The Open Government Partnership has opened registration for the 2016 Open Government Awards the central theme of which will be one of the fundamental values of the OGP - transparency, the organisation said.
Transparency “can potentially lead to a wide range of impacts such as improved civic participation in public life, more efficient functioning of government and the creation of new services with social and commercial value”, OGP explained.
One of the goals of these awards is to get inspired by initiatives that have been implemented, it added. “So what does transparency’s real promise look like for you? Did you use the right to information law in your country to hold your government accountable? Have you used government-held data to develop an app that citizens widely use to better access public services? Did you help organize data in a way that makes government functioning more effective and save money?” – These are just some of the questions being addressed to potential applicants.
Applicants must comply with a number of criteria:
- Submissions should be initiatives that were made possible as a result of the OGP process and/or commitments made in OGP National Action Plans. An initiative can be submitted as long as the theme is likely to be addressed in your country’s upcoming OGP National Action Plan.
- Submissions should be initiatives that were designed, implemented, and/or scaled up in partnership with government. Alternatively, initiatives that are not in direct partnership with government but are directly catalysed by government action will also be considered.
- Submissions should be able to demonstrate that as a result of proactive or reactive transparency in government data/information one or more of the following impacts were achieved:
· Citizens were able to make more informed choices and decisions about their day-to-day life;
· Citizens were able to participate more actively and directly in public policy matters;
· Citizens were able to benefit from improved performance and/or better services from policymakers and service providers.
Applicants should register by June 27. Applications can then be submitted until July 27.
In 2015, the central theme of the awards was “improving public services”. The first place winner was Uruguay for the “ATuServicio.uy” project, which gives citizens access to the performance indicators of health care providers.