The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an initiative launched in 2011 as an international platform for domestic reformers dedicated to the process of making government work more open, accountable, and acceptable to citizens. Starting with just eight countries, the Partnership has expanded to 75 countries and 194 local governments, representing more than two billion people and thousands of civil society organizations.
On September 24, 2014, Bosnia and Herzegovina officially joined this multilateral global initiative.
The Open Government Partnership is a global multilateral initiative for the transparency and openness of public authorities. Its members are countries that, by joining, commit to taking concrete actions in the areas of transparency, empowering citizen participation in government, fighting corruption, and introducing new technologies to make public administration more efficient.
At the core of the OGP initiative are the values from the Declaration on Open Government. By agreeing to join OGP, member countries express:
- Awareness of the need for open government: The recognition that citizens want a more open government, to participate in public life, and for their government to be transparent, accountable, efficient, and responsive to their needs.
- An individual approach to Initiative membership: Each country chooses its own approach to participating in the Partnership, in line with its national priorities, circumstances, and citizens’ desires.
- Responsible fulfillment of obligations: Accepting the responsibility to undertake commitments that promote transparency, combat corruption, empower citizens, and use new technologies to create a more efficient and accountable government.
- Openness in cooperation with citizens and promotion of transparency: Upholding the principles of openness in the joint efforts of the government and citizens to ensure progress, innovation, and community security, and accepting the principles of transparency and open government to achieve a higher level of well-being, welfare, and human dignity.
The principles of the Open Government Partnership and the implementation of measures within this initiative are directly linked to the implementation of public administration reform, which is one of the EU’s priority requirements and a key pillar in the enlargement process, alongside the rule of law and economic governance. As a member of the Initiative, BiH supports its principles, which are consistent with the general principles of public administration reform focused on creating an efficient, transparent, accountable, and modern public administration. The goal is for this administration to base its work on the best practices and principles of the European administrative space and to genuinely work for the benefit of citizens by providing fast and reliable services.
BiH implemented its first action plan during the 2019-2021 period, and the implementation of the second action plan for the 2022-2024 period is underway. The second Action Plan of Bosnia and Herzegovina contains three promising commitments: to develop an open data portal, publish public procurement data, and increase the transparency of government financing for media and civil society. However, political crisis has negatively affected the adoption of the action plan. Continuous engagement with a multi-stakeholder forum, despite such crises, would encourage implementation and ensure oversight in cooperation with civil society. You can find more information here.
The action plans were developed in cooperation with civil society in BiH, within the Advisory Council for OGP Implementation. Support for OGP implementation in BiH is provided by the Ministry of Justice of BiH and the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office. For more information on the activities of this body, you can visit the website of the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
