With a successful inaugural year of the Open Government Awards (Awards) in 2014, OGP is now excited to announce the theme for the 2015 Awards - Improving Public Services through Open Government. OGP is asking countries to showcase how open government initiatives have resulted in concrete improvements in the delivery of public services, e.g. economic welfare programs, health care, education, water, roads, public safety etc.
Each OGP participating country has received a unique passcode that allows them to access the website. This passcode can be shared with the team responsible for putting in an application, so that they may REGISTER on this website and access the application.
Participating countries must consult with civil society organizations to nominate the best initiative to put forward for the 2015 Awards. This process may last up to 4 weeks.
*Please note that OGP participating countries that are currently under review by the Criteria and Standards subcommittee will not be eligible to participate in the Awards.*
View Top 10 Ranked Initiatives
To compete, initiatives should demonstrate one or more of the following results:
- Citizens have better access to information on the public services to which they are entitled, and/or information on the performance of public service providers
- Governments are better at asking for and responding to feedback or complaints by citizens on the quality of public services
- Citizens have ways to actively participate in the design and delivery of public services
- Citizens have mechanisms to monitor and oversee public works and services
Initiatives should also provide evidence if the initiative was able to expand access to public services to a larger population than before or if the quality and efficiency of public services has improved.
OGP has selected this theme for 2015 in recognition of the fact that public services are the most common interface between citizens and the government, and that governments should ensure transparency, accountability and responsiveness in their design and delivery. Good quality and effective public services respond to the needs of people, especially vulnerable groups, and form the foundation of inclusive development. OGP also believes that this theme is a key component of achieving the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. To better understand the thematic focus, please click here.
To ensure a transparent and fair selection process, this website provides a detailed explanation of:
We encourage you to review this information in advance, as it will help inform your decision regarding which initiative to nominate for the 2015 Awards.
Over the next three months, teams will submit their applications, and judges will be responsible for scoring them. To offer a more detailed description of each phase of the submission and review process, please consider the following timeline:
Between March 16th and May 1st, teams will consult with civil society partners to nominate the initiative that will be put forward for submission. May 2nd will mark the end of the nomination phase as well as the REGISTRATION DEADLINE. Teams must REGISTER on this website using the unique passcode provided to them by their OGP participating country.
After the registration deadline, those teams will have an additional 6 weeks to complete their application. However, we strongly recommend that each team should begin considering the requirements of the APPLICATION as soon as possible. The application content is less than 1500 words, but requires letters from local civil society organizations or private partners, to validate claims made by those teams.
Once the registration deadline has closed, OGP may add judges to ensure that every applicant receives no less than five reviews per submission. Those scores will be statistically normalized, to ensure that every applicant receives fair consideration. Teams will receive both scores and comments from each of their JUDGES.
Once the APPLICATION DEADLINE has passed on June 15th, our administrative team will review each submission, to ensure that it is complete and meets all of the application requirements before distributing those complete applications to our judges. They will score and comment on each assigned application using the SCORING PROCESS. You are welcome to learn more about that process and the rubric that they will use to assess specific traits of your application.
After all judges have submitted their scores and comments, the OGP team will compile a rank order of scores, including identifying regional champions and the winner in the special recognition category. Winning teams will be invited to attend the OGP Global Summit in Mexico City in October 2015. OGP co-chairs will exercise ultimate oversight over the Awards and be the final arbiter of decisions. These decisions will be made transparent.
In August OGP will contact the winning teams so that they may begin planning to participate in the Awards ceremony in October. During this period, OGP will provide each team with their scores and individual feedback from each assigned judge, so that they may continue to build on their initial success and learn from the experience of other applicants.
If you have any specific questions, regarding this timeline or the application requirements, please contact Munyema Hasan, OGP Program Officer at: munyema.hasan@opengovpartnership.org.