Open Government: Publication of the 2019 Guide to Good Practice in French-speaking Africa

During the #PAGOF regional seminar in Abidjan, which was held on 5 and 6 November 2019, some 120 people from administrations and civil society organisations from 16 different countries discussed five open government themes for two days:

1) The media, parliaments, private sector, universities and the academic world: key actors of open government

2) The right to access information

3) Addressing the challenges of transparency and financial governance

4) From political support to citizen participation

5) Open government: the need for a local base.

A guide resulting from exchanges between open government practitioners

The regional seminar provided the opportunity to hold a number of discussions and presentations of open government experiences and tools that can be completed and replicated in French-speaking African countries. The guide is the result of these exchanges.   

For each of the themes addressed, it gives a brief explanation of the theme and the eligibility criteria for the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Practical sheets summarise the tools and experiences presented during the seminar. There are also links and thematic resources (documents, manuals, guides, websites) at the end of the document.

A total of 20 wide-ranging and varied experiences have been capitalised on, including: Sunubudget in Senegal (a digital platform for budgetary monitoring, measurement and information), Noucharik.ma in Morocco (a platform dedicated to citizens for the preparation of draft laws), the methods for establishing the participatory budget in Ivorian municipalities, the experience of Forums for Community Dialogue and Questions (EDIC) in Burkina Faso, the work of Africacheck in Senegal on investigative journalism in an open government, and many other experiences.

This guide came about through the need and will to exchange on successful African tools and experiences in French in the fields of open government and the OGP membership process. It meets several objectives of #PAGOF:

• Promote and share at regional level the good practices and success stories of open government in countries that are already OGP members or want to become a member;

• Create dynamics and a knock-on effect in French-speaking African countries towards OGP and open government, and in particular help them achieve the OGP membership criteria;

• Create a network of open government practitioners including members of civil society and administrations from French-speaking African countries, united by knowledge and the desire to reform.