The Amazing Open Government Guide: Action Steps to Accountable and Transparent Governments

One of the coolest things this week that we have seen is the newly released Open Government Guide. NDItech is this week at the Open Government Partnership Summit in London where NDI is launching the Legislative Opennes Working Group focused on parliamentary openness, among other things.  The OGP is a voluntary international effort focused on fostering more transrparent and accountable government. Member governments sign on to a very high-level declaration of principles on government openness, accountability, and transparency and then develop action plans that are developed, in the ideal case, with a legitimate civil society consultative process. The action plans are supposed to be actionable and measurable.

Enter the . It is meant to support the development and then adherence to specific goals in 19 areas currently. These include, for instance, budgets, public contracting, right to information and cross-cutting issues such as parliaments and elections (Disclosure: both of those chapters were contributed by NDI staff.).  Each category is divided into initial, intermediate and advanced actions that are also supported by specific recommendations, standards, and case studies.  All is presented in a highly accessible visual format.

This hands-on set of concrete measures to an open government are an important contribution to the hope and hype of open government and the Open Government Partnership. The guide adds concrete steps, as well as an initial assessment of actions already taken. It allows civil society organizations a way to frame demands from government institutions, and it provides government institutions with very concrete guidelines and innovative ideas to implement, whether they are members of the OGP or not. 

The Guide was developed by the Accountability and Transparency Initiative with the support of an advisory board and many contributors to the specific chapters. In addition to the highly valuable content, there are myriad ways for civil to become engaged in the continued updating and ongoing production of the Guide, including translation into other languages and development of new case studies.  

The Guide is a must-read  for anyone - civil society or government institution - seeking to implement or push for accountable, open, and transparent government.