Global Gathering and OGP Summit 2016

Global Gathering and Open Government Partnership Summit 2016, Paris

On December 5-9, 2016, I had the opportunity to join two international gathering/events which helped me update my information firsthand on the recent activities and development of various international civil society organizations’ active visions, especially on climate governance issues, as well as inter-governmental initiatives. The two events were the Global Gathering and the Open Government Partnership (OGP16) that were both held in Paris.

Global Gathering

This international gathering was spearheaded by Word Resources Institute (WRI) and in collaboration with the Government of France. The Gathering was successful with the active supports from and co-organized by Open Government Partnership (OGP) relevant representatives, The Access Initiative (TAI), PanAfrican Climate Justice Alliance (PAJCA), Hivos, and Transparency International (TI).

The main purpose of the Global Gathering meeting was to build a momentum for the Open Government Partnership Global Summit 2016. In particular, the gathering was expected to come up with proposals that are actionable and which will be recommended to the OGP relevant stakeholders including leaders in governments, civil society organizations and private sectors. More importantly, an Open Government Partnership Open Climate Working Group has been proposed that can provide space for sharing of knowledge and implementation of open government innovations, identifying relevant tools and supporting the timely and effective implementations of national action plans (NAPs) by member countries.

The Global Gathering was held for two days at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Convention Hall in Paris, France. The meeting venue, lunch and coffee were generously provided to the participants for free by the French government.

Plan/Activities during two-day gathering

The gathering was called to order with a friendly atmosphere including welcome addresses from hosts and co-organizers, brief participant introductions, plans, guidelines and logistics.

The major aims of the first day’s sessions were to create an open and collaborative space for participants, share their viewpoints and showcase projects in their respective regions and fields. Collaborative working sessions were introduced as parallel breakout sessions which invited participants to discuss issues and share inputs on the items mentioned in pre-event communications and planning. Each breakout session has its own facilitator who briefly introduced the objectives and encouraged participants to join in. Reporting was done for each session. Before the day was concluded, the participants were invited to think about things useful during the course of the day and to refine their goals and priorities for the second day.

During the second day, the collaborative working sessions continued. One of the most interesting sessions of the day was the participant skill sharing. Any skill considered relevant to the meeting were accepted, which was done on a 1-on-1 sharing basis. Before closing the day, participants were asked to reflect on the progress made, to summarize key outcomes from the event and to discuss possible next steps for continuing collaboration.

A sample of my notes taken during the Global Gathering

Example: How to involve multi-stakeholders at a local level

I gathered the following lessons/skills from my partner during the second day of the gathering, which is on the inclusion of multi-stakeholders in a particular community or area.

First, the organizer must set up goals/targets. In other words, outlining the things to be achieved for this activity is one important point to be successful. The example given in this case was the stakeholders relevant to the issues on Mekong River development projects. The major purpose was to organize stakeholders that would resolve conflicts on water use among groups and farmers benefiting or being affected by the Mekong River.

Second, recognizing or identifying who are the stakeholders. Any available stakeholder analysis tool can be used to identify relevant stakeholders to make any action effective. Some of the questions in the tool include: asking how much the person/organization can influence, the level of authority, and the resources available of this particular person or organization/group. Or, a stakeholder could mean anything that is influential and can make the goals achievable.

Third, identifying the areas where the stakeholder is/will be working on. Having identified who are the stakeholders is not enough. Recognizing their capacities/influence to do something to achieve the main goals are critical. For example, a stakeholder will be working on monitoring, planning or evaluation relating to climate change matters. It is relevant that these stakeholders should be involved in the planning processes, that they should have their respective roles and that they should be fully committed to their respective roles.

Fourth, having commitments in fulfilling their roles and acting together is very important. By multi-stakeholders acting together, it means that they should find mechanisms to help perform their action plans, such as creating a working group. A working group may include particular office representatives, CSOs, communities, among other stakeholders. The working group should have a regular meeting and can have an advisory board. This group should be able to accommodate and work for various kinds of projects and does not disappear or become inactive if one project is either done/successful or unsuccessful. The actions of a multi-stakeholder can be in a form of a forum, network and the like.

Summaries of OGP Summit 2016

Some notes on the Open Government Partnership Summit 2016, Paris, France

Figures on corruption summit pledges and OGP National Action Plans
(TI-S leaflet)

43 – total number of countries that participated in the Anti-Corruption Summit
32 – number of countries that are OGP members
505 – number of pledges by OGP member countries
253 – number commitments out of the 505 commitments made by 17 OGP members

Three steps to incorporate an Anti-Corruption Summit Pledges into OGP National Action Plans (Source: Transparency International)

Step 1. Search for pledges in your country’s Summit statement. Get some ideas through the commitments made by other countries if your government had no representation at the Summit.

Step 2. Identify and select ambitious anti-corruption commitments.

Step 3. Work with your OGP counterpart in civil society or government

Commitments by member states on climate through OGP

OGP member countries have started implementing their respective commitments in various thematic areas. In addition to those commitments, the government of France and the World Resources Institute have recommended to OGP members to incorporate the following climate thematic areas into their present national action plans (NAPs):

Transparent and participatory process of climate and sustainable establishment of policies at various levels
Monitor and publish climate-relevant policy implementation and its results
Provide greater transparency of information on climate and development in national budgets
Publish climate-related investment risks and corresponding mitigation measures
Make data publicly available to fulfill user needs for sustainable development and climate risk adaptable (Source: WRI)

Recommendations and Next Steps

There is a plethora of opportunities for more Summit pledges which can be incorporated into the OGP national action plans. Such opportunities come when new applicant countries look through the Summit pledges for ideas, create and then submit their new national action plans in 2017.
Countries can sign-up the Paris Declaration and then propose anti-corruption pledges and establish concrete plans on how to achieve them. The Declaration offers opportunity to better governmental anti-corruption work and more open government reforms.
The OGP has created an Anti-Corruption Working Group which is a great resource for countries searching for better anti-corruption commitments and their implementation. (Source: TI-UK & TI-S)

Useful Links:
You may use the following links that can be helpful in monitoring events, information, data and other developments on OGP’s activities

OGP tool box
The digital tools available can be used to help improve democracy, transparency, climate change issues and more. For example, you can get information about relevant legislation and policies from governments, be engaged with stakeholders, make group decisions, etc.

Global Gathering and Open Government Partnership Summit 2016

Global Gathering and OGP Summit 2016

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