Challenges and commitments to be embraced
Commitments should be structured around, at least one of the five major challenges defined by the OGP:
Improving public services
Measures that address the full spectrum of citizen services (including health, education, criminal justice, water, electricity, telecommunications and any other relevant service area) by fostering public service improvements or innovation of the public sector.
Increasing public integrity
Measures that address corruption and public entities, access to information, campaign finance reform, and freedom of the medium and civil society.
More effectively managing public resources
Measures that address the budgets, procurement, natural resources and foreign assistance.
Creating safer communities
Measures that address public safety, the security sector, response to disasters and crises and environmental threats.
Increasing corporate accountability
Measures that address corporate responsibility in areas such as the environment, fighting corruption, consumer protection and the community engagement.
The commitments must be developed through a consultative process involving multiple stakeholders where the government actively involves the citizens and civil society. Developing commitment without input from citizens and civil society is contrary to the OGP Declaration of Principles.
Each commitment should have its own short paragraph identifying what the commitment is, how it will contribute to greater transparency, accountability and/or citizen engagement, who will be involved in implementing the commitment and what the government hopes to accomplish by making this commitment.
There should also be a short discussion on how specific commitments respond to the public feedback generated through consultation.
Wherever possible, the commitments must also identify key implementation benchmarks and related timelines, indicating what will be accomplished during each year of implementation.
Each commitment is required to be
Specific
The commitment must clearly articulate what the government wants to accomplish by outlining concrete activities that will be implemented to achieve the open government objectives of the country or region.
Measurable
Each commitment must be assessed through the use of measurable targets and milestones. Benchmarks - metrics by which the action can be measured - are necessary for tracking progress and will feed into the Independent Reporting Mechanism assessment process. These metrics should be designed to measure the outputs generated by the commitments..
Actionable
The commitment should explain how the open government outputs and goals are to be achieved. The commitment should include brief explanations of the actions, methodologies, tools and processes that will be used by the government to meet its goal.
Relevant
The commitment must address open government issues rather than broader government reforms. The key aspects of open government include information transparency, public engagement/citizen participation, and accountability and the commitments formulated should reflect these principles..
Time bound
Commitment should not be open ended and should have deadlines to drive action. Every commitment should specify a realistic deadline in order to demonstrate progress towards implementation.
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