2019-12-27
Government Administration of Georgia hosted an Open Government Partnership (OGP) Georgia Forum in the capacity of a national coordination institution.
Forum was launched by Natia Mezvrishvili, Head of Government Administration, who focused on the significance of the process of open governance and shared future plans of the Government Administration with the forum participants.
"We were elected as a Member of the Steering Committee and we will try to be further more active towards introducing the principles of open governance. Performance will be intensified to its maximum from the next year in various formats, be that an Inter-Agency Coordination Council or similar forums. Several meetings have already been held to formalize the process as we believe that greater legitimacy derives from settled formalities; what is most important, it will increase the engagement of line ministries and their senior management officials. It is important to make sure that participating organizations have an opportunity to voice their ideas on concrete reforms directly with decision-makers" noted the Head of Government Administration.
Natia Mezvrishvili also focused on the execution status quo of the current Action Plan and plans for future. In her opinion, planned activities are effective and plausible, oriented at large reforms; crystallizing the significance of the support demonstrated by the third sector.
New initiatives have been submitted by the Secretariat of the Open Governance - Georgia to the Forum on the improvement of the coordination process in relation with open governance. They include the establishment of the first high-ranking consultative body of the secretariat on the topics of open governance. Forum has discussed the format, mandate and operation of the Council.
Secretariat also briefed the Forum on the monitoring results of the Action Plan implemented in 2018-2019. Verbal reports were also delivered by institutions responsible for the progress in the implementation of the plan, thereby briefing the Forum on the current challenges.
Forum participants discussed the calendar for the development of a new Action Plan, along with the steps ahead.
Meeting was attended by officials of public institutions, local and international organizations, who are the forum members at the same time.
Open Governance Georgia Forum was held with support of the Unites States Agency for International Development (USAID) Project Good Governance Initiative (GGI) in Georgia.
Open Government Partnership (OGP) was established with an initiative of US and Brazilian Presidents in 2011. It is aimed at the increased transparency, accountability and effectiveness of governments. Georgia was among the first countries to join in 2011, soon becoming a Chairman of OGP in 2017-2018 and hosting the V Global Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia.
From spring 2019 Government Administration of Georgia has been coordinating the Open Governance Georgia at the national and international levels. Georgia was elected as a Member of the Steering Committee of OGP in April 2019 for a tenure of 3 years. Government of Georgia is represented at the Steering Committee by the Head of the Government Administration.