Open Government Partnership Summary Report Asia Pacific Regional Dialogue 21 22 July 2016

Kia ora koutou,

In July I had the privilege to attend this dialogue in Manila, funded by the Asian Development Bank.

The official report is attached – I would add one comment: possibly the most impressive part of the whole session was to see country reports being made jointly by government and civil society representatives, who were working collaboratively on national goals that had been agreed through the kind of process envisaged in the Open Government Partnership Guidelines.

As the OGP website says: “OGP was launched in 2011 to provide an international platform for domestic reformers committed to making their governments more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens.  Since then, OGP has grown from 8 countries to the 70 participating countries …  In all of these countries, government and civil society are working together to develop and implement ambitious open government reforms.”

New Zealand is one of the 70 countries but the process in 2016, while much improved, struggled to meet this description. We look forward to a more balanced and sustained dialogue in the future.

Nga mihi,

Dave