Open Government Partnership Stakeholders hold Consultative Meeting with the World Bank
Ghana’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative under the Public Sector Reform Secretariat (PSRS) and the Office of the Senior Presidential Advisor in collaboration with the World Bank held a consultative meeting with key stakeholders and representatives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) leading in the implementation of the OGP 5th National Action Plan (NAP), 2023-2027 on Tuesday, 24th September, 2024 at the World Bank Office in Accra.
The purpose for the consultative meeting was to provide the World Bank with detailed information and knowledge of the various commitments in the OGP 5th NAP that are being implemented by MDAs as well as partnering Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to facilitate decision-making and advocate for support for the implementation of the 5th OGP NAP.
OGP is an international initiative that seeks to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote openness, transparency, enhance citizen’s participation, promote accountability and adopt new technologies such as digitization to enhance good governance. Within the framework of promoting state – civil society collaboration, the OGP is governed by a Global Steering Committee comprising representatives of Government and CSOs. Ghana signed onto the OGP in September 2011, and to meet its obligations under the Partnership, the country has developed and implemented four Action Plans. Ghana’s 5th Action Plan is under implementation over a four-year period of 2023-2027. Typically, the OGP NAPs go through a two-year cycle, but Ghana opted for a 4-year cycle for the current 5th NAP is under implementation.
The key stakeholders present at the consultative meeting were representatives of lead implementing MDAs and partners from notable CSOs in Ghana. These included Ministry of Finance, Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice; Ministry of Energy; Ministry of Information; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development; Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development; Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection; Parliament House; Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice; Public Utilities Regulatory Commission; National Council on Persons with Disability; Financial Intelligence Centre; National Information Technology Agency; and Internal Audit Agency.
Other stakeholders present were Ghana Integrity Initiative; Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative; Center for Democratic Development, Ghana; Institute of Democratic Governance; Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative; Anglophone Africa; Budgit Ghana; Natural Resource Governance Institute; Energy Growth Hub; and SEND Ghana.
The OGP initiative had made some achievements in 2021 at the Global Summit held in Seoul, South Korea where Ghana was declared the third (3rd) placed country in the OGP Impact Award Category for Africa and the Middle East Region. In 2023, Ghana again received two awards at the OGP Global Summit held in Estonia at the national award under the Africa category for implementing the most inspirational reform dubbed ‘’Public Accounts Committee and Audit Reports’’. This reform was also one of the commitments in the 4th OGP National Action Plan implemented by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA).
The local category award also went to the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly based on their initiative in Youth Entrepreneurship and Women Empowerment programme. The objective of the local initiative is to reduce poverty and create employment to improve socio-economic wellbeing of citizens.
Other achievements were enactment of the Office of The Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959) which established the Office of the Special Prosecutor. The enactment of the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) established the legal framework for the Beneficial Ownership regime in fulfilment of the resolution which made Beneficial Ownership disclosure mandatory for all implementing countries of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The Office of the Registrar of Companies is implementing a Beneficial Ownership regime based on the Act following the completion of the upgrade of its electronic register to enable it receive data.
Additionally, the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989) was passed and became operational in January 2020. This is an important instrument for the promotion of transparency and accountability. Again, the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) was established by an Act of Parliament, State Interests and Governance Authority Act, 2019 (Act 990). The main purpose of SIGA is to ensure that the activities of all State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Joint Venture Companies (JVCs) are monitored to among other objectives, ensure promotion of efficient operations of the CSOs and adherence to good corporate governance practices as well as Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2018 (Act 982).
In 2017, a major commitment under innovation and technology was for the Ministry of Communications and related Ministries and Agencies to finalize the Ghana Open Data Policy by 2018. The Ghana Open Data Initiative has led to increased access to government data for various data needs.
In a welcome remark, Mr. Raymond Muhula, a Lead Public Sector Specialist with the World Bank was pleased to meet all stakeholders present and to assure them of a fruitful engagement. He believed that the consultative meeting would provide a platform for the government to make specific commitments towards transparent and accountable governance process in the country. Mr. Muhula, recognized the fact that there has been some positive performance on democratic governance in Ghana. However, some public institutions still needed to innovate, improve and provide better services to the citizens.
He indicated that governance was critical for sustainable development in the country and therefore, the OGP process had a huge potential for Ghana. In that regard, the CSOs needed to partner in addressing the bottlenecks and weaknesses in transparency, accountability and standards in all public sector agencies.
In a presentation on the background and structure of the OGP in Ghana, Mrs. Thelma Ohene-Asiamah, Director, General Administration at PSRS and OGP Point of Contact indicated that Ghana’s OGP is governed by a 20-member Steering Committee with membership drawn from relevant MDAs and CSOs. It was established in August 2012 and currently chaired by the Senior Presidential Advisor and co-chaired by a CSO representative, Ghana Integrity Initiative. The multi-stakeholder Steering Committee has responsibility for the development of the NAPs which encapsulates the country’s OGP commitments. Additionally, the OGP Ghana has a working group drawn out of the Steering Committee that are mainly around the key thematic areas of the OGP. These working groups follow-up and monitor the implementation of commitments contained in the Action Plans.
It was mentioned that at the sub-national level, seven (7) local authorities are members of the OGP local and these include the following: Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (pioneer), Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly, Wassa Amenfi East Municipal Assembly, Ketu South Municipal Assembly, Tamale Municipal Assembly, Shama District Assembly and Anloga District Assembly.
She added that some contributions of the OGP in Ghana were based on the collaborative relationship between the government and civil society. Through the implementation of the Action Plans and processes involved, major policy and legislative reforms to combat corruption, improve accountability and transparency were enacted and being implemented.
On her part, Mrs. Ohene-Asiamah, gave the highlights on transparency of the NAP-5. Some of which centred on commitments related to broad policy areas in Power Purchasing Agreements; Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2019; and Fisheries Transparency.
She further indicated that under the accountability section, there were commitments related to Assets Declaration; Witness Protection; Public Accounts Committee; Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing; enabling CHRAJ’s Administrative Justice delivery mandate; and Health Service delivery.
Mrs. Ohene-Asiamah also provided commitments under Participation which were related to Citizens Complaints Centre; Gender Equality; and Citizen Participation in Local Government. The last highlights of the NAP-5 was based on Technology and Innovation. The commitments under this section were mainly focused on misinformation and disinformation, data sharing and intermediation of public service delivery platforms. Again, she indicated the highlight on Open Parliament as one of the key commitments.
Dr. Eric Osae, Director General of Internal Audit Agency and member of the OGP Steering Committee further elaborated on some of the commitments and benefits that Ghana can derive with support from the World Bank.
At the end of the consultative meeting, the discussions were very fruitful with the call for further deliberations by stakeholders.