Georgia to chair Open Government Partnership from next week

Georgia is preparing to assume the chairmanship of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Steering Committee from September 19, 2017. For the first time Georgia has become the chair of the OGP this year, for a one year term taking the role from France.

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili will officially receive the country’s OGP chairmanship form the President of France Emmanuel Macron at the high-level event within the 72nd session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York.

Founded in 2011, OGP is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.

During its chairmenship Georgia’s strategic goals will be:

• Ensuring citizen engagement
• Promoting citizen-oriented governance
• Promoting transparency and fighting corruption
• Supporting innovative ideas in delivering public services

Georgia was one of the first country to join OGP in September 2011. Since then, the Georgian government together with civil society organisations has implemented a number of initiatives to promote transparency, empower citizens, and combat corruption with the overall goal of strengthening good governance in the country.

In May 2016, Georgia, together with France, became a Co-Chair of the OGP Steering Committee, an executive, decision-making body which develops, promotes and safeguards the values and principles of OGP as well as establishes ideas, policies and rules of the partnership and oversees its functioning. The Steering Committee consists of 22 members - 11 from government and 11 from civil society.

Next year, Georgia as the OGP chair will host its Global Summit.