46 countries commit to the international Open Government Partnership

The Open Government Partnership is “a global effort to make governments better“, led by Brazil and the USA.

The concept was announced a few months ago and countries have been rapidly signing up to the commitments required to demonstrate their willingness to take action to improve transparency and accountability in government.

As their website states,

Participating countries in the Open Government Partnership pledge to deliver country action plans that elaborate concrete commitments on open government. In each country, these commitments are developed through a multi-stakeholder process, with the active engagement of citizens and civil society.

Here’s a list of the launch members:

Steering committee

• Brazil (G20)
• Indonesia (G20)
• Mexico (G20)
• Norway
• Philippines
• South Africa (G20)
• United Kingdom (G20)
• United States (G20)

Participants

• Albania
• Azerbaijan
• Bulgaria
• Canada (G20)
• Chile
• Colombia
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Dominican Republic
• El Salvador
• Estonia
• Georgia
• Ghana
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Israel
• Italy (G20)
• Jordan
• Kenya
• Korea (G20)
• Latvia
• Liberia
• Lithuania
• Macedonia
• Malta
• Moldova
• Mongolia
• Montenegro
• Netherlands
• Peru
• Romania
• Slovak Republic
• Spain
• Sweden
• Tanzania
• Ukraine
• Uruguay

The launch of the Partnership occurred a few days ago, on 20 September in New York. 46 countries signed up (about 24 percent of all countries), including about half of the G20, a number of Asia-Pacific nations and a number of European states.

Craig Thomler