This article was written by, Robin Hodess, Director of Governance and Transparency at The B Team and OGP Civil Society Co-chair.

It may be stating the obvious, but the business of opening up government is the hard work. It's the result of the every day policy implementation, practice and participation — and it usually takes place far from the stage lights and sessions of big summits, such as the one held by the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Ottawa in May this year.

For the thousands of open government advocates across the planet, whether hailing from the public sector, business or civil society, summits are a way to get in touch, exchange ideas and feel more certain that we are collectively onto something big and important. Which we are.

Open government is accountable government. It is government that is transparent about its work and therefore entering a race to the top, toward greater effectiveness, integrity and trust. Open government not only works with, but serves people — all people.

Despite this promise, we still face many barriers in our everyday quest for open government.

Some of the biggest challenges are how to move from changes in rules to changes in practice, a lack of connectivity across the open government agenda and concern that open government will face setbacks in the current climate around data use and privacy.

Implementation gaps

It’s not always easy to introduce or change a law or regulation, given competing policy issues awaiting action and the complexities of the policy-making process. This is true everywhere. But time and again we have seen a significant gap between laws or rules on the books and how they are carried out. Open government is no different.

Take right to information laws, which are a core element of OGP commitments and an eligibility criteria to the Partnership. While ratings from organisations such as Access Info and the Centre for Law and Democracy show that global trends are actually moving towards more and better legal frameworks, implementation is still lagging.

Indeed, the World Justice Project, which measures the rule of law in practice as experienced by people, finds a recent and notable decline in open government, which includes a measure of right to information.

That means that even when people are allowed to request information, such requests are not granted or provided in a reasonable timeframe or with appropriate and accurate responses. The right to information remains a right on paper, with the practice and people’s experience of it far from its potential to serve open government.

Connecting the dots

Making sure that open government works means making it relevant to many parts of government, and making it a way of operating that seeps into public life more broadly.

Open government risks not achieving its full potential when it is up to one branch of government, such as the executive, or even just one ministry, to “implement” it. It needs to be widely practiced, a standard way of operating. Indeed, open government needs to become a political and cultural norm.

open government and privacy need not conflict

Pursuing the Open State, a state whose main organs of power are all committed to open values and practices, is a start to that — which is why it is increasingly becoming a part of the road ahead for OGP. While efforts to open parliaments and integrate them into the open government process are already on their way, opening up the judiciary is now beginning, including the important element of creating access to justice.

The Government of Argentina has recently made an important contribution to open justice, advocating for a justice system that is focused on serving people and providing quality information and efficiency for all. OGP needs to promote an open government approach across all public institutions that shape governance. I’m honoured to lead the OGP Steering Committee with the Government of Argentina to achieve these goals

An Open State can help build the kind of cross-government, cross-society movements we need to embed OGP values in our broader governance models.

Transparency and privacy

Finally, the growing concerns around data and digital privacy place open government and many transparency reforms at risk.

As new worries creep in about the biases of artificial intelligence and algorithms and ability of many governments to provide protection of personal data is questioned, the open government community risks a clash with other advocates focused on data protection and privacy.

Yet open government and privacy need not conflict. The drive within government to be accountable nevertheless requires a stronger framework for data governance — and OGP can play a role there.

Take recent rules to reveal the real owners of companies, which have come about as a result of a powerful push towards corporate transparency. Much is at stake: not only the ability of government to follow the money and better pursue anti-money laundering efforts, but also the ability of companies to reduce risk in their supply chains and to compete fairly.

What is needed is an appropriate set of rules for how government gathers, shares, and uses data

The B Team and many allied organisations have promoted corporate transparency in a variety of policy settings from the EU to the global business forum of the B20, and have supported the development of OpenOwnership, an organisation which is helping governments in many OGP countries establish beneficial ownership registers. In the United Kingdom, for example, the government has worked with business and civil society to unmask shadow companies. The UK People with Significant Control Register, set up in 2016, is accessed 20,000 times a day. In a recent evaluation of its use, companies, financial institutions, law enforcement and civil society groups all indicated they had actively used the register in their work.

In the provision of company ownership information, privacy concerns are real. However, they do not override the public interest case for transparency.

What is needed is an appropriate set of rules for how government gathers, shares, and uses data. As open data and big data become ever more prevalent, featuring the technological advances that enable open government, OGP needs to explore and expand the rules that will help governments navigate their use of data, in the interest of people.

As open government advocates, we know that the road to open government is long. But to travel it more quickly, effectively and irreversibly, OGP members should focus on important first steps:

  1. Make sure their commitments go beyond passing laws and focus more on implementation. Implementation of beneficial ownership registers, for example, offers a promising way to address illicit financial flows and money-laundering. A critical mass of countries have signed up to set up registers; we need to make sure they make this happen if we are to see the full impact of this reform.
  2. Create a norm around transparent, accountable, and participatory government across state institutions and public sector practices. In pursuit of the Open State, for instance, connecting the dots between best open practices in the executive, legislative, and judicial systems is key.
  3. Pursue open data for oversight and accountability of government, while ensuring that governments acknowledge and protect the data rights of people. We need to harness our digital future, to shape it in line with the core values that drive the OGP.

Through OGP, we have a unique platform to build stronger, more inclusive, and accountable governance with open government approaches. If we succeed in moving from word to deed, open government can have a direct and positive impact on people’s lives — while also setting out best practice in the use of people’s data. It’s up to us to shape a future where open government builds trust back into our societies. — Robin Hodess

(Picture credit: Unsplash)