Washington D.C., 12 July 2011

(by Ton Zijlstra)

In Washington the Open Government Partnership was launched during a high level meeting of government representatives and civic organisations from around the world. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota announced the Open Government Partnership (OGP) at a high-level meeting of governments and civil society at the Department of State on July 12, 2011. See video and full transcript.

The OGP is described as:

"The Open Government Partnership is a global effort to make governments better. We all want more transparent, effective and accountable governments -- with institutions that empower citizens and are responsive to their aspirations. But this work is never easy.

It takes political leadership. It takes technical knowledge. It takes sustained effort and investment. It takes collaboration between governments and civil society.

The Open Government Partnership is a new multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance."

The official launch of The Open Government Partnership will be in September 2011, when the eight governments on the steering committee embrace the Open Government Declaration and announce their country action plans.

The Open Government Partnership is structured into four pillars.

• A declaration of principles, which will be open to accession at the next United Nations General Assembly in September.
• A country action plan with voluntary commitments and timetables.
• A reporting mechanism on the implementation of the plan of action.
• An understanding that participants in the OGP will promote the inclusion in the process of civil society as a whole.

The OGP has been prepared by a nine country steering committee. India was part of the nine, but withdrew on the eve of the July 12th event, apparently on concerns of having the required action plan independently yearly reviewed.

The Transparency Initiative at the same as the event released a document bringing together good practice in Open Government from around the world.

All Twitter messages from/about the event are also available.