The meeting was called to review the status of unaccomplished activities of the 2014-2015 Action Plan, while focusing on assessment of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative implementation mechanisms, analysing the implementation of the 2012-2013 Action Plan, as well as discussing issues of the OGP Coordination Council activity.

 

In his welcoming remarks, Mr. Zubko noted: "We need to build a system that will provide an effective interaction... The more you are open, the more you are protected," emphasizing that only members of the Coordination Council should be allowed to its meetings. In other words, Ministers who are members of the Council should not delegate their representatives - heads of departments or their deputies, etc. Also, he suggested conducting a comparative analysis of the OGP initiative implementation in Ukraine and other 64 participating countries to learn about other smart practices.

 

According to experts, only 15% of the commitments have been completed, 39% are in the process of completion, and 46% are unfinished in the current OGP Action plan. Ukraine's commitments under the OGP initiative include: public access to information, public participation in policy development and implementation, effective anti-corruption initiatives, reformed administrative services, and the introduction of e-governance. Some progress is observed in the areas of e-governance and open data.

 

Within a month, the responsible authorities have intent to submit to the Government a draft Act to amend the 2014-2015 OGP Action Plan. This issue has caused a fair ammount of concern from the public. They believe that the withdrawal from some commitments is an evidence of problems with management, planning, execution, and reporting. Moreover, this approach is unlikely to be welcomed by the OGP Steering Committee and will affect the results of the evaluation of Ukraine's implementation of the OGP initiative.

 

During the meeting, the summarized proposals of civil society, expressed at one of the sessions of the UNDP-supported roundtable discussion "Open Government Partnership in Ukraine: reload", were presented. Participants stressed the OGP withdrawal from the government and civil society agendas, lack of an ongoing dialogue and an information campaign, lack of information about personal responsibility on behalf of authorities or designated officials, shortage of a proactive civil society in the regions of Ukraine, and failure to maintain the OGP in Ukraine official website ogp.gov.ua.

 

As a result of the meeting, it was agreed to inform the Secretariat of the CMU about the OGP implementation process, including the involvement of civil society; identify the officials responsible for the implementation of the initiative in all regions; ensure the completion of the 2012-2013 Action Plan; establish the Council's working groups on main areas of the 2014-2015 Action Plan, as well as organizational support, and coordination with the OGP Steering Committee.