Georgia wins top Open Government Partnership Award

Georgia is taking genuine steps to offer transparent state bodies and Governmental structures, and has won an international award for its efforts. 

Yesterday in Mexico Georgia’s Parliamentary Inter-Faction Group won a special award initiated by the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an international platform uniting 65 foreign states.

Georgia was awarded the inaugural Government Champions Award, which aimed to showcase the ideal collaborative relationship between a government and civil society while developing a National Action Plan – an obligation Georgia took in February 2015 when the Parliament of Georgia joined the OGP. 

Georgian non-governmental organization IDFI nominated the Parliament’s Inter-Factional Working Group, composing of majority and minority lawmakers, for the OGP Award. 

In its nomination IDFI said the Group had made an "active input” in the creation of the National Action Plan and put forward commitments which Georgian Parliament was supposed to implement in 2015-2016 for more openness of state structures. 

Open governance is the nearest way to the citizens and vice versa. The modern world seeks for the means to reduce this way and Georgia is one of the leading countries in this process. More transparency undoubtedly means more communication with society,” said majority Member of Parliament Tamar Kordzaia.

Georgian delegation at OGP Summit. Photo by Nina Beradze. 

Creation of Georgia’s National Action Plan included drafting amendments that would make the Government’s actions more transparent and beneficial to citizens. In Georgia an 11-member Inter-Factional Working Group was established in the legislative body and tasked with developing the Open Parliament Georgia National Action Plan.

 On July 17, 2015 the Georgian Parliamentary Bureau endorsed the Working Group’s Action Plan, which composed of 18 duties for 2015-2016. The document complied with OGP Information Accessibility, Civil Involvement, Accountability and Technologies and Innovation Principles. 

Parliament staff initiated two duties out of 18 in the Action Plan. The first aimed at public awareness of the activities of Parliament, its role and mission, as well as enhancement of the institutional image and role. Parliament outlined the need to hold ‘Parliamentary Openness Week’ and establish public education programs that would allow citizens to share their views and allow Parliament to listen. 

The second initiative envisaged establishing new technologies and innovative approaches to get people more aware of Parliament. This included encouraging involvement of youth and ethnic minorities, as well as other interest groups in Parliamentary activities and enhancement of bilateral communication. 

Furthermore the Action Plan envisaged the establishment of the Open and Transparent Government Standing Parliamentary Council, assisted by the Advisory Council (AC) and composed of international organisations and non-govrnmental organisations. One of the functions of the AC will be to monitor the implementation of the Open Parliament Action Plan.

OGP is a multilateral initiative that involved dozens of government and civil society organisations around the world. It launched in 2011 to make governments more open, accountable and responsive to citizens.