US plans for OpenGovWeek in May?

[Alexander Howard]

Hello all --

It's now been over 3 months since the US government posted a 5th National Action Plan that contained 37 pre-existing administration priorities and commitments (some unrelated to open government) over the holidays and shared it here.

U.S. civil society has heard nothing from the US government here since. There is still no whitehouse.gov/open.

In the interim, however, the US government has been re-elected to join the OGP Steering Committee – despite acting contrary to process in the last two action plan cycles and seeing a marked devolution in our democracy, from unprecedented corruption in the White House to escalating overclassification and secrecy.

In May 2023, the Open Government Partnership is encouraging all participating governments to host events.

As of yet, the US government has proposed none – despite its leadership role in OGP. https://opengovweek.org/

When will this change? Will there be a public event where we talk about the status of NAP 3, NAP 4, and NAP5 commitments, or the OGP IRM report on the NAP 4? Or design of NAP 5, including the flaws in the co-creation process?

Will there be a press conference where the President and Cabinet members introduce new commitments?

Or will the Biden-Harris administration do nothing to observe OpenGovWeek, as in 2021 and 2022?

[alexande...@gmail.com]

The US government didn’t hold any events, roll out new policies, issue a proclamation or otherwise celebrate OpenGovWeek, but State Dept informed me that the White House open government working group did announced virtual engagement sessions in June, July, & September yesterday, at which US officials will update Americans on progress on US commitments to the Open Government Partnership: https://open.usa.gov/national-action-plan/5/schedule-of-2023-engagement-sessions/

No set dates yet. I’ve asked them to return to in-person meetings, like the rest of their stakeholder engagement, & to start posting progress updates online as they go — including here.