Argentina presented its 4th National Open Government Action Plan to the Alliance for Open Government

Following the option given by the Open Government Alliance (OGP) to postpone the execution of the current Open Government National Action Plan (PANGA) (2019 – 2022) for one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic – Resolution of Coronavirus OGP – and the possibility of reviewing the Plan in the first year of implementation after the political transition, the government of Argentina sent in December 2020 its Fourth National Open Government Action Plan, adapted.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

Argentina joined the Open Government Alliance in 2012. Being part of this global Alliance implies committing to open government policies co-created with civil society, which are materialized through national action plans, to be executed in two years. Since its incorporation to date, Argentina has presented four Open Government National Action Plans.

In September 2019, Argentina presented the 4th National Open Government Action Plan (2019 – 2021) as stipulated by the deadlines given by OGP. OGP provisions allow, in any case, to make amendments to the Plan in the first year of implementation of the Plan (2020, for Argentina), especially in the event that political transitions operate in the environment, as was the case in our country. With the irruption of the pandemic due to Covid-19 that changed all the priorities of the public agenda in 2020, the Criteria and Standards Subcommittee issued the OGP Coronavirus Resolution in March 2020 through which it gave the possibility to the Alliance countries to postpone the presentation or implementation of their Plans for one year, depending on when each country is. Argentina, as it had already presented its Plan, could make use of this option, postponing its execution for one year, that is, it ends in August 2022 instead of August 2021.

After reaching a consensus on this decision in the National Open Government Roundtable, and through this with the group that makes up the Network of Civil Society Organizations for an Open State in Argentina, it was decided to take this option, setting in turn which one would be the methodology for making changes within the Plan. In this sense, the possibility of making two types of changes was envisaged: specific modifications related to deadlines, parts of milestones of the commitments or deliverables or more substantial modifications that would change the scope of the commitment. In all cases, the option to make changes to the Plan was in the hands of the Agency responsible for its compliance, and instances of validation or co-construction of the commitment were established – depending on the case – with the Civil Society Organizations that were part of the commitment. initial.}

From all this process it resulted that Argentina sends in December 2020 its National Open Government Action Plan (2019 – 2022).

How far is the current Plan from the one presented in 2019?

The 4th Action Plan presented in December 2020 consists of 18 commitments, that is, to the initial 15, three were added:

• One related to Comprehensive Sexual Education (ESI), by virtue of which it is arranged to create a Federal Observatory for the Implementation of the ESI, which will meet bimonthly with civil society and government actors, as well as the publication of open data on the implementation of the ESI. The body responsible for compliance being the Undersecretariat of Social Education and Culture of the Ministry of Education of the Nation. And two on the Open Congress Action Plan.
• In other words, the annex to the 2019 Plan on the Open Congress Action Plan was divided into two commitments, one for each Chamber of the National Congress. In this case, each House of Congress made its own adjustment of terms and must present its own Open Congress Action Plan.

In relation to the initial commitments, only one – on Access to Justice – changed its content, passing the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of the Nation to commit to create Provincial Observatories of Access to Justice, as well as local territorial operations in in rural areas, indigenous peoples, popular neighborhoods and underserved areas, among other milestones (see previous version page 83 – current version of the commitment). In that case, other civil society organizations such as XUMEK, CELS, INECIP and ANDHES also joined. The other commitments only had simple adjustments, fundamentally regarding compliance deadlines, given the one-year extension of total compliance with the Plan.

In some commitments, other NGOs were added that were not initially planned, as was the case of the commitment on Access to Justice, ESI where Amnesty International and Fundeps joined, in the commitment of Women in the World of Work the Ministry of Women joined , Gender and Diversity as another actor of collaboration and monitoring of the same, and in Sexuality and Rights the organization FUSA joined.

Finally, an annex document prepared by the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity called Incorporation of the Gender and Diversity Perspective was added to the 4th National Open Government Action Plan, which constitutes a contribution from this Ministry to promote the mainstreaming of the perspective gender and diversity in the field of open government policies generated in the 4th Action Plan.

From Fundeps, we are part of the National Open Government Roundtable (2020-2022) and of the collective that makes up the Network of Civil Society Organizations for an Open State in Argentina.

Once the instances of co-creation (2019) and revision (2020) of the Plan have been completed, it is time to collaborate from citizens and civil society in monitoring the commitments made in the Plan, in order to contribute to its effective compliance the objective of continuing to consolidate open government policies throughout the country, both at the national and federal levels, and in all the areas in which open government policies were making their way.

Contact

Nina Sibilla, ninasibilla@fundeps.org 

More information

• Official website on Argentina’s Open Government Action Plans. There you have access to the 4th PANGA (December 2020), as well as each of the separate commitments, the annex on and the version of the 4th National Open Government Action Plan presented in 2019.