It Takes a Network: Building Stronger Integrity Systems Through Collective Action

Organizers: National Democratic Institute, INTOSAI Development Initiative

Corruption erodes public trust in democratic institutions in addition to social and economic advancements. Join us to explore how governments, civil society, independent accountability institutions, and other stakeholders can unite to build stronger integrity systems. This session will highlight current initiatives in the region and showcase how partnerships among a variety of actors, including SAIs, civil society, and parliaments can take advantage of windows of opportunity, prioritize strategic actions to strengthen public accountability and reduce corruption.

Interoperability and Data Use

Organizers: OGP, Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST), Open Ownership, Open Contracting Partnership (OCP)

The evidence is growing: the right data, paired with robust coordination and oversight systems, can make a difference not only in the control of corruption. Interoperability is also essential for different datasets to be useful for different sectors of society—including regulators and governments themselves.

This session will share how data availability, quality, and accessibility affect data use and interoperability. Lightning talks by our set of panelists will share lessons learned about how actors are using different datasets and a variety of approaches for oversight and decision-making in anti-corruption efforts. Participants are then invited to reflect on the realities in their respective contexts, identify different datasets key to the fight against corruption, and explore how to join up data across sectors to maximise anti-corruption impact.

Pathways Towards Transparency Of Money In Politics

Organizers: OGP, Transparency International

The public deserves to know how money influences public decisions. Transparency in campaign and political party financing helps voters understand whether private influence shapes public decisions in legitimate ways.

There is a deficit of transparency in political finance across the region. While some countries have significant gaps in their regulatory frameworks, others are yet to develop systems to support their implementation. Even today, many others do not have any significant political finance regulation in place.

This session will inspire reformers in their journey, whether their starting point is none to little regulation, or some regulation with low implementation. Experts from government and society will share practical guidance to open up political finance information to the public, from small regulatory twists to the development of digital solutions for reporting and disclosure.

The Fiscal Openness Challenge: Ensuring Inclusive And Meaningful Public Participation In Budget Processes

Organizers: Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT), International Budget Partnership (IBP), Philippine Department of Budget and Management (DBM)

How can governments transform budget processes into platforms for inclusive public participation? This session will tackle the Fiscal Openness Open Gov Challenge by exploring innovative practices from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Armenia that empower citizens to actively shape national and local budget priorities.

Through a combination of expert presentations and interactive discussions, attendees will identify barriers, explore solutions, and contribute to exploring potential fiscal openness commitments to the Open Gov Challenge. The session is designed to engage government officials, civil society representatives, and development practitioners, providing practical tools and strategies to mainstream public participation in budget processes. By the end of the session, participants will have discussed and collaborated on proposed actionable reforms aligned with the Open Government Challenge, advancing fiscal openness and strengthening democratic governance. This session will be a good opportunity to contribute and participate in dialogues aimed at shaping more open and inclusive public financial management systems.

Safeguarding Electoral Integrity: Tackling Abuse Of State Resource Abuse, Vote Buying, And Vote Selling

Organizers: Legal Network for Truthful Elections

The session aims to discuss potential strategies to address the challenges posed by corruption in elections, such as abuse of state resources, vote buying, and vote selling, which can undermine the credibility and legitimacy of electoral outcomes. Experts will discuss various forms of corruption that occur before, during, and after elections and discuss best practices to monitor and combat these issues.

Open Government Challenge Workshop: How To Design Impactful Reforms With Open Contracting

Organizers: Open Contracting Partnership

Discover how open procurement can be a game-changer for advancing government priorities such as transparency, climate action, gender equality, and economic inclusion. In this interactive Workshop, you'll delve into inspiring examples from Indonesia, India, Taiwan, and the Philippines, showcasing how Open Contracting has improved procurement outcomes for people and the planet while highlighting how stakeholders collaborate to overcome challenges and drive impactful procurement reforms. Learn how these countries leverage networks, data, and Open Contracting approaches to address obstacles and advance their agendas.

Through thematic breakout sessions, participants will explore practical approaches to tackling corruption, maximizing value for money, and leveraging data for climate-conscious decision-making.

