The Government of Georgia hosted the 5th Open Government Partnership Global Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia, on July 17-19, 2018. The Summit provided an excellent opportunity for leaders from OGP’s 75 participating countries, local governments, and beyond to exchange ideas on how they are making their governments more transparent, accountable, and responsive to citizens.
For events involving Results for Development staff, please see below. For the full agenda, click here.
What Makes for Ambitious Commitments in the Extractives Sector?
Wednesday July 18, 2018 14:00 – 15:30
R4D Program Director Mario Picon joined a panel on natural resource commitments and their transformative potential. Openness in extractives can pave the way for sustainable development, environmental protection and reduction of social conflicts. It therefore comes as no surprise that the top OGP commitment category is natural resources. Yet there is still a long way to go to ensure that OGP extractive sector commitments are fully implemented and contribute to deterring corruption. This session presented country examples along the extractive value chain and show how ambitious commitments can contribute to mitigating corruption risks and governance reforms.
Feminist Open Government: How It Helps Inclusion
Thursday July 19, 2018 10:30 – 12:00
This high-level panel featured prominent open government leaders who are accelerating the gender empowerment and inclusion agenda within the Partnership. Results for Development Executive Vice President Nathaniel Heller and Laura Neuman, Director of the Carter Center’s Global Access to Information Program, moderated a frank discussion about the promises and challenges of mainstreaming gender and inclusion into the open government movement. Speakers included the Georgia Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani and the Nigeria Minister of State for Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed.
Spotlight on Reformers and Tools: Fighting Corruption and Demystifying Artificial Intelligence
Thursday July 19, 2018 13:00 – 14:00
This session highlighted innovative projects undertaken and tools built by reformers in government and civil society to tackle some of the big open government challenges their countries face. The session provided inspiring entry points to spark conversations around new networks and ideas that attendants could consider adapting in your own jurisdictions and contexts. Stories from Brazil, Mexico, Ukraine and other countries were highlighted, as well as approaches around the effective use of different tools in tackling corruption and open government objectives more generally. Mario Picon focused his presentation on the Leveraging Transparency to Reduce Corruption program and its approach.
Civic Engagement for Service Delivery Improvements
Thursday July 19, 2018 13:30 – 15:00
This session focused on recent innovative work on the role of citizen empowerment and civic engagement on service delivery in countries including Indonesia and Tanzania. The facilitators, including R4D Senior Program Director Courtney Tolmie and Program Officer Preston Whitt, presented evidence and experiences from the work of Twaweza, the Open Democracy Advice Center, and the Transparency for Development project, followed by an interactive discussion highlighting the role of citizen engagement in social actions to improve health, education and other outcomes. The goal of this session was to surface lessons from these organizations in a dynamic workshop to improve how our field leverages open governance to improve services and citizens’ lives.
