Seven mayoral candidates have responded to request of Georgian civil society organization to sign Open Government Partnership declaration until October 3, 2017. The request was sent to mayoral candidates on September 28, 2017.
By signing the Declaration, the candidates commit themselves to fully implement the Action Plan envisaged by the current OGP program and continue important reforms to ensure the transparency and openness of the state governance.
The Open Government Partnership was launched in September 2011 upon the initiative of the Presidents of the United States and Brazil. The multilateral initiative aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. Georgia joined the initiative in 2011, upon official invitation by the United States.
During this period, the Government of Georgia has prepared three OGP action plans through which it undertook a commitment to carry out a number of reforms in various spheres, including to publish surveillance statistics, to improve legislation on freedom of information and environmental impacts, as well as to create public centers in Georgian villages.
The Parliament of Georgia and the Tbilisi Municipality joined the Open Government Partnership in 2015-2016. The Tbilisi Municipality developed the first action plan through active involvement of civil society organizations. Participatory budgeting, interactive map of Tbilisi, online platforms for electronic petitions are part of reforms ongoing at the Tbilisi Municipality.
It should be noted that in September, Georgia succeeded France as the lead chair of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and will guide its activities until October 2018. During its chairmanship Georgia will have to demonstrate political will of establishing open government, to organize the Open Government Partnership Global Summit 2018 and undertake new commitments that really matter to the population.
