Launch of the Northern Ireland Open Government Network

This event is a progression of the Trust’s initial seminar on the OGP back in May, where the clear message from participants was that open government was a subject that merited serious attention in Northern Ireland. In June the Trust convened a civil society group - interested individuals and representatives of the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector - who were committed to taking this work on open government forward. The group then requested the Trust to commission some exploratory research to help inform its future direction and strategy.

The Minister for Finance and Personnel, Simon Hamilton MLA, will be a keynote speaker, alongside Lizetta Lyster from the Cabinet Office's Transparency Team, who deal directly with the British Government's response to the Open Government Partnership initiative. 

Attendees will also head from a a panel including Queen's University Belfast's Professor John Barry and Anne Colgan (Chair of the Irish OGP Civil Society Forum) and a number of representatives from the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Sector. 

Peter Osborne was appointed to conduct this research and over the past three months has interviewed a large number of stakeholders from government, civil society and academia both within Northern Ireland as well as those involved in the Open Government Partnership processes in the Republic of Ireland and at UK national level. Additionally an online survey “Does Northern Ireland Have an Open Government?” was issued to gather information and opinions from the VCSE sector and broader civil society, attracting almost 200 responses.

The results of this research will be shared and discussed with participants on 5th November. Additionally, a panel of representatives from government, academia and civil society will give their responses to the research, as well as their views on how best to progress an open government agenda in Northern Ireland. Participants will have an opportunity to debate with the panel and propose issues and approaches that should form the basis of an open government campaign. 

The event will culminate in an opportunity for participants to commit to staying involved through joining the new Northern Ireland Open Government Network. 

Lunch will be provided at the conclusion of the event. 

To register please visit - https://opengovnilaunch.eventbrite.co.uk

For more information contact Paul Braithwaite on [email protected] or via Twitter on @Paul_BCT or #opengovni 

The Open Government Partnership (http://www.opengovpartnership.org/)  is an international framework of government commitments to transparency, accountability and participation. The UK is one of the founding nations and there are now over 60 member countries, now including ROI since 2013. One of the initiative’s key features is that it functions in each country through a joint and equal government – civil society partnership.

In the UK there is a UK civil society network that participated in the development of the second UK national action plan (2013 – 2015).

Currently however, the OGP has little impact in Northern Ireland due to the fact that the commitments made are almost entirely at central government level and hence only apply in England and to some extent Wales, with one commitment applying in Scotland.