On 18 November 2022, the OGP Euskadi Open Forum was held in Bilbao. In her opening remarks, the Basque Minister for Public Governance and Self-Government, Olatz Garamendi, highlighted the Basque model of open government promoted in recent years by the Basque Government and other public administrations in the Basque Country. After pointing out that a multilevel governance model is being built in the Basque Country, Olatz Garamendi advocated that the administration should continue to bring citizens and citizens closer to the administrations. She also argued that decisions to make public policies should be “inclusive”, in two senses, because “just as important as coordination between the different levels of government is the interaction of the levels of government with citizens, because they are the ultimate recipients of public action.”
She explained that the Basque institutions involved in this project “collaborate in the construction of necessary and interesting tools and actions for administrations and citizens, with a shared vision, building our own open model.”
At the event, Rudi Borrmann, an expert in the field of open government, stressed that the Basque Country has always been a reference for the Open Government Partnership: “the Basque Country has always been an international reference in this area and a model of shared action plans.” He also valued the actions carried out in the Basque Country to maintain regular forums with civil society in the long term. “This process often fails and after the first push it becomes difficult, because that initial cooperative energy is lost,” he said.
Borrmann’s words were followed by the presentation of the Elkarlan and Open Data awards. Minister Garamendi congratulated the authors of the projects that received the Elkarlan Awards (2021) and the Open Data Awards (2022). The former recognise the Basque Country’s innovative empowerment efforts with new ways of empowering or giving independence to a person or group of people. They also aim to promote a network of people and projects that help create new forms of citizen participation. The Open Data the Basque Country awards recognise ideas and applications for reusing open data from the catalogues of Basque public administrations.
Finally, those responsible for each of the commitments of the 2nd OGP Euskadi Action Plan gave an account of the work carried out and the commitments acquired in their area. The meeting also served to share the monitoring of the plan that OGP Euskadi has drawn up in collaboration with Basque citizens for the period 2021-2024.
The seventh edition of the Elkarlan Awards promoted by the Department of Public Governance and Self-Government, through the Directorate of Citizen Services and Digital Services, counted on the participation of 45 projects. The four winners are:
- NAGUSILAN VOLUNTARIADO SOCIAL DE MAYORES
Nagusilan, 25 urte (MP4, 215 MB)
- ASOCIACIÓN RED EUROPEA DE LUCHA CONTRA LA POBREZA Y LA EXCLUSIÓN (EAPN)
- ASOCIACIÓN INNOVACIÓN CULTURAL, ARTES Y SOCIEDAD, ARTEHAZIA
- EMAUS FUNDACIÓN SOCIAL
Birsortu. Video 1, Video 2, Video 3
In this fourth edition of the awards, the winning projects and ideas are:
- BEST APPLICATION
Unai Antero - enEKO: Intelligent Assistant for Energy Saving.
- SECOND BEST APPLICATION
Ander Fernández - iApparca: Find the nearest free parking space thanks to Artificial Intelligence.
- BEST IDEA
Adriana Aguirre, Mathilde Marengo and Iacopo Neri - Lur:A DSS for sustainable strategic planning based on multifunctional value of land.
- SECOND BEST IDEA
Sergio Díaz and Antonio José Sáez - With OpenData my allergy is no longer a problem.
- Commitment 1. Covid-19 Observatory in the city and adaptation of services to the public
- Commitment 2. Transparency and accountability tool in budgetary matters
- Commitment 3. OPEN ESKOLA: development and strengthening of citizenship
- Commitment 4. Tool to promote the collection of proposals and adhesions for popular legislative/normative/regulatory initiatives in the Basque Country
- Commitment 5. ALTXOR: Online service and semi-face-to-face pilot offices for information, guidance, intermediation and support for the life projects of the elderly
