions, the preparation of a citizens’ budget, and the establishment of effective mechanisms for cooperation with civil society.
