OGP Georgia: the benefits of openness, bump space and codes of conduct
I walk around the block twice. Even though I was here just days ago, I still can’t find Shavi Lomi — a cute, tucked away resturant in the heart of Tbilisi.
The light is fading as I finally find the right door, and find a seat at our table. There’s a dozen people here and I know only two. The conversation flickers between talking about work and home, for there are also a dozen different home countries between us. It’s a mental marathon as I talk to someone about mishkaki one minute and the benefits of open governance the next.
For someone who enjoys a lot of downtime and introspective thought, this is way outside my comfort zone.
How did I get here?
I’m hoping that you didn’t notice that things were quieter than usual on Code for Australia’s social channels last month. Instead of the usual wordsmithing, connecting of dots and people and socialising that usually happens in my day-to-day, I was in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Why? I found myself in two buckets that overlapped incredibly to create an opportunity.
- Code for All* put together a summit on Scaling Civic Tech, on the edges of a larger conference happening — the annual Open Government Partnership summit. More on this soon.
- The National Democratic Institute needed someone to help them film some case studies for this thing they’re working on.
Being someone who has videography skills and who was a part of Code for All meant that I had a chance to kill birds with one stone: represent Code for All and Code for Australia, while also find and interview some really cool people.
If the names of all those institutions / organisations / projects made your brain spin, this is what I meant by “mental marathon”.
* Code for what now?
So, what even is OGP?
If you’re curious about the #ScalingCivicTech part of Georgia, check out the hashtag, ask us anything on Slack, or check out the speech I gave below.
As someone brand new to the OGP world, I had no idea what it was about, why it was useful or what it was achieving. Turns out, OGP has been around since 2011 and is basically a pact that governments make to be transparent and open.
This means different things in different countries, but broadly speaking involves things like promoting the idea of open government, empowering citizens, fighting corruption, and harnessing new technologies to strengthen governance (thanks Wikipedia).
To date, there’s been over 2,500 pacts made by 75 countries around the world — these numbers aren’t the same because it’s not only national governments who can make these pacts, but local, regional and state governments too. What this means in real terms is stuff like:
- People helping to decide what things should be fixed and prioritised in health care in Indonesia (full story)
- People being informed of what the government is doing in their own backyard in Australia (full story)
- Governments working to rebuild their trust with people using open-source tools and platforms like Decide Madrid (full story)
Why is that good?
At Code for Australia, we’re firm believers in openness, transparency and collaboration when it comes to problem-solving. So, I find it difficult to write down why these things are good at a global level. Here’s my best go:
Openness means inviting people into the process of designing and making things. When this comes to service delivery, there is no better way to serve diverse populations than to have them represented in the creation process.
Transparency means taking down walls that are often easy to hide behind — money being shuffled around to blackholes, pockets and friends. It helps fight corruption, waffle and fake news.
Collaboration means breaking down the barriers that usually keep departments, teams or social spheres apart. It means bringing together people inside and outside of government to collectively solve things.
Even the summit was great at doing most of these things — it brought people from all over the world together to learn from each other. It gave them a platform to speak openly and honestly about the challenges they’re facing at home, while providing a network of fellow researchers and practitioners to grow with.
In theory.
What more can be done?
Like anything political, there’s a fair amount of talking being done, without necessarily a lot of action happening. I overheard chatter about the summit and even OGP generally being donor driven — meaning governments and people are merely looking to tick an OGP checkbox just to get access to funding.
Someone might say they’re implementing programs to increase participation and openness, but there are few mechanisms in place to measure what is actually happening on the ground. Like with any work in the social impact space, measurement is complex and difficult, but it’s so important when thinking about scaling things that actually work.
Then there was the set up of sessions. The program brought together some of the best minds from around the world to sit together and discuss big ideas. But these were run with sometimes up to six people at a time. There was barely enough time to understand the context and key ideas of each speaker, let alone have hearty banter amongst the other panellists and audience. Those who seemed to be the seasoned professionals hung around the edges of the organised things, preferring to make use of this bump space to spark conversations with new people and old friends.
