In the 21st century the unprecedented development of informational technologies creates new possibilities in different spheres among them the state government system.
Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative which Armenia is involved in since 2011, is a governance system using information technologies, which aims to make the Government open, transparent, accountable and reliable for the citizens with active participation of civil society. 64 countries joined the initiative.
As for Armenia, however, currently the destiny of 2014-2016 OGP/Armenia Action plan is obscure.
The point is that as a result of a change of the Armenian Government staff in April-May of this year, a number of officials who were used to coordinate the OGP/Armenia initiative, today are actually relieved of duties, of course according to their own applications.
The newly appointed officials of the Government do not yet hurry to publicly present any position on OGP.
In the 21st century the unprecedented development of informational technologies creates new possibilities in different spheres among them the state government system.
Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative which Armenia is involved in since 2011, is a governance system using information technologies, which aims to make the Government open, transparent, accountable and reliable for the citizens with active participation of civil society. 64 countries joined the initiative.
As for Armenia, however, currently the destiny of 2014-2016 OGP/Armenia Action plan is obscure.
The point is that as a result of a change of the Armenian Government staff in April-May of this year, a number of officials who were used to coordinate the OGP/Armenia initiative, today are actually relieved of duties, of course according to their own applications.
The newly appointed officials of the Government do not yet hurry to publicly present any position on OGP.
While on June 30, 2014, Armenia should submit the Action plan for the upcoming two years to the central body of OGP initiative. With this regard, the previous Government together with a number of NGOs had started to develop it since November, 2013. The following spheres are included in the new Action plan: mining, healthcare, culture, urban development, customs, etc. However, it is already the second month there is no progress.
The non-governmental organization “Freedom of Information Center of Armenia” (FOI), member of an OGP working group, sent a letter to the RA Government on this issue several weeks ago to find out the position and further steps of the newly appointed staff of the Government on OGP initiative.
During an interview with JNews, Liana Doydoyan, expert at FOI, mentioned that they tried to find out the status of their letter by phone and it turned out that there is no answer ready yet.
Referring to the issue Doydoyan said that the representatives of NGOs are not actively engaged in the process of OGP/Armenia Action plans. “The Government could be more active in involving the NGOs, but the latter, too, should be active and present proposals appropriate to the essence of OGP,” Doydoyan says.
According to her, few of the local NGOs were aware of this initiative in the primary phase, but nearly 40 NGOs which were invited to a conference in 2013 were introduced the initiative, however no appropriate proposals were followed.
Artak Kirakosyan, Chairman of the Board of the Civil Society Institute has twice participated in the OGP discussions. He considers that the initiative has a strategic problem.
“We are coming from the end: we don’t observe the issues and challenges arisen for our country and try to understand how to solve them,” Kirakosyan says adding that while reading the OGP/Armenia Action plan, he got an impression that different plans have been fetched from here and there trying to suit them the initiative.
“Thus the participation of NGOs is becoming uncertain. Which must they participate in: in a process where an action already has been introduced and now they are to discuss whether it is good in this plan or it must be changed?” Kirakosyan says.
During the OGP/Armenia discussion of this year, in the context of open governance he has talked about two main challenges. “The first one is the oligarchic system, where big agents actually dictate everything. This issue is actual also both in Georgia and in Ukraine. Thus, speaking on open governance, we must find solutions to it. Of course, not immediately, in the way of revolution,” Kirakosyan says.
As a second significant challenge he mentions the factor that the society seems to be involved in different initiatives of the Government, but has no levers of influence.
“As a result, if anything may be affected then through crowd actions only, for example, the “100AMD” action, “I am against” movement,” Kirakosyan says adding that the Government does not know how to dialogue with the society.
According to him, generally, the RA Government should formulate mechanisms of a dialogue with the society not only in terms of e-participation.
“That should be the top issue in the process of open governance,” Kirakosyan considers.
Be aware of OGP/Armenia Action plan via OGP.am.
For information about OGP international initiative visit Opengovpartnership.org.
This article was prepared within the framework of the “Internet and Rights” newsletter published by “Journalists for the Future” NGO with the financial support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan. Content, views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and it is possible that they do not match with the views of the OSCE Office in Yerevan. Find all of the materials of the newsletter “Internet and Rights” here.
Source: JNews.am