opengovernance

Open governance is a framework for governing that seeks to increase transparency, participation, collaboration, and accountability in government decision-making and service delivery. It rests on making information, processes, and outcomes accessible to the public and on enabling stakeholders to contribute to policy design and oversight.

The core principles include transparency (public access to information and decision records), accountability (clear responsibility and oversight mechanisms), participation (inclusive citizen engagement), collaboration (multi-stakeholder partnerships), and the use of open data and open standards to facilitate reuse and scrutiny.

Practices associated with opengovernance include open data portals, open budgeting and procurement, participatory budgeting, public consultations, policy co-creation, performance dashboards, and the deployment of open-source software in government operations. Government communications and records are produced in machine-readable formats to enable reuse and verification.

Advocates argue that opengovernance can improve policy quality, legitimacy, and efficiency by reducing information asymmetries and enabling citizen oversight. It can foster innovation and economic opportunity through data reuse. Challenges include ensuring data privacy and security, addressing the digital divide, sustaining participation, maintaining interoperability of systems, and balancing openness with confidentiality and national security concerns.

Various countries and cities have adopted open-governance initiatives. Notable examples include national open-data programs and portals, participatory budgeting projects in cities, and government-wide transparency initiatives that publish laws, contracts, and performance data. Critics caution that openness must be coupled with robust governance and clear accountability to prevent mission creep and information overload.