The Steering Committee (SC) of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) will meet in Berlin, Germany, from February 25 to 27, 2020 for a working-level meeting where it will discuss the implementation of OGP’s Three Year Plan and other governance matters.
The role of the Steering Committee is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests. It is also expected to promote OGP’s core ideas, policies, and rules, and oversee the functioning of the partnership.
The SC comprises of 22 members (11 from national governments and 11 from civil society), with equality in membership maintained between the two constituencies. The commitee has three standing subcommittees to support its work: the Governance and Leadership Subcommittee (GL), the Criteria and Standards Subcommittee (C&S) and the Thematic Leadership Subcommittee (TLS). Each subcommittee is comprised of an equal number of government and civil society representatives drawn from the SC.
Some of the key responsibilities of the SC include:
- Setting OGP’s agenda and direction with principled commitment to the founding nature and goals of the initiative;
- Leading by example through upholding OGP values, adhering to OGP processes to co-create and implement ambitious open government reforms, and fulfilling financial support of OGP;
- Advancing OGP priorities through their participation in the Global OGP Summit, OGP regional and thematic events, and other international opportunities to promote open government; and
- Actively participating in Steering Committee and Subcommittee meetings (in-person and virtually), with Ministerial representation when necessary (at least once per year).
Steering Committee members are expected to serve for a term of three years, beginning on October 1 of the year they are elected. They are eligible to serve for a maximum of two consecutive terms. However, SC members seeking a second term must be re-elected to stay on the SC.
SC leadership is comprised of a revolving four-member co-chairmanship team (two from government and two from civil society) elected by members of the SC.
The four co-chairs make up the Governance and Leadership Subcommittee (GL). Steering Committee co-chairs serve for a two-year term with the first year as ‘incoming’ and the second as ‘lead’ chairs.
