Response to Assessment of the United States’ 2019-2022 Action Plan

[Daniel York - M1ET]

Hello Mr. Pradhan,

Thank you for your letter dated August 11, 2023, which shared the findings of the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) regarding the United States’ 2019-2022 4th National Action Plan (NAP) under the Open Government Partnership (OGP). 

The U.S. Government deeply values our participation in the OGP and is committed to the principles of transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement. We are proud to reaffirm our commitment to democracy and the Partnership’s mission as we begin our term on the OGP Steering Committee. 

We have conducted a thorough review of our efforts, which are summarized below, and we acknowledge the concerns raised, specifically in regard to maintaining an OGP repository and providing public information on action plan implementation. Please be assured that the United States government takes these findings very seriously and is committed to adhering to OGP’s requirements. We had already initiated and will continue executing remedial actions, including: 

• Establishing an OGP Repository and beta NAP commitment tracker. 

• Hosting a series of engagement sessions with civil society. 

• Establishing a dedicated Secretariat in the General Services Administration to coordinate governmentwide open government efforts (see GSA Press Release). 

• Conducting a thorough review of OGP’s procedural review policy to ensure our next (6th) NAP will be in alignment with all relevant standards and requirements.

We remain committed to promoting greater transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement in policy making, both domestically and at the international level. We look forward to building on the lessons shared by our peers at the Global OGP Summit in Estonia last month and finding more meaningful ways to engage with U.S. civil society in the co-creation process for our next (6th) action plan. We are resolved to meet OGP’s requirements, now and in the future, and continue our dedication to the principles of open government.

Sincerely,

	U.S. General Services Administration
	Daniel W. York Director, Open Government Secretariat Office of Government-wide Policy

[alexande...@gmail.com]

As there is still no formal response to the OGP finding the USA has acted contrary to process in its design and implementation of the 4th NAP, it looks to the rest of the world as if the GSA Administrator has ignored the letter:

https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/united-states/

I hope the Secretariat will ensure that the US government issues a formal response that engages with the substance of the IRM's forthcoming report on the design of the 5th NAP and details the concrete actions that the working group will take in 2024 to ensure that the serious issues with co-creation do not repeat for the third time.

Best,
Alex