With hands-on exercises, you'll map your procurement landscape and identify actionable steps to engage stakeholders, use data effectively, and drive impactful reform. Whether you’re starting your procurement reform journey or looking to scale your efforts, this session equips you with the tools, insights, and strategies needed to transform procurement into a powerful driver of sustainable development. By the end, you'll gain actionable insights and tools to engage stakeholders effectively and implement reforms that deliver sustainable outcomes.

Strategies To Protect And Expand Civic Space And Civil Society

Organizers: Civicus, The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), OGP

An active and empowered civil society is essential to effective open government. Though civic space is facing challenges both across the world and within the Asia and Pacific region, engaging in the OGP process can help to push back against this trend: supporting governments and civil society to work together to create a flourishing environment for civic action. This session will explore positive initiatives underway in the region to safeguard civic space, as well as examples of constructive reforms being advanced through OGP, and strategies for protecting civic space where it is under threat.

Deepening Partnerships Between Civil Society And Development Partners, Using The OGP Platform

Organizers: ADB - Asian Development Bank, Partnership for Transparency

As restrictive practices and legislation regulating civic space and civil society funding proliferate, it is important that development partners and civil society work together to ensure that public interest remains at the heart of development and governance.

Many development partners and governments have policies that promote government and civil society engagement during the development and implementation of development policies and programs. For example, most development partners have policies for engaging stakeholders in their country partnership strategies and financing operations. Done right, such engagement can enhance country-led development, transparency, inclusion, participation, and accountability. These outcomes stand at risk when the operating environment for civil society deteriorates. The Open Government Partnership (OGP) requires member governments to use a multi-stakeholder process to create an action plan with concrete steps—commitments—across a broad range of issues. This unique model ensures that civil society organizations or direct citizen engagement have a role in shaping and overseeing governments. OGP also provides a platform to strengthen and expand the enabling environment for civil society through constructive dialogue.

Collaboration among development partners, civil society, and governments to coordinate the effective implementation of civil society engagement and ensure that the enabling environment for them to do so exists can be mutually beneficial in increasing development effectiveness and public participation.

This session will present good practices and lessons from development partners, OGP, civil society, and governments working together at country level and to surface practical ideas for how such collaboration can be more effective.

Pathways To A Credible And Just Energy Transition

Organizers: Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), OGP

The energy transition is driving transformative changes in the extractive industries, fundamentally altering how resource-rich countries manage their oil, gas, and mining sectors. In addition, companies and consumers worldwide want to know that their investments make the world a better place. Within this shifting context, transparency and good governance are more important than ever. Citizens, investors, end brands, civil society and public officials need access to information and must be able to hold decision-makers and companies to account. This is directly important to protect human rights, ensure that revenues are fairly distributed, and limit undue influence on policy making and implementation. This session will explore how to achieve a credible, transparent and accountable transition, leveraging three potential processes to improve governance - EITI, OGP, and IRMA.

Making Climate Policies Respond To Public Needs

Organizers: Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), World Resources Institute (WRI)

Country commitments under the Paris Agreement are only expected to decrease global greenhouse gas emissions by 2.6% by 2030—which falls far short from the 43% target by 2030 and net zero target by 2050. The barriers to climate action are no longer knowledge or technology however; they are instead now challenges related to politics and governance. They include ensuring public support for climate action translates to more ambitious actions that generate benefits for those most at risk, eliminating carve-outs and subsidies for high-emitting sectors, and strengthening public oversight of the implementation of short and long-term commitments.

To sustainably address climate change, governments will need to build and channel public support into ambitious and equitable climate actions that are backed with the political will and institutional capacity to implement them.

In the face of an intensifying climate crisis, resilient governments will require new policies and innovations. Open Government Partnership domestic platforms offer governments a readymade process for addressing climate change with the support of their public, as they are rooted in dialogue and underpinned by the values and processes of transparency, public participation, and accountability.

Framed on an environmental democracy lens where the participation of the public is key to more sustainable climate action, this session will highlight emerging innovations and best practices across the region from the vantage points of research, legislation, local governance, and civil society. Speakers will help draw clear links between climate action and some of the most pressing democratic challenges from anti-corruption, freedom of information, public participation, and access to justice.

