Local Open Government: Opportunities and Challenges in Terms of Impact and Participation

Every year, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) holds summits in different parts of the world to exchange good practices and promote peer learning. Last year it took place in Canada.

In addition to the main event, it is very interesting to consider all the side events taking place. One of them is the OGP Academy, which brings together representatives of the academy and researchers to carry out interdisciplinary exchanges from theory and practice.

Together with Maricel Lonati, we decided, based on the example of the City of Buenos Aires, to write and participate with an article about the lessons and challenges we encountered in applying open government policies in the local dimension.

Through this reflection we proposed to investigate and explore the possibilities offered by the implementation of open government policies in the local dimension, focusing particularly on:

• 1) the impact generated by open government initiatives in the improvement of processes, delivery of public services and quality of life of citizens;
• 2) the potential of these tools to advance in opening policies that involve the different branches of the State;
• 3) the possibilities offered by closeness in local governments to encourage and diversify citizen participation, and to empower the community as a driver of innovation;
• 4) the lessons and challenges that the implementation of these tools leave in subnational governments.

The article is published in JeDEM — EJournal of EDemocracy and Open Government and can be consulted at this link. We hope that it serves to enrich the debate on the value of Open Government in the local dimension.