Trust in Government - Openness

OPEN GOVERNMENT POLICIES

Open government policies that concentrate on citizen engagement and access to information can help increase public trust and initiatives are receiving traction in an increasing number of Member and non-Member countries.

OECD countries have put forward a number of mechanisms to support open and inclusive government, from access to information, to consultation processes, to full-fledged open government policies. At the heart of these efforts is the goal of increasing citizens’ trust: 61% of OECD countries report trust to be their main goals when investing in openness and engagement of citizens, with others including strengthening social cohesion, raising awareness or increasing citizens' scrutiny.

MENA-OECD OPEN GOVERNMENT PROJECT

Not only are countries moving forward with the implementation of open government policies, but these efforts have resulted in an international movement, the Open Government Partnership, in which 19 OECD Member countries have commitments.

The MENA-OECD Open Government Project assisting the Governments of Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan and Libya in reviewing and assessing their institutions, policies and practices supporting the implementation of Open Government principles at central and local level, as well as coordination mechanisms across levels of government and with national civil society.

The project will thus contribute to improving both Open Government policies and practices
and to meeting the OGP eligibility criteria and prepare and implement the required country action plans through ad-hoc support and capacity building. More information on public governance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

BUDGET TRANSPARENCY

Budget transparency is defined as the full disclosure of all relevant fiscal information in a timely and systematic manner.

The OECD Best Practices for Budget Transparency are designed as a reference tool for governments to use in order to increase the degree of budget transparency in their respective countries.

However, dumping large amounts of raw data online will not increase trust, but pulling together data to create stories that increase the knowledge of citizens on how money is being spent could do so. This implies that governments need to establish processes for cleaning and preparing data, and to develop tools (data visualisation tools) to allow the public to understand the budget in greater detail. More information on budgeting and public expenditure can be found here.