Open Government Partnership to meet in April

The Open Government Partnership (OGP), an initiative that aims to promote Freedom of Information, has issued a draft agenda for the upcoming April meeting to be held in Brazil.

Part of what is on the agenda includes; a list of suppliers, countries who have indicated interest in joining the partnership and plans for Africa and Latin America.

The partnership has produced a list of suppliers whose task will be to work with governments on developing and implementing OGP commitments. According to the OGP website of the 56 members, only 8 have produced action plans and delivered on commitments.

OGP membership is limited to 79 countries and thus far they have filled 56 positions with Trinidad and Tobago being added recently after Panama and Costa Rica were added following the inaugural launch in September.

Furthermore, there are plans to include more countries specifically African countries like Botswana and Mauritius in the partnership, this in an effort to strengthen access to information on the continent.  Currently Africa representation on the body is sitting at 5, the addition of the 2 countries will raise that to 7.