A Guide to Open Government and the Coronavirus

"It is in moments of disaster response and relief that the values of open government can come under intense pressure, but can also meaningfully contribute to better outcomes."

This guide is designed to be a "one-stop shop" for resources on how open government projects and approaches can support tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. It was created through a participatory process that engaged the Open Government Partnership (OGP)'s 78 country and 20 local members, who work alongside thousands of civil society organisations worldwide to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. Featuring over 350 crowdsourced examples from that open government community, the guide is intended for open government reformers who are looking for practical ideas, tools, and resources that can be adapted to their particular context as they respond to the pandemic.

The guide lays out recommendations and resources for an open response and an open recovery, as well as some long-term reforms that OGP members can consider as they seek to build trust and resilience to manage future shocks of this nature and to build stronger societies overall. It is organised by different policy areas that are long-standing priorities for the open government community, including:

• Civic Space
• Fiscal Openness
• Inclusion and Gender
• International Aid
• Justice
• Misinformation and Protecting Freedom of Expression
• Open Data
• Privacy Protections
• Protecting Participation and Deliberation
• Public Procurement
• Right to Information
• Social Safety Nets
• Whistleblower Protection and Scientific Integrity

For each topic, the guide: explains why it is relevant to the COVID-19 response and recovery, summarises key recommendations, includes examples of real-time projects and policies, and provides links to resources for more information. Throughout the guide, OGP and its partners sought to incorporate gender and inclusion dimensions and to explain the role that civil society, government, and civic tech tools can play.

Because this is a collaborative project, OGP welcomes suggestions of additional examples or resources that can be included in a growing spreadsheet on the OGP website. This is in line with OGP's goal "to help create an open space for the community to share where they see open government approaches to tackling COVID-19 being implemented, either by governments themselves or civil society, citizens or the private sector." Click here to submit your examples and/or reach out to the Network Contact, above.