Leveraging Open Gov Week 2023 to globally connect locally led inclusive governance initiatives: An opportunity for our national partners

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About the Open Gov Week

The Open Gov Week (OGW) 2023 is scheduled for May 8–12. Open Gov Week is a global event organized by one of our partners, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) that promotes transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in government. The event takes place annually during a week and brings together government officials, civil society organizations, and citizens to discuss and share best practices for open government. The OGW editions over the past five years have registered 1,600+ events in 60+ countries, in form of public discussions and fora, hackathons, virtual debates and parades that have led to strong commitments and effective reforms toward more open and inclusive governments around the world. In 2023, the OGW is centered on a global call to action “to transform the way governments respond to their citizens’ needs”; which resonates with what many of our local partners are working on.

Our local partners work to positively “transform the way governments respond to their citizens’ needs.”

We think Open Gov Week presents an opportunity to share a view of what some of our local grantee partners are working ong:

· In Senegal, URAC, a coalition of 100+ community radio stations, is strengthening the use of community media as a direct channel to effectively connect citizens and authorities in most isolated locations. ALPHADEV is partnering with women, youth, elected officials and community leaders to promote citizen participation for better economic governance in five districts.

· In Ghana, CDD-Ghana continues to improve the provision of quality public goods and services through an informed, citizen collective action and engagement with local government authorities. GACC relies on local accountability networks to deepen community dialogues and citizen engagement in enhancing transparency and accountability in governance by retrieving misappropriated public funds and strengthening public financial systems.

· In Kenya, Open Institute continues building systems for amplifying citizen voices and promoting increased responsiveness by county governments while expanding partnerships with subnational reformers across Africa.

· In Mexico, ILSB improves participation and strengthens the organizing skills of young people, indigenous and Afro-Mexican women to advocate for better sexual and reproductive health services. Controla Tu Gobierno monitors implementation of clean water treatment in Estado de Mexico while expanding a new program exploring innovative citizen participation mechanisms for women’s groups.

· In Burkina Faso, Beog Neere leads a coalition with national and sub-national Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to increase the involvement of young people and women in the development, implementation, and monitoring of budget in ten municipalities.

· In Tanzania, Twaweza deepens media partnerships, produces gender-disaggregated data to reveal the differential impacts of policies between men and women, and convenes policy dialogues between citizens and policymakers to co-create solutions, nationally and across East Africa.

Each of the countries we highlighted participates in the Open Government Partnership which offers to all stakeholders in the field unique opportunities to learn from each other and connect globally to share their work and broaden their impact.

Open Gov Week is an opportunity to globally connect local initiatives, share, inspire and learn from others.

Open Gov Week provides a window of opportunities for local CSOs in the Global South to showcase their initiatives at the global level. Local CSOs can organize events such as workshops, conferences, and webinars during OGW. These events can focus on their initiatives and highlight the impact they are making in their communities, while providing resources (toolkits, ideas, training materials, case studies, etc.) that can help others implement similar locally led participatory democracy initiatives in their communities. Local CSOs can leverage social media to raise awareness about their initiatives during OGW. They can use infographics, data visualizations as well as hashtags related to OGW and their initiatives, such as #OpenGovWeek, #OGW2023, #OpenGov and #OpenGovAfrica, for example. Finally, OGW can be a platform to advocate for changes of policies and practices at the national and international level that support locally led participatory democracy initiatives. This can include advocating for increased funding, power shift, legal protections, and recognition of the importance of community-led initiatives.

Overall, promoting locally led participatory democracy and inclusive governance initiatives on a global stage requires a multi-faceted approach that involves, among other things, building networks, engaging with communities, fostering partnerships, using data and technology, and advocating for structural behavioral changes. For example, our grantee partners Afrobarometer and Twaweza are participating in OGW 2023 by co-hosting the “Making democracy work in and for Africa” event, a discussion on the state of democracy and open governance in Africa.

We invite grantee partners to seize the OGW 2023 opportunity to reach the 75 national and 106 local governments as well as the thousands of CSOs that are members of the OGP global network. If you want to learn more about OGW 2023 and how to get involved, attend events, or need tools and tricks to promote your own event, you can visit the OGW 2023 webpage.

About the authors:

· Ousseynou Ngom, Program Officer, Inclusive Governance and Evidence-Informed Policymaking, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

· Tate Barend, Program Associate, Inclusive Governance, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation