TI BiH at the OGP Summit Initiative: Government Openness in the Digital Age as a Guardian of Democracy

Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in the Global Summit Initiative Partnership for Open Government (OGP) in Tallinn, organized by the Government of Estonia and the Secretariat of the OGP Initiative. The OGP Global Summit gathers representatives of governments, civil society organizations and other representatives from more than 70 member countries and more than 100 local members of the OGP Initiative to share their experiences, best practices and progress in the area of openness of governments and public institutions and the implementation of obligations arising from prepared and adopted national action plans for the implementation of the OGP Initiative.

The focus of this year’s summit was on the openness of governments in the digital age, the potential of new technologies for additional openness and accountability of governments, with a special focus on transparency and accountability in the decision-making process, as well as on preserving democracy.

And while other countries presented advanced tools and practices when it comes to the openness of government, especially in the areas of fight against corruption, defense of civic space and citizen participation, digital technologies, justice, resilience of democracy, climate change, etc., for which certain countries were awarded, Bosnia and Herzegovina was only an observer at this summit, as well as at previously held summits of the OGP Initiative.

Namely, Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the OGP Initiative back in 2014, thereby committing to regularly prepare, adopt and implement two-year action plans for the implementation of the OGP Initiative in accordance with the priorities of the OGP. However, Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted its first action plan in 2019 for the period 2019-2021, after the OGP placed Bosnia and Herzegovina on the list of inactive countries in 2018 and threatened to expel it from the Initiative.

The first action plan, although planned to contain obligations for all levels of government in BiH, was adopted only for the state level, and the obligations were at a low level, and were not of a systemic nature. Similar was repeated in the second AP for the period 2022-2024, which was adopted a year late, in which the stipulated obligations are not highly ambitious, do not promise significant change, and do not target key problems when it comes to the openness of the government.

In addition, since joining the Initiative, other levels of government have not made any progress in this direction. Although during 2017 and 2018 Federation of BiH, Republic of Srpska and Brčko District prepared drafts of their own action plans, they were never adopted, and these levels of government did not show any interest in the Initiative.

If we compare Bosnia and Herzegovina with the countries of the region, it is evident that we are drastically behind, both in commitment to the implementation of the OGP Initiative, and in concrete steps to implement the foreseen obligations. Albania is currently in the phase of implementing its sixth action plan, North Macedonia is implementing the fifth, Serbia and Croatia are implementing the fourth, while Montenegro is currently implementing its third action plan. The number, quality and ambition of the commitments undertaken in the countries of the region are far ahead of BiH, and significant efforts are needed in BiH to use this Initiative to improve the openness of governments towards citizens and civil society, especially in the part related to political determination and support for improvement of transparency and accountability.

As mentioned, the other levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina have not made any progress in this area, while the countries of the region have gone a step further, and the cities and municipalities of Tirana and Elbasan in Albania, Novi Pazar in Serbia and Sveti Nikole in North Macedonia have used the potential OGP Local Initiative, and joined the same with the aim of improving the openness of local government, which can be an example to lower levels of government in BiH of how to act in the coming period.

Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina appeals to the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina at all levels to devote themselves more seriously to the implementation of the obligations arising from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s membership in the OGP Initiative, which primarily refers to the adoption of action plans with the aim of improving openness in order to fully utilize the potential of this initiative.