It is widely recognized that poor governance in state affairs is a major challenge for the country's development and public service delivery. People have been suffering from the impact of poor governance in Nepal. Nepalese live in a democracy where citizens participate in electing leaders, but the ballot box alone may not be sufficient for meeting people's aspirations and needs. Nepal state has made a commitment to democratic governance through its Constitution, and subsequent governments have been echoing the same. The government of Nepal has ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and several human rights covenants, enacted governance laws, and set up the National Information Commission and E-governance Commission, among others. The government has emphasized governance reforms in its Common Minimum Program and annual policies and programs for the fiscal year 2023/24.
Minimum government and maximum governance are fundamental for good governance. Good governance has been promoted internationally for a long time and has been integrated into the Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable Development Goals, and other bilateral and multilateral development efforts. Various studies carried out in the field of good governance concluded that there is a need to devise a new generation of governance interventions. The studies suggested that a partnership between the government and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) is imperative to enhance transparency and accountability, including combating corruption. However, there had been no effective mechanism and procedures to advance such collaborations. In order to fulfill the desire and need for effective governance, a campaign of Open Government Partnership (OGP) was conceived in 2011 during the United Nations General Assembly. Eight reform-minded countries and nine CSOs established the OGP by issuing a four-point declaration to advance a partnership campaign among the government, the CSOs, and the private sector for governance reforms. The OGP is a multilateral initiative to advance commitment from national and sub-national governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness technologies to strengthen governance.
In particular, the OGP aims to i) improve the democratic system of governance, strengthen the partnership between the government, CSOs, and the private sector; ii) identify the role and contribution of the government, CSOs, and private sector; develop innovative reform plans of actions, jointly implement them and hold each other mutually accountable for actions or inactions; and iii) provide a common platform to government, CSOs, and private sector reformers to share the collective and replicable practices. The OGP encourages and supports committed reformers to make the government more open, responsible, and accountable to its citizens. It follows a set of principles, such as the participation of stakeholders, government-CSOs-private sector co-creation of reform actions, promotion of inclusion and diversity, open data, dissemination, and use of information for public importance, transparency, and accountability. The OGP has established a specialized working group on fiscal openness, legislative openness, access to information, anti-corruption, open data, openness in natural resources, and open climate to advance the campaign effectively.
OGP is a non-binding optional platform where governments and CSOs can join, learn, and contribute to advancing governance reforms. The government's commitment to openness in governance and collaboration with CSOs and the private sector is essential. The OGP has set minimum eligibility criteria for countries to become members. They include i) the right to information law and its implementation; ii) government financial transparency, iii) legal obligation of asset disclosure by public officials; and iv) citizen's engagement in governance. Seventy-five countries, 104 local governments, and thousands of CSOs are part of the OGP campaign, which has implemented over 3000 reforms. United Nations and bilateral and multilateral development agencies have been supporting this campaign, including setting up the OGP Multi-Donor Trust Fund.
The OGP campaign has demonstrated a few notable reforms. For example, an audit identified ghost clinics in Nigeria and substantially improved health service delivery. In Ukraine, the media found extravagantly inflated government contract prices awarded to the powerful oligarchs. In Costa Rica, the campaign facilitated settlement of the violent conflict, improved health and education services, and promoted social inclusion. In Georgia, the government established a public service hall (one-stop-shop) where citizens receive 300 services within a short period. All the services are digitized and provided through one window. It has reduced citizens' time and cost, significantly improved government efficiency, and reduced corruption.
The OGP has developed a new approach to support governance reforms like the joint creation and implementation of reforms by government, CSOs, and private sector, citizen's monitoring of government works, disclosure of assets of public officials, and open contracts. The OGP campaign has yielded enormous benefits around the globe, such as reducing corruption by disclosing procurement contracts, equitable allocation of budget by engaging citizens in the budget formulation process, tackling systemic inequalities by empowering marginalized groups, reducing gender wage gaps, tracking illicit wealth and ending anonymous companies, improving reproductive health services, delivery of life-saving medicines, shaping public policies that impact the lives of citizens, among many others. The private sector actors, including corporations, financial institutions, investors, and government contractors, have a strong stake in open government as it has the power to prevent corruption, reduce transaction costs, increase efficiency, and cultivate an enabling business environment.
The OGP has been organizing the Global Summit since its beginning. The 8th Summit in Estonia on 6-7 September 2023 brought over 1,500 open government reformers together, including heads of state and government, civil society, and policymakers from 104 countries. Nepal also participated in the summit under the leadership of the Secretary of the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. The Summit focused on cutting-edge digital governance, open government values of transparency, accountability, and participation, and combatting corruption. It did attempt to address emerging global challenges like the crisis in democracy reflecting rising authoritarianism and populism, the crisis of inequality in terms of race, gender, and income, plummeting public trust in government, overcoming the impact of a pandemic health crisis, and climate crisis, among others. The OGP chairpersonship is handed over to the government of Kenya, and the government of Spain will be succeeded in 2024. They will lead the implementation of OGP summit resolutions and action plans. The OGP Steering Committee issued a 10-point commitment (OGP Steering Committee Tallinn Commitment (opengovpartnership.org), including providing high-level support to forge broader and stronger coalitions of reforms and to enhance the capacity of governments to implement open government commitments.
It might be highly advantageous for Nepal to become a member of OGP. Key benefits to Nepal include i) the opportunity to express its commitment to good governance in an international forum, which might strengthen the confidence of international stakeholders and investors in Nepal; ii) the opportunity to present Nepal's best practices in governance reforms and be recognized as champion; iii) learn from reforms undertaken in other countries by governments and civil society and implement them in Nepal; iv) develop governance reform champions within the country and link them with the reformers in other countries for mutual exchange; and v) receive technical and financial support for building Nepal's capacity for critical governance reforms.
Krishna Pathak is a governance expert.