Georgia won Open Government Partnership’s award
By Messenger Staff
Thursday, October 29
Georgia’s parliamentary Inter Faction Group won a special award initiated by the international platform of Open Government Partnership uniting 65 foreign states worldwide on October 17 in Mexico.
The award aimed to showcase the ideal collaborative relationship between a government and its civil society while developing a National Action Plan – an obligation Georgia took in February 2015 when the Parliament of Georgia joined the OGP.
The Georgian non-governmental organization IDFI nominated Parliament’s Inter-Factional Working Group, composed of majority and minority lawmakers, for the OGP Award. In its nomination, the IDFI said the Group had made an "active input” in the creation of the National Action Plan and put forward commitments which the Georgian Parliament was supposed to implement in 2015-2016 for more openness of state structures.
“Open Government is the closest connection between governments and citizens and vice versa. The modern world seeks to reduce the distance between politicians and citizens, and Georgia is one of the leading countries in this process. More transparency undoubtedly means more communication with society,” the majority MP Tamar Kordzaia said.
The creation of a National Action Plan included the drafting of 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 Action Plan of the Open Parliament of Georgia, composed of 18 duties for 2015-2016, which was in compliance with OGP Information Accessibility, Civil Involvement, Accountability and Technologies and Innovation Principles.
The staff of Parliament had initiated 2 duties out of 18 in the plan. The first of them was aimed at raising public awareness about Parliament's activities, role and mission, as well as the enhancement of the institutional image. The Parliamentary Openness Week and the establishment of public education programs had been outlined, taking regular improvement and diversification thereof into account.
As for the second initiative, it envisaged the establishment of new technologies and innovative approaches, the involvement of youth and ethnic minorities, as well as other interest groups in Parliamentary activity and enhancement of bilateral communication.
The action plan also envisaged the establishment of the Open and Transparent Government Standing Parliamentary Council, assisted by the Advisory Council (AC) composed of international organizations and NGOs. One of the functions of the AC will be the monitoring of the Open Parliament Action Plan's implementation.
The OGP is a multilateral initiative involving dozens of government and civil society organisations that launched in 2011 to make governments more open, accountable and responsive to citizens.
