Members of the PH-OGP Secretariat and the International OGP Support Unit take a group photo with the workshop participants
Anchored on the global celebration of the Open Government Week, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), as the Philippine Open Government Partnership (PH-OGP) Chair and Secretariat, led the conduct of a workshop entitled, “From Potential to Concrete Transformative Impact: a PH-OGP Orientation and Co-Creation Workshop,” on March 15 at the DBM Central Office.
The workshop aimed to provide an avenue to deepen the PH-OGP Co-Creation dialogue and workshop with different stakeholders from government and non-government sectors towards fulfilling commitments to enhance transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement in governance.
Assistant Secretary Rolando Toledo of the Fiscal Planning and Reforms Bureau of the DBM officially opened the event and, at the same time, introduced the new PH-OGP website: https://ogp.dbm.gov.ph.
DBM Assistant Secretary Rolando Toledo opens the event
The online portal “serves as our more open and accessible platform that gives anyone access to relevant information on the PH-OGP process, news and events, and other important resources,” Asec. Toledo said.
The morning session was dedicated to providing a comprehensive overview of the PH-OGP initiative and leveling off on the new development process for the country’s next OGP plan.
Following this, Ms. Ivygail Ong of the International OGP Support Unit led the facilitation of a workshop which aimed to deepen the co-creation dialogue using a problem-driven approach.
In previous national action plans, the crafting of commitments was mainly led by government, and civil society would become involved later into the process for the design of the commitments proposed by government agencies.
The Philippines’ National Action Plan (NAP) for 2019-2021, which is currently in development, is the result of a planning process that began with regional consultations with the non-government sector, which is a major shift from the old government-centric process. The result of these consultations is the OGP Citizens Agenda which was submitted to the Government Secretariat at DBM in January 2019.
The co-creation workshop coincided with the Global Open Government Week which ran from March 11-17, 2019, and was conducted in coordination with the International OGP Support Unit for Asia Pacific.
It was attended by a total of 100 participants from national government agencies, civil society, academe, private sector, and public sector unions, civic tech community, among others.
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