1. Open Government Partnership in
Finland – Draft Roadmap
OkFestival – Transparency & Accountability – Sep 18, 2012
Teemu Ropponen / Ministry of Justice
Salla Nazarenko / Transparency Finland

2. What is Open Government Partnership?
Open Government Partnership was launched in connection with the UN
General Assembly meeting on the 20th of September. The countries that
launched this initiative were United States, Unitde Kingdom, Brazil, Norway,
Indonesia, Mexico, The Phillippines and South Africa.
According to OGP current grand challenges that governments face
 Improving public services
 More effectively managing public resources
 Increasing public integrity
 Creating safer communities
 Increasing corporate accountability
OGP commitments should reflect four core open government principles
 Transparency
 Citizen participation
 Accountability
 Technology and Innovation
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
2

3. Avoin hallinto – OGP in Finland
 Finland has in spring 2012 indicated its willingness to join the
initiative
 Before officially joining in March 2013 Finland has to develop its
own country action plan
 The plan will be developed in co-operation and with participation
from national stakeholders, organisations and citizens
 In developing the plan networking possibilits aith other OGP-
partners will be used to create and develop ideas.
 The aim is to include concrete issues to the action plan.
 Finland will participate in the OGP-meeting in December 2012
and approve the Open Government Declaration in the OGP
annual conference to be held in March 2013.
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
3

4. OGP commitments are the key!
 Commitments to be made can be based on
existing processes/projects or can be new ones.
 Each commitment will include
 What it is
 How it promotes greater transparency, accountability, citizen
participation and technology and innovation
 Who will be involved in the implementation of the commitment
 And what is hoped to achieved with the commitment
 Naturally, background on current stage of open
government & done actions
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
4

5. OGP Avoin hallinto timetable
1 Summer
2012 2 9-10/2012
3 11/2012
Finland expresses its Developing the national OGP national action
willingness to join the action plan – involvement plan final draft ready
OGP and participation of
stakeholders and citizens
4 11/2012
5 3/2013
6 3/2014
Networking with the Commitment to the OGP- Self assessment
other OGP countries declaration and publishing report 12 months after
the final action plan implementation
= now here
14.11.2011
14.11.2011

6. Project group - led by the Ministry of Finance
 NGOs: Transparency Finland, Avoinministeriö.fi (OpenMinistry)
 Municipal organisations: Forum Virium – City of Helsinki,
Association of local and regional authorities
 Research institute: Stanford – Centre for democracy,
development, and the rule of law
 Ministries: Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Ministry of Finance
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
6

7. Overarching theme: ”Enhancing openness,
inclusiveness and participation”
And we will carry forward the commitments
We commit to: in the following reforms
New ways of working
government e-democracy
The Programme for e-
Municipal legislation
Central government
Citizens’ initiative
Clear language
reform
reform
Open data and open interfaces
Offering equal opportunities for
participation
And other possible important
issues that will arise during the
preparatory process
14.11.2011
14.11.2011

8. Taking this into practice
Finland has good legislation, but it is time to take
theory into practice
Here are a few ideas regarding the themes:
(If you’d like to comment
– http://bit.ly/ogp-finland )
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
8

9. New ways of working
 New roles of public servants
 Job description changes
 Open meetings and remote access (to consultations)
 Cooperation between government & citizens - new
kind of electronic platforms (citizen initiative)
 Clear responsibilities - no more "anonymous decision-
making”
 "Citizen juries" as a part of decision-making processes
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
9

10. Clear language
 Using clear understandable language – less jargon!
 Meaningful structures (e.g. websites)
 Use of plain text
 Crowdsourcing the issues and solutions of poor
language
 Data and process visualizations
 Clear language in a larger meaning: better
communication visualization of data.
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
10

11. Open data and interfaces
 Part of an enabler approach
 This is doing ok – thus it is not the only or even key
theme
 Currently the Finnish open data action plan is being
introduced in the other auditorium :)
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
11

12. Offering equal opportunities for participation
• Increased citizen participation at all levels and
stages of decision-making
• "Citizen juries" as a part of decision-making
processes
 Enhancing participation of vulnerable groups
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
12

13. Other issues that come up along the way
 The previously mentioned themes are preliminary
 We must be open to changes along the way
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
13

14. OGP process in Finland has just started
 So, we have just started our process
 We have already gotten about 50 ideas from
citizens about developing open government
 We are here at OKFest to learn from others’
experiences
 We have our first public event tomorrow Wed
Sep 19 (3-5 PM)
 You are welcome to join! (in Finnish)
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
14

15. Have an idea you’d like to share?
http://bit.ly/ogp-finland
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
15

16. Thank you! Comments?
Contacts:
Chair of OGP project group
Katju.Holkeri@vm.fi
Secretary of OGP project group
Johanna.Nurmi@vm.fi
Presenters today:
Teemu.Ropponen@om.fi
Salla.Nazarenko@transparency.fi
14.11.2011
14.11.2011
16