-
Open government is a culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in support of democracy and inclusive growth. It represents a changed understanding of the role of the state in a modern society. Countries around the world increasingly acknowledge that open government can improve government efficiency and effectiveness, while bringing the administration and its officials closer to citizens.
-
-
Reforming and modernising the state through open government initiatives is one of the top priorities of the current government of Argentina. The country has made significant progress by creating an Open Government Roundtable, adopting a Law on the Right of Access to Public Information, and creating new tools for citizens to interact with the state.
-
Argentina has been implementing policies to promote open government principles for some time, but the current government has given new impetus to the country’s open government reform agenda. The new approach to open government represents a true change of paradigm and could be characterised as a big bang approach. In the space of only a few years, thanks to the important efforts of the then Ministry of Modernisation, an important number of new institutions joined the open government agenda and initiatives are now being implemented by entities at all levels of government and by all branches of power. From a narrow initial focus on e-government the current government has seen Argentina’s open government agenda start to mature, moving beyond the Open Government Partnership (OGP) process towards a much broader approach incorporating all open government principles.
-
The cultural, historical, political and socio-economic context that defines a country also inevitably influences the design, implementation and evaluation of open government strategies and initiatives. This chapter’s first section therefore contextualises the approach to open government by analysing a number of challenges and opportunities for open government in Argentina. In terms of socio-economic development, Argentina performs relatively well today, but the country continues to experience socio-economic challenges. Moreover, the perceived inability of policy makers to address these challenges, as well as apparent low levels of transparency and public sector integrity, can have a significant impact on citizens’ trust in government. It is against this backdrop that the current government has given new impetus to the country’s open government agenda. The second part of this chapter introduces the OECD’s approach to open government and explains the methodology used for the collection of data and the elaboration of the Review’s recommendations.
-
This chapter takes stock of Argentina’s policy framework for open government and provides recommendations for its consolidation. It includes a discussion of the usefulness of a single definition of open government and provides an overview of existing policy documents that refer to open government principles, including the State Modernisation Plan, the Federal Commitment for the Modernisation of the State and the OGP Action Plan. It finds that the then Ministry of Modernisation acted as the driver of an open government agenda that can be characterised as a “big bang approach”. Within a short period of time, it developed a broad range of open government initiatives with the involvement of a number of new institutions. The chapter concludes with guidelines and practical recommendations for the development of an open government policy framework for the future – a National Open Government Strategy.
-
A robust legal and regulatory framework is one of the essential building blocks and necessary pre-conditions for the successful implementation of open government strategies and initiatives. This chapter therefore analyses Argentina’s main legal and regulatory underpinnings for open government reforms and includes a discussion of the framework provided by the Argentinian constitution and the solid basis it forms for open government. The chapter recognises the important progress Argentina has made through the adoption of the Law on the Right of Access to Public Information in 2016 and provides an in-depth analysis thereof. The last part provides recommendations to support the ongoing elaboration of a State Modernisation Law.
-
This chapter provides recommendations to foster the effective implementation of open government initiatives in Argentina through a more solid and effective governance structure. It includes a discussion of horizontal co-ordination mechanisms at national level, including the recently created National Open Government Roundtable. It also analyses opportunities and challenges associated with the move of the Government Secretariat of Modernisation as the country’s leading open government actor to the Office of the Chief of Cabinet of Ministers. Finally, it discusses way to make use of human resources management as a tool to increase the impact of the national open government agenda.
-
This chapter assesses Argentina’s efforts to monitor and evaluate open government strategies and initiatives. It argues that Argentina has made substantial progress since 2016 in promoting monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practices across government. Nevertheless, it notes that the respective M&E and open government agendas could be further aligned to improve the M&E of open government efforts. Therefore, the chapter provides recommendations on how to foster M&E of open government, considering areas such as the institutional set-up for sharing data, the design of indicators, the development of M&E capacities among public officials and the evaluation of open government initiatives. The chapter also discusses Argentina’s promotion of M&E across governments with a focus on the provinces.
-
This chapter assesses Argentina’s approaches to informing, consulting and engaging with citizens and other relevant stakeholders in open government reforms. It argues that institutional communication can help raise awareness regarding the benefits that effective stakeholder participation can yield, such as higher trust in government. The chapter outlines the various good practices that the central government, ministries and provinces have implemented and the important role of the third Open Government Partnership Action Plan of Argentina. The final section presents recommendations on how to align existing practices and move towards an integrated approach for stakeholder participation.
-
This chapter discusses the growing collaboration between branches of power and levels of government in Argentina around the promotion of open government principles. It finds that open government initiatives have started to flourish across the entire Argentinian state and identifies a number of good practices from provinces that could inspire other countries. It discusses the key role of COFEMOD, includes case studies that embody the concepts of an open parliament and open justice, and explores the role of ombudsman institutions in fostering the move towards an open state. Recommendations focus – inter alia – on how a National Open Government Strategy and a National Open Government Steering Committee could complement and strengthen work being done by the branches of power and subnational governments.
-
This chapter links common findings of the Open Government and Digital Government Reviews and highlights results that are relevant for both digital and open government reforms in Argentina. In particular, the chapter focuses on ways that digital government tools can be conducive to open government reforms and vice versa. It examines the institutional framework for digital and open government in Argentina, stress the necessity to align overarching strategies, and highlights the benefits that innovation-driven initiatives can yield for the digital government and open government agendas.