AI, Digital Transformation And Its Governance

Organizers: Luminate, Access Now, OGP

Governments across Asia Pacific have been embarking on a digital transformation process for the past decade, now including using AI to make public services & bureaucracies more effective and efficient. However, we are still exploring where and when AI can be best used and applied in public services, especially with many governments across Asia Pacific still in the process of developing comprehensive digital governance. There are gaps and challenges that we need to be aware of in using AI for public services such as the ethical dimensions of ensuring transparency, minimising the amplification of biases, and securing data safety. This two-part session will explore best practices in applying AI in public services, the risks and mitigation that governments should consider, and the role of non-government sectors in ensuring participatory governance for a just and fair implementation of AI.

This two-part session will explore best practices in applying AI in public services, the risks and mitigation that governments should consider, and the role of non-government sectors in ensuring participatory governance for a just and fair implementation of AI.

Flooding The Zone With Facts: How To Promote Information Integrity While Upholding Media Freedom And Human Rights

Organizers: Media Freedom Coalition, Forum on Information and Democracy, OGP

Citizens need relevant, factual information in order to make decisions about their lives - but they live in an environment where there is an excess of information, much of which is unreliable, and where facts themselves can be contested or discredited.

This session will look at how media freedom and quality journalism can put facts in the spotlight, how government openness can support the crucial role of journalism and inform the public, and how efforts to tackle mis- and disinformation can and must protect human rights and freedom of expression, while helping citizens to scrutinise the information they see. The session will feature practitioners and experts from government, media, civil society and beyond and will involve three discussion zones in which participants can discuss different challenges relating to information integrity and how they can be addressed through open government approaches.

Open Data For All: Starting, Expanding, Promoting Inclusivity, And Sustaining Open Data Initiatives In The Asia Pacific

Organizers: Open Data Charter, Gov Data Initiative

Come, learn, and discuss open data initiatives in the region. We will have speakers sharing their experiences and projects working on open data in Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and Nepal. But we also want everyone to have a chance to speak, so there will be an open mic for anyone who would like to join the stage. Small group conversations will follow to allow for a deeper dive into the experiences of the participants and speakers.

How To Mainstream Participation In Decision-Making

Organizers: Kota Kita, People Powered, OGP

There are lots of exciting innovations taking place to involve people in decisions that affect their lives, but too few become part of the day-to-day practice of government. This session will explore different ways to mainstream public participation in government – from building skills and capacity among public servants to introducing laws and requirements to govern participation. It will draw on examples from across the region to challenge and inspire participants about the opportunities and challenges of making public participation more commonplace and impactful.

Innovating Citizen's Participation In Policy Making

Organizers: CODE NGO

The session will explore current practices and challenges of policy making in different countries and how each practice strives to include all sectors of society to be part of the process. The session shall also explore civic technology in relation to policy making at the grassroots level.

The Power Of Participation: Advancing The Women, Peace, And Security Agenda Through Open Governance

Organizers: Department of Budget and Management, Philippines

Across the globe, women's participatory role in decision-making processes, conflict resolution, and governance has been proven essential in creating more inclusive and sustainable peace outcomes. Open governance, in the same vein, ensures that all stakeholders, especially women, have access to information, can participate in decision-making processes, and hold governments accountable for their commitments to peace and security.

In the Philippines, the open governance framework presents a powerful mechanism to foster full participation of women in peace and security efforts: providing a platform for women to meaningfully contribute to processes and ensuring that their voices are heard and that policies are gender responsive.

As such, in the advancement of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda, it is necessary to highlight the enabling role of open governance. The integration of WPS action plans within the principles of open governance also offers a transformative approach to achieving lasting peace, where women's roles are not only recognized but actively supported.

This session will explore how open governance and the pursuit of peace and security through gender-responsive approaches can be mutually reinforcing goals. It also aims to come up with future actions on how to further open government processes that directly support efforts in addressing this issue of high importance and urgency in the Asia and the Pacific Region.

