Draft Open Government Partnership National Action Plan to Be Completed by The End of October

Director, Economic Reform Monitoring Unit, Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Richard Lumsden says the draft Open Government Partnership (OGP) national action plan is slated for completion by the end of October.

The OGP is a forum of countries working to be more open, accountable and responsive to citizens.

The Government of Jamaica became a member of the OGP in December 2016.

Addressing the Access to Information Unit’s (AIU) ‘Right to Know Week: A Conversation with Minister of State, Ministry of Education Youth, and Information the Hon. Robert Morgan’ on Friday (October 1), Mr. Lumsden said work is in progress to complete the OGP process.

“The Government of Jamaica is committed to developing and submitting the first OGP national action plan for Jamaica in 2021 and to monitor its implementation through to August 2023,” Mr. Lumsden said.

The formal launch of the OGP process in Jamaica was held on January 15, 2021, which saw the establishment of the OGP multi- stakeholder forum (MSF).

The MSF provides oversight and guidance to the co- creation process for the development, submission, implementation, monitoring and reporting for each national action plan for Jamaica.

Mr. Lumsden said four thematic areas have been proposed for co- created commitments under the OGP in Jamaica.

He said these are based on the results of voting by civil society stakeholders on the ranking of the priority focus areas for the OGP.

These include justice and human rights, natural resources, environment and climate, access to information and youth.

A series of virtual stakeholder consultation group meetings in each of these priority thematic group areas are now underway for the development of draft commitments for consideration of inclusion in the OGP national action plan.

“It is intended that the stakeholder group consultation meetings will be concluded by mid- October and the draft OGP national action plan will be prepared by the end of October, based on the outcome of these meetings,” he said.

The draft national action plan will be placed in the public domain via Government websites for a period of two weeks for review and feedback by stakeholders and the public.

Mr. Lumsden said the final OGP national action plan will be completed for approval by the end of November and for formal submission to the OGP before the end of the year.