Taking the momentum of the upcoming Open Government Partnership (OGP) Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali on May 6-7, 2014, we, 183 representatives of civil society organizations coming from 31 Asia Pacific countries and  beyond came together on the Civil Society Day in Nusa Dua on May 4, 2014 to discuss key issues relating to the OGP.

We acknowledge that the OGP is a new multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness news technologies to strengthen governance. These commitments respond to four key values: transparency, accountability, participation and innovation.

We honor and support the spirit of OGP and efforts to create openness of government, engaging civil society and giving space to reformers and innovators as key actors of democracy, good governance and development.

Having considered the progress and achievements OGP so far, we considered the three following issues to be relevant and timely for consideration by the Chair and co-Chair, Steering Committee, and OGP country members: First, the importance and need for establishing, expanding and consolidating civic space; Second, that the formulation of the Post-2015 agenda including sustainable development goals and the fundamental needs to incorporate good governance; and third, the need for OGP to establish and maintain a civil society participation mechanism and standard for compliance with OGP’s values.

We call on the chair and co-chair to give special attention to the above mentioned issues. These issues and recommendations are explained below:

A. Civic Space

In some democratic states, civil society space has been closed or severely restricted.  Civil society space should be guaranteed and promoted in all OGP countries through the relevant legal framework, institutional arrangements and decision-making practices.

Therefore, we call on:

• OGP country members to extend the open data program to cover both government and private sectors.
• OGP country members to ensure the provison of infrastructure for communication especially for vulnerable groups, including person with disabilites, indigenous people, LGBT groups, and women.
• OGP country members to establish and ensure the implementation of laws that recognize freedom of expression, association and assembly, freedom of information, whistleblower protection and remove restrictions and controls on civil society organizations.
• OGP country members to establish laws that provide opportunities for civil society to participate in decision making processes and oversee their implementation.
• Civil society leaders in OGP country members to claim their legitimate space in decision making processes and oversee their implementation.

B. Governance in Post-2015 Development Agenda

We take the position that good governance [T1] should be a standalone goal in the Post-2015 agenda. Good governance as a standalone goal will lead to the development of the necessary indicators and targets to measure government bodies in their performance of being efficient, open, transparent, accountable and effective institutions. Placing governance as a cross-cutting theme diminishes its importance, whereas, its position as a standalone goal will highlight it as a critical component to sustainable development.

As OGP country members, there is an obligation to support good governance as a standalone goal in the Post-2015 agenda. In doing so, OGP country members will fulfill their mandate by setting forth the steps necessary to ensure full respect of the right to freedom of expression and information, transparency, and accountability worldwide. By endorsing good governance as a standalone goal, the OGP will ensure the effectiveness of public institutions internationally, and set a framework to enhance inclusive and meaningful public participation in decision-making processes, all of which will lead to and reinforce the sustainable development that we all seek.

Therefore, we call on:

• The OGP Chair and country members to support good governance as a standalone goal in the Post-2015 agenda.
• The OGP Steering Committee to release a formal letter to OGP country members to support governance as a stand-alone topic in the Post-2015 agenda.
• The Asia Pacific leaders to start incorporating governance goals, targets, and indicators into their national planning, and to ensure that OGP country members are actively working towards achieving the targets.

C. Country mechanism/compliance

Many OGP country members are yet to embrace the full extent of partnership in advocating OGP values at country level mechanism. The poor quality of participation has resulted in the low impact of country commitments for their people. We believe that future improvement of OGP in terms of partnership can be achieved if all stakeholders are committed in realizing the following recommendations:

Therefore, we call on:

• Country members to ensure that their commitments are specific, strong, and enable deeper transparency at the national and sub-national levels, in line with the international level. Countries shall set clear outcome indicators agreed by government and civil society for each commitment and shall ensure the sustainability of those commitments. Countries shall consider the varying domestic circumstances and ensure that the release of information through modern infrastructure such as the internet or mobile phones, does not leave behind the disadvantage and marginalized people who are not under the coverage of such modern infrastructure.
• Country members to set standards of governance at the national level. Countries shall create a platform in which there is equal representation from government and civil society. The non-involvement of civil society in the making and implementation of country commitments should be considered as a violation of OGP values. Each OGP country member should make clear and explicit mechanisms to facilitate civil society consultation in the making, implementing and monitoring of Action Plan, and together with civil society, establish a mechanism to enable equal position in decision making. Countries should elaborate, in their self-assessment, the nature of multi-stakeholder consultation, as mandated by OGP requirements.
• Country members to take into account performance on human rights as stipulated in the OGP Declaration. Country members shall demonstrate, in their self-assessment report, that they have taken sufficient measures to guarantee their citizens’ ability to exercise their rights to access information and participate freely, by effective implementation of Access to Information laws, protecting whistle blowers, as well as ensuring adequate response to laws/provisions that have the potential to violate the access to information of their citizens. The Steering Committee must take a holistic approach on country compliance, taking into account not just the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM), but also, other independent reports on violations of OGP values.

Participants of the Civil Society Day,

CSO Day May 4, 2014 – Bali