You(th) And Us: An Intergenerational Dialogue On Climate Change

Organizers: Accountability Lab, UNICEF

Youth and children make up a significant proportion of Asia's population- a region that is deeply vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. However, they have historically had difficulty ensuring that their voices and ideas are included in policymaking processes around issues that will affect their future. With massive demographic shifts around the world, enhanced connectivity, and rapidly evolving ideas and networks, youth and children are now more able, powerful, and willing to drive open governance than ever before.

Engaging young people in the Open Government Partnership processes not only aligns with the principles of inclusivity but also sets the foundation for a more accountable, democratic and sustainable future. This interactive session will generate an inter-generational dialogue among young people and more experienced leaders around climate issues- and how we can find new ways to secure young people's participation in building climate resiliency through open governance.

Justice Reimagined: Legal Enforcers As Champions Of Open And Inclusive Governance

Organizers: Indonesia Judicial Research Society (IJRS)

This session will delve into the role of legal enforcers—law enforcement agencies, judges, and legal professionals—in promoting inclusive public participation, especially for marginalized communities, in the policy-making process. By fostering collaboration between justice institutions and civil society organizations (CSOs), we aim to highlight strategies for enhancing public engagement in legal reforms and building more transparent, equitable, and responsive justice systems.

Participants will engage in discussions centred on the following key topics:

Legal Enforcers as Advocates for Inclusion - showcasing the best practices: Examining the proactive role of legal enforcers in engaging the public and CSOs during policy design and implementation to amplify the voices of marginalized communities, including lessons learned from some countries.

Challenges in Ensuring Public Participation: Exploring the challenges legal enforcers face in facilitating meaningful public participation in policy-making, including identifying barriers to inclusivity and representation. This discussion will also delve into defining when public participation can be deemed sufficient by establishing clear indicators for its effectiveness, inclusiveness, and alignment with Open Government principles.

Collaboration in Policy Making: Comparing the outcomes of policies developed solely by legal enforcers versus those created in partnership with CSOs, highlighting the added value and positive impacts of collaboration on policy development and implementation. Including strategy in ensuring effective and impactful collaboration.

National-Local Collaboration On Open Government

Organizers: Philippines Department of Interior and Local Government, OGP

This session will focus on advancing national-local collaboration on open government, with a focus on coalition building. As the OGP Local network grows, so do the visible practices of creating connections and coalitions between local and national leaders in a range of countries. We know that a growing number of member countries are incorporating specific commitments for promoting open government at the local level, fostering national-local collaboration or are using their national OGP processes to support the development of local open government plans, OGP-like processes, or specific open government reforms. The development of coalitions for open government to support such actions are happening both through groundswells of local action as well as through national leadership by government or civil society. This session will showcase a few different country experiences to explore how coalitions are growing in these countries to support national-local action, what enabled them to emerge, and their influence on open government culture, practice and policy, and the current opportunities and challenges they face.

From Ad Hoc Initiatives To Integrated Strategies: Mainstreaming Open Government

Organizers: OECD, OGP

This session will focus on ways in which OGP members are promoting holistic and integrated approaches to open government / open state, through and beyond OGP action plans, and discuss how they’re approaching efforts to move beyond scattered practices and towards a shared whole-of-state vision of openness. This session will include a fireside-chat, a plenary Q&A, followed by small group discussions with each of the speakers for participants to dive deeper into the examples shared, and explore opportunities and challenges for adopting similar initiatives in their contexts.

Organizers: OGP Civil Society Steering Committee

The Unconference is your opportunity to share ideas in a dynamic, collaborative setting. Hosted by representatives of the OGP Civil Society Steering Committee, you are invited to propose and lead discussions on topics you are passionate about or have explored during the Regional Meeting.

In this open space, you can be a speaker or participant. Simply write your topic on a post-it, and our moderators will help coordinate sessions that blend diverse ideas and speakers. This is your chance to showcase projects, connect with like-minded individuals, and delve deeper into insights gained throughout the event.

Come prepared to share, learn, and collaborate. The Unconference is an energizing way to close the Regional Meeting with fresh perspectives, new connections, and actionable ideas. Let your voice be heard!

Between Monday February 3 and Wednesday February 5, 2025 various side events will take place. A detailed agenda can be viewed here