IRM national researchers: Carefully apply these definitions to each commitment or group of commitments to identify whether the actions described in the commitment, as written, would either enhance these values or would employ these values to meet other policy goals. Assess the intent of the commitment, as written, rather than the ultimate potential impact or the intentional impact. OGP values defined Access to information Commitments around access to information: Pertain to government-held information, as opposed to only information on government activities. As an example, releasing government-held information on pollution would be clearly relevant, although the information is not about activity” per se; “government Are not restricted to data but pertain to all information. For example, releasing individual construction contracts and releasing data on a large set of construction contracts; May include information disclosures in open data and the systems that underpin the public disclosure of data; May cover both proactive and/or reactive releases of information; May cover both making data more available and/or improving the technological readability of information; May pertain to mechanisms to strengthen the to information (such as ombudsman’s offices or information tribunals); Must provide open access to information (it should not be privileged or internal only to government); Should promote transparency of government decision making and carrying out of basic functions; May seek to cost of obtaining information; Should strive to meet the 5 Star for Open Data design (). Civic participation Commitments around civic participation may pertain to formal public participation or to broader civic participation. They should generally seek to “consult,” “involve,” or as explained by the International Association for “collaborate,” “empower,” Public Participation’s Public Participation Spectrum (). Commitments addressing public participation: Must open up decision making to all interested members of the public; such forums are usually in that they are created by government (or actors empowered by government) to “top-down” inform decision making throughout the policy cycle; Can include elements of access to information to ensure meaningful input of interested members of the public into decisions; Often include the right to have your voice heard, but do not necessarily include the right to be a formal part of a decision making process.
IRM national researchers: Carefully apply these definitions to each commitment or group of commitments to identify whether the actions described in the commitment, as written, would either enhance these values or would employ these values to meet other policy goals. Assess the intent of the commitment, as written, rather than the ultimate potential impact or the intentional impact. OGP values defined Access to information Commitments around access to information: Pertain to government-held information, as opposed to only information on government activities. As an example, releasing government-held information on pollution would be clearly relevant, although the information is not about “government activity” per se; Are not restricted to data but pertain to all information. For example, releasing individual construction contracts and releasing data on a large set of construction contracts; May include information disclosures in open data and the systems that underpin the public disclosure of data; May cover both proactive and/or reactive releases of information; May cover both making data more available and/or improving the technological readability of information; May pertain to mechanisms to strengthen the to information (such as ombudsman’s offices or information tribunals); Must provide open access to information (it should not be privileged or internal only to government); Should promote transparency of government decision making and carrying out of basic functions; May seek to cost of obtaining information; Should strive to meet the 5 Star for Open Data design (). Civic participation Commitments around civic participation may pertain to formal public participation or to broader civic participation. They should generally seek to “consult,” “involve,” “collaborate,” or “empower,” as explained by the International Association for Public Participation’s Public Participation Spectrum (). Commitments addressing public participation: Must open up decision making to all interested members of the public; such forums are usually “top-down” in that they are created by government (or actors empowered by government) to inform decision making throughout the policy cycle; Can include elements of access to information to ensure meaningful input of interested members of the public into decisions; Often include the right to have your voice heard, but do not necessarily include the right to be a formal part of a decision making process.
IRM-Procedures-Manual-v4_Sept2017.docx