International Workshop on Building Citizen Centred Policies and Services, Ljubljana, 26-27 June 2008

What was the issue?

Open government is a journey, not a destination. Putting the values of transparency and accountability, participation and inclusion, equity and efficiency into practice when designing and delivering citizen centred public policy and services is a challenge shared by all countries.

Who was there?

About 80 participants from national and local government, civil society and international organizations from 21 OECD countries and 12 OECD non-member countries attended.

Who were the organizers?

The workshop was co-organized by the OECD and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia with the support of the World Bank’s Communication for Governance & Accountability Program (CommGAP), DECIM, the European Citizen Advisory Service (ECAS) and Involve.

Participate online

TAKINGITGLOBAL

Read the summary report on the online discussions which involved over 200 youth from over 74 countries on climate change and over 100 youth from 43 countries on public engagement.

INVOLVE

Participants shared ideas on how to run the after-conference “Open Space” here

Documentation

• Programme
• Presentations
• Contributors
• Photos from the conference
• Video

Were civil society involved?

Yes. Civil society practitioners from both OECD member and non-member countries were among the speakers and participants at the event. Four civil society organizations (ECAS, Involve, Umanotera, TakingItGlobal.org) played an active role in the design and delivery of the workshop.

Who were the speakers at the event?

The event was opened by Dr. Gregor Virant, the Minister of Public Administration of Slovenia and Odile Sallard, Director (Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development) OECD. Plenary speakers included: Juan Pablo Guerrero Amparán, Federal Institute for Public Access to Information (Mexico), Katsuji Imata, Deputy General  Secretary Civicus (South Africa), Ian Johnson, Ministry of Justice (UK), Carolyn Lukensmeyer, President, America Speaks (USA), Richard Wilson, Director, Involve (UK) and Nick Yeo, takingITglobal (Canada).

What are the expected results?

The workshop provided a unique forum for policy dialogue and exchange of good practice, tools and tips for building citizen centred policy and services based on concrete experience. The results of the workshop will be made available online and as part of a forthcoming OECD report “From open to inclusive: building citizen centred policies and services”.

The agenda is available online. (PDF 452kb)

This was an invitation-only event in order to ensure high quality dialogue among government and civil society practitioners through small group discussions.
However, the opening plenary session (9-11am on Thursday 26 June 2008) and the civil society “Open Space” session organized by Umanotera (Slovenia) and Involve (UK) (14.30-16.30pm Friday 27 June 2008) are open to the public and to the media.

For accreditation and further information, journalists should contact Spencer Wilson in the OECD’s Media Division (email: spencer.wilson@oecd.org, tel: +33 1 45 24 81 18)

More about OECD's work on Public engagement for policy and services