Demands for Open Government (OG) initiatives seem to be on the rise as this week alone I was involved in two conference calls. In addition to Macedonia, where UNDP and the WB have agreed to work together on the topic (and work will expand to Moldova eventually), we spoke to a group of Tunisian activists and techies who have been pushing the concept within their country. The group, which according to them is headless and operates pretty much on a horizontal and ad hoc basis, has been able to get 20 or so MPs to support the idea of OG. Unlike other countries, the political juncture in Tunisia provides fertile ground for OG where resistance to the ideas of transparency and accountability is zero. We agreed with the group to get an official request from MPs to UNDP Tunisia asking for OG support. I have shared this information with both UNDP Tunisia and RBAS. The CO is also keen in getting involved.
The UNWired meeting, which has now has been postponed until late March, is now receiving formal UNDP support. BERA and BDP organized a meeting with the RBx and BCPR and we got endorsement of at least three of them. At the meeting, BCPR told me that they are using Ushahidi for many of its projects but were not aware of the CAR mobile app project. We agreed to meet this week to explore more collaboration.
The BDP post-2015 process is also picking up steam. We have been asked to lead, in conjunction with the KM group, on the Web/mobile virtual space that we are supposed to create to ensure participation of all stakeholders in the determination of the development agenda post-MDGs. The idea here is to secure one of more public-private partnerships that provide the technology and platform while we work more on the content and participation of local stakeholders. At any rate, this work is related to communications as well as to the motivation any regular stakeholder might have in being part of “boring” UN processes. This I think is the real challenge.
Got a request from UNDP Guatemala to provide support on FOSS as apparently the new government is keen in supporting this. A call has been planned for next week.
Cheers, Raúl
