Introduction
10 years after the creation of the Open Government Partnership
This year 2021 is the 10th anniversary of Uruguay's membership in the Open Government Partnership and within this framework the country presents its 5th National Action Plan 2021-2024, thus ratifying the commitment undertaken by the country to promote the values of open government as cross-cutting principles in public management.
This Action Plan reflects the progress made in the co-creation processes as an instrument to promote an open, transparent, and efficient Government. For the first time, the three branches of government converge in one plan, simultaneously integrating initiatives of Open Parliament, Open Justice, Central Administration agencies, and Departmental Governments.
The Covid-19 Pandemic set the great challenge of carrying out for the first time a co-creation process in a virtual modality. This challenge became an opportunity to develop an inclusive process, and to broaden and diversify the participation of multiple actors from different parts of the country.
The participation during the co-creation process of people belonging to different population groups in situations of greater vulnerability and inequality, including people with disabilities, elder, Afro-descendant people, and women, helped to integrate into the plan commitments that seek to include their contributions and integrate these perspectives into different initiatives.
The commitments contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals and enhance the progress of the country's digital transformation. In accordance with this line of work, the country is committed to develope a set of initiatives to advance towards guaranteeing the accessibility of the Government's digital information and services, strengthening the participation and digital inclusion of the elderly, enabling the follow-up of affirmative actions for Afro-descendant people, citizen monitoring of the gender strategy in agricultural policies, and strengthening openness, among others.
Likewise, through this 5th Action Plan, Uruguay intends to strengthen transparency and accountability in various areas, such as public procurement, health management, and policies, benefits provided to the business sector, the use of Artificial Intelligence in the Government, and environmental policies. It seeks to make further progress in the National Open Data Strategy, the monitoring of compliance with the Law on Access to Public Information, and its implementation at the local government level.
At this stage, the execution period of the plan is extended in order to achieve the consolidation of each of the initiatives.
This 5th National Open Government Action Plan reaffirms the country's strategy of conceiving action plans and co-creation processes in Uruguay as an instrument to generate new spaces for collaboration and collective construction among public organizations, civil society organizations, private sector, and academia, thus promoting a cross-cutting agenda for all public policies.