Two days of sharing best open government practices in Abidjan

This second edition focused on five open government topics, namely: media organisations, parliament, private sector, universities and academia – key open government actors; the right of access to information; addressing the challenges of transparency and financial governance; from political leadership to citizen participation; and, last but not least, open government at local level.

Sharing experiences and successful projects

The seminar used a variety of panels and thematic workshops to promote good practices and successful experiences in open government at a regional level. The practical tools of open government (available in French) will be able to be usefully supplemented, replicated and adapted according to each country’s specific characteristics.

In total, twenty experiences were shared over the two days, such as the Noucharik.ma platform in Morocco, the Sunubudget programme in Senegal, the Open Budget atool in Chad, the implementation of du budget participatif, and the work carried out by Africacheck in Senegal concerning investigative journalism in an open government.

The participants left the event with knowledge that will not only make it easier to implement open government practices in their respective countries’ government bodies and civil society organisations, but also help to establish a network of French-speaking open government practitioners.

Creation of a dynamic and a knock-on effect

The seminar also aimed to raise awareness and support the efforts of French-speaking African countries in joining the OGP, by helping them, in particular, to meet the membership criteria. Consequently, eleven non-OGP member states (Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Chad, DRC, Togo, Niger, Madagascar, Mauritania and Mauritius) were present at the event and showed a genuine interest in open government through their involvement and their interventions in the workshops.

Sharing open government resources

During the seminar, CFI and Expertise France also unveiled the new #PAGOF website, a French-speaking platform allowing users to access a whole host of open government tools from one place, and on which all material and documents relating to the project will be freely available.

Finally, just like last year, a guide to good open government practices in French-speaking Africa is currently being drawn up and will be published in the coming weeks. It will bring together the thoughts, experiences and tools of open government that were presented at the seminar.