Finally, something that seemed to carry over into the OGP community from my experiences within the civic tech community was an incredible sense of openness. Everyone I met was really open about their work, their challenges and why they were there. I saw this in action when trying to find the right people to talk to for my interviews: tracking down a handful of unknown people, from all over the world, in a conference of over 2,000 people was like trying to find an M&M in a ball pit. Fortunately, I met some amazing people, who called on their friends of friends, of friends of friends, to help me out.
But, while this friendliness was great during the day, once the sun set it was another story all together. The gender ratio at the afterparty took a nosedive and friendliness creeped into grossness. Where there had been beautiful conversations between men and women, between different countries and different age groups, now there were a chorus of men becoming far too overfamiliar with others. Where there had been dialogue around the things that matter most to people, now there were calls of “shots!”
For those of us that dared to attend, there was no Code of Conduct, no way to safeguard uncomfortable situations and no one to lean on who could feasibly do anything about it. I coped by retreating to the familiar — Code for All — who I knew had experience with, and deeply respected, making safe spaces for everyone. Before going to OGP again, I would question whether they had measures in place for making sure all delegates feel welcome and respected.
Here’s a way the folks at Code for America are doing this.
What’s happening here?
If you’re reading this and are wondering what’s happening in your own back yard, a quick Google search generally brings it up for you. Fortunately, if you live in Australia, I’ve already done that work for you.
Australia first made an OGP pact, back in 2016. Agreed upon at the federal level of government, the ‘Action Plan’ consisted of fifteen commitments to strengthen and improve:
Transparency and accountability in business
The availability of open data and the digital transformation of government services
Access to government information
Integrity in the public sector, and
Public participation and engagement
👉 source here: https://ogpau.pmc.gov.au/about-ogp
So, how much of that has actually happened? From the website above, most initiatives have been given a green light, indicating that they’re on track — it’s all very highly commendable.
Except for a couple of crucial things. You know, like those small tasks of “Government Digital Transformation” and creating a “National Integrity Framework”. These are instead lurking in a scary Trump shade of orange.
Firstly, if you’re a fan of our work and approach, you’ll know we’ve been working on doing digital transformation in a small, but impactful, way. If you’re new to our work, here’s a good intro.
Secondly, for a movement that is about public participation and engagement, there seems to be a small amount of it going on — and only on the terms of those who are in power. Granted, I’ve only been in the civic tech space for a year and a half, but I find it interesting that the first time I hear about OGP (and find out about OGP Australia) is when I get asked to fly to the other side of the world.
Thirdly (last one before I make my point, I promise) — there was a study done on the impact and effectiveness of OGP. It found that “commitments with greater potential impact are less likely to be completed”.
So, when it comes to making an action plan on how to digitally transform Australian governments, a mammoth task that has huge potential to create how people interact with and trust government, with little public engagement or consultation, instead delegating it to the Digital Transformation Agency… well, I mean, of course it’s going to be a bad time.
I won’t delve into this too much because fortunately, here’s something our Co-Founder, Alvaro, wrote earlier.
What are you trying to say?
There are some truly awesome things about OGP — the fact that it generally has the same goals we do, the fact that it encourages sharing and learning from folks all over the world, and the fact it’s something concrete governments are actually jumping on.
It’s good stuff like this that made me want to work in civic tech.
But, there’s a way to go.
Globally, the summit content could do with a bit more crafting and could be more outcome focussed, to get the most out of those who are there. Otherwise people will continue to mingle on the edges and make their own opportunities. It could also do with a code of conduct — here’s a good place to start (http://confcodeofconduct.com/).
In Australia, I’m a bit bias, but I would say it needs a bit more of that civic tech ethos. Start small, find what works, talk to your community and go from there. Inclusion is everything, so if you want to get citizens participating, invite them in.
On a side note — I knew very little about Georgia before last month, but fell absolutely in love with it while I was there. If you’re looking for somewhere to visit where tourists are encouraged, the food is delicious, the people are friendly and the scenery is spectacular, maybe consider supporting this tiny nation with your holiday money.
