OGP Africa Outreach Planning Meeting

ODAC have been alerted to a meeting that will be led by the Department of Public Services and Administration that will plan how to take the Open Government Partnership forward across the continent. The details are as follows:

Date: 30 November 2012
Time: 09h30 am -15h30pm
Venue: Southern Sun OR Tambo Airport (Johannesburg)

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to Ms Carla Motaung at : “CarlaM at dpsa dot gov dot za”.

To help you decide on whether or not you should attend, if have attached the OGP Africa Meeting Draft Agenda for download.

ODAC will soon also be announcing details about our collaborative project with the African Freedom of Information Centre to forward regional OGP efforts, as a civil society-led initiative to drive open government change.

South Africa’s “informal” progress report

After providing civil society with virtually no time at all to assess the Progress Report it tabled, as well as failing to provide civil society assessors with any of the relevant documents, government tabled an “informal progress report” that was apparently as the one we provide for your view below. ODAC’s assessment of their report was included, and we would reiterate our “deep distress” at the manner in which the South African government has so far chosen to develop its own commitments (in spite of ambitious goals for forwarding regional commitments).

While we will present a comprehensive response on our year’s “progress” shortly, we have made the document available as the OGP Commitments_Progress Report_21 September for all to assess themselves as well. It is our progress after a year, and just as a taster it is worth noting that government has consistently reported back on seven commitments  after being alerted by civil society that eight commitments were tabled before the OGP session in 2011 on several different occasions. Even though the commitments have been shown to be largely based on work the Department of Public and Services and Administration and others should have been completing anyway, the progress is unimpressive. Add to this the dismal levels of public consultation and the picture begins to look even bleaker.

ODAC hopes that the government will soon be able to equate its lack of progress with its lack of consultation.

Civil Society Stakeholder Meeting postponed again.

Following on from the disappointments that surrounded the previous e-consultation initiated a few weeks ago, the Department of Public Services and Administration has had to postpone indefinitely the OGP Civil Society Stakeholder meeting that had been scheduled for 14 November in Cape Town. As soon as we receive information as to the new proposed date and participation details for the re-scheduled meeting, we will post them to the blog and disseminate as widely as we can.

ODAC are very disappointed that the OGP stakeholder meeting with government has been cancelled. This is the last in a series of cancellations. The commitments made by the South African government to the OGP process require that civil society be involved in the OGP process at all stages. The OGP commitments are listed here and include an open data portal around environmental information. We have not seen any actual progress on this commitment, nor any consultation with civil society on this data portal, not any meaningful engagement with civil society on the plans and progress on the OGP. We are of the view that government needs to actually demonstrate their commitment to the OGP, and commitment to open data, and open government. The recent invoking of the National Key Points Act and the 1982 secrecy bill to refuse information is in stark contrast to the rhetoric of open government from the state at international fora. The fact that South Africa sits on the steering committee of the OGP, at the centre of a race to the top on open government, is deeply ironic. We call for the government to lead on this issue, or stand down from the SC, and concede their lack of commitment to this project.

An OGP Update: what we know

Today, ODAC re-established contact with Civil Society Stakeholders, after meetings with the Deputy Minister to try and establish “what’s up?”.

The African OGP process is slowly developing. Stakeholders acknowledge the significant obstacles to the process, regarding civil society and government consultation. Meetings are scheduled and cancelled, and little headway is made in between. A meeting has been scheduled for OGP stakeholders on the 14^th of November. Venue, timing and transport are to be confirmed, but there is little hope that the meeting will continue as planned given the timelines. Consultation with civil society is an important part of the OGP process and the meeting would be a key part of this – but will this suffer the untenable time fates of the previous “e-consultation”?

The South African government is moving ahead with the idea of leading a regional OGP meeting (similar to those held in the European Union and those planned for South America.) A team from the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) will lead the process. A January meeting with the DPSA and South African civil society organisations to discuss how the regional meeting in March will be organised – to debate which stakeholders will attend and the development of a draft programme.  ODAC has additionally volunteered to produce a background document on access to information and the open data initiative in Africa. The document will be circulated ahead of the civil society meeting planned for December. Points highlighted will focus on the African open data initiative and standards.

Government “E-consultation”

After cancelling the first civil society meeting scheduled by government since the OGP Brasilia meeting in May, on Friday afternoon ODAC were invited by the Department of Public Services and Administration to be involved in an “e-consultation” process. Unfortunately, the Department has only seen fit to allow us two working days to prepare comments (due as they are for Tuesday afternoon). In order to “solicit civil society inputs” we would have hoped for at least adequate time to prepare, and also in order to spread the call amongst other civil society groupings. Once our submission is complete, we will provide it for view on this site and provide as well as a significant update in regard to actual government progress.

Needing Information: How we can inform the OGP

As you may have seen on the monitoring pages, monitoring efforts of the SA commitments are divided into two main tracks:

1. Monitoring the progress of the commitments made; and
2. trying to assess the commitments which should have been made.

As a vital step forward for the second track, we have undertaken a project which will expand on the original Transparency Report we constructed earlier this year: The Information Needs Project.

The everyday experiences of access information in South Africa is really a ‘mixed-bag’. Some are good, some are bad; but how do we move forward on making a more positive information environment in South Africa? A first step will be gathering our common experiences of trying to access information -whatever the experience – and describing what information it is we need. So, put the power in your hands and lets start contributing to the OGP process in South Africa. Tell us about your experiences!

Originality of Commitments Reviewed!

As a first step toward the monitoring process, a review of the originality of the requests has been made and can be viewed here.

The results are not good – the government Commitments can essentially be viewed as a continuation of the general duties of the Department of Public Services and Administration (the oversight department) that had already been commenced. While the Plans may build on work already being done, it is sad to see such a cursory adoption of ideas having been undertaken – especially given the broad scale of transparency issues which government could have addressed directly.

Perhaps one of the more exciting and original ideas – the Environmental Portal – has unfortunately seen no traction as a failure of the government to as yet receive cabinet approval for its Commitments.

The SA state of play

South Africa’s commitments were tabled on 20 September 2011. In spite of this, to date the commitments have still not been met with Cabinet approval. This has meant two things:

1. Progress on achieving the commitments is dragging behind significantly; and
2. It becomes questionable whether South Africa’s commitments were rightly considered to be tabled before the OGP if the correct approval to act on the commitments was never undertaken.

While South African civil society is concerned about these delays, the inadequacies have not escaped the attention of international monitors either.

As part of civil society’s commitments to advancing the OGP in South Africa and the region, we have decided to move ahead on our efforts to monitor ‘progress’ through a variety of mechanisms, all of which will be facilitated through this site.