Sierra Leone News: OGP to embark on nationwide consultation

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The Open Government Partnership (OGP) an initiative of the United States Department championed by the Open Government Initiative will be engaged in a nationwide consultation on the progress made on the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP).OGP was launched in 2011 to provide an international platform for domestic reformers committed to making their governments more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens. Since then, OGP has grown from 8 countries to the 65 participating countries. In all of these countries, government and civil society are working together to develop and implement ambitious open government reforms.Sierra Leone joined the partnership in 2013 and since then 17 Ministries, Departments and Agencies and 17 Civil Society Organizations formed the OGP Steering Committee which came up with the NAP with the aim of implementing the 11 commitments in the NAP.The Plan addresses three grand challenges as agreed upon in the national steering committee of improving public integrity, effective management of public resources and improving corporate accountability.Addressing a news conference on Wednesday at the OGP Secretariat, a Member of the Committee, Marcella Samba-Sesay, said the Committee came up with robust plans and actions for the government to be transparent and accountable to its citizens.She said the Committee was set up to ensure that the 11 commitments of the OGP are achieved which will improve public integrity, corporate accountability and effective management of public resources.Mrs Samba-Sesay stated that as part of the process a nationwide consultation was held to sensitize and seek inputs from citizens with regards the drafting of the National Action Plan. This second consultation, she said is to engage community people and stakeholders on the status of the implementation of the NAP. Chairman of the Committee, Rtd Dean Canon Adjai E Nicol, said during the consultation, data will be collected and inputted into a report which will show the position of the implementation of the Plan.He added that various teams will be moving around from one district to another engaging community people and stakeholders on what can be done to achieve the commitments in the Action Plan.Director of the Open Government Initiative, Khadija Sesay, reiterated that OGI organized a sensitization in a bid to put together the National Action Plan. She added that the sensitization and consultations were held in all the districts and people were given the opportunity to choose their own priorities with regards to the grand challenges.The Director said, similar consultations were also held with Sierra Leoneans living in the Diaspora including those in neighbouring Guinea. She spoke of the progress government has made so far which included the passing of the Right to Access Information Act and the Open Portal Data, Local Content Policy, the EITI bill which is at Cabinet level among others.By Abibatu KamaraThursday April 09, 2015

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