By Sami Zaptia.
Washington DC, 11 October 2013:
At a workshop organized here today in Washington by the World Bank as part of . . .[restrict]the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings 2013, the vexing issue of open government in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) was discussed. The workshop was entitled “Transition to Open Government in the Arab World”.
The workshop was part of the Open Government Partnership launched by the World Bank in September 2011. Membership is voluntary for countries which must pass a threshold of commitment to an ambitious set of goals to improve open government and for the citizens of those nations to hold them to those commitments.
A simple example of this would be the detailed and timely publication of budgets and Audit reports. Governments who commit to the Open Government Partnership must also submit to an independent review.
Inger Anderson, World Bank MENA Region Vice President explained at the workshop that open government is a challenge but that there is a sweep across the world for increased openness and a shift by citizens for this desire, facilitated by new technology.
Greater engagement with stakeholders can improve policy formulation and implementation and lead to increased satisfaction by citizens of government services. Access to information opens up jobs and opportunities. Open government changes expectations and trust between citizens and their government added Anderson.
In MENA the World Bank are committed to maintaining citizens’ engagement through for example feedback mechanisms and through blogs, Anderson explained.
Need for change
Anderson confirmed that in MENA open government ranks as the weakest in the world, therefore there is a need for change and the World Bank needs to help enhance it. And citizens have captured this desire through the Arab Spring revolutions, she explained.
The World Bank reported that change was occurring on the ground through action. It reported that some governments were willing to change and many citizens were pushing for this change.
Role of social networks in open government
The World Bank highlighted the role of technology and social networks by reporting that in 2008, 17 percent of the citizens in the region used social networks daily, as opposed to 40 percent in 2012 and 80 percent in 2013. This huge growth in connectivity has also meant that the World Bank has learnt to engage more using social networking.
Participants in the workshop noted that having access to information or data in itself was not enough. Its quality and timely release as well as the public and NGOs’ participation, interaction and ability to utilize the information was also vital.
A Tunisian participant highlighted the fact that access to and the publication of attendance figures by members to their Congress helped improve government performance.
It is worth noting that Libya is not a member of the Open Government Partnership and that the only Arab country that is currently a member is Jordan.
Nevertheless, and ironically a day after Libyan Prime Minister was briefly kidnapped by armed militias, much of the principles discussed would apply to Libya as the political elite tries to establish and maintain trust with the citizens and armed militias.
There is also a need by the Libyan authorities to provide much more information about decision-making and revenue spending in view of the information and communication gap that has led a void often filled by unsubstantiated rumours. This is contributing to degradation of the government and GNC’s effectiveness.
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