The next 14 and 15 May there will be votes in 598 Municipalities of regions with ordinary statute, of which 13 are provincial capitals and 91 with over 15,000 inhabitants and I would like to give some advice to those who are candidates to govern their own city: study the fifth carefully National plan for open government.
The Plan is divided into 5 areas of action:
- Governance and strategy for open government;
- Corruption prevention and culture of integrity;
- Strengthening the participation of civil society;
- Promotion and defense of the civic space;
- Digital transformation and inclusion.
Open government policies guarantee a modernization of public administrations and above all of the quality of services offered to citizens and businesses.
On the Open Gov website of the Department of Public Administration we read: “implementing the principles of open government makes it possible to respond more effectively to the growing needs for transparency in administrative action and for the participation of citizens and organized civil society, it makes it possible to more effectively combat the corruption and to build more trust in institutions.”
These objectives should be the basis of every administration and in particular of the local ones which have a more direct, constant and interactive role with their territory and their citizens.
Since the openness of an administration and the implementation of the principles of open government can and must be measured, it is first of all necessary that all data of public interest produced by the administrations be released in an open format (the so-called Open Data) but it is also important to remember that to evaluate the degree of “openness” the number of documents or information or data present on the site is not enough but also their updating and their quality.
We sometimes see the presentation of rankings in which administrations are “rewarded” (and boast) on the basis of purely quantitative data on the number of documents published on open data portals, but these assessments are totally unreliable when the degree of updating is not taken into account of the data itself.
Just to give an example, the Municipality of Pisa, which in 2021 was ranked first in the ICityRank “open data” ranking thanks to the large number (663) of datasets published, in 2022, following the introduction in the index of qualitative indicators, Pisa is no longer even among the top 10 and it is worth noting in this regard that the datasets published by Pisa date back to 2017 at best.
From 8 to 12 May 2023, therefore a few days before the administrative, the week of open administration, conceived by Italy in 2017, will be held internationally, a call to global action to transform the way in which central and local communities respond to the needs of their citizens. In more than 60 countries, including Italy, Open Government Week will bring together actors, leaders and thinkers to share ideas, discuss solutions and inspire reforms.
“The initiative is divided into five days dedicated to meetings, consultations, seminars and public debates, focus groups, civic monitoring activities, webinars, hackathons, publication of datasets in open format and reports, presentation of new sites and online services and other initiatives that aim to present the strategies and operational tools to citizens and public administrations to implement the principles of open government.”
It seems to me a great opportunity that should be seized by anyone who is interested in these issues today and in particular by administrators and non-governmental associations who are committed to the issues of transparency and the culture of integrity, public participation, the defense of the civic space and inclusive digital innovation.
Public administrations, civil society organizations and citizens who want to contribute to Open Gov Week 2023 can carry out initiatives on these issues.
The Department of Public Administration organizes various interventions: 8 May will be dedicated to the theme of public participation; on the 9th to digital transformation; the 10th to transparency and anti-corruption and the 11th to civic space. May 12, the closing event, will be dedicated to an overall reflection coordinated by the Multistakeholder Forum for Open Government.
Those who intend to participate with their own event in Open Government Week 2023 can propose it by filling out this form.
Open Government or public policies based on transparency, participation, the fight against corruption,accountability and innovation in public administration: a strong stimulus for civil society to solicit public administrations which should see it as an obligation but also as a great opportunity.