Home » Media Centre » Press » Civil Society Outcome Document OGP) Africa/MENA Regional Meeting
Civil Society members of the OGP are pleased to convene at the event of the Regional Africa/MENA meeting to discuss, collaborate, network, showcase, assess progress, and share recommendations for strengthened open government implementation in the region among present state and non-state reformers. As members of the Partnership, we are tasked with articulating, championing, and implementing open government values and approaches to make communities in nations of the world stronger, more open, participatory, inclusive, responsive, and accountable. We are also tasked with protecting and promoting the engagement of civil society as part of multi-stakeholder approaches to good governance.
Introduction
We note that the region has seen some promising growth in various areas, including developmental, environmental, and digital advancements, and an improved regional integration agenda, which have all been positive trends. However, there continue to be complex and nuanced national and regional challenges. These include civil unrest, wars, strained standards of living, growing inequalities, subtle or open marginalisation, debt crises, social and economic injustices, and an overall increasing deficit of trust between citizens and their representatives in government.
Trust deficits run across the board in the region, from day-to-day activities of public institutions to the ability of national and local governments to make effective, enabling, and transformative policy decisions for all groups in society. There is little or no trust in existing public participation systems to adopt citizen opinions expressed in public consultation. Similarly, there is low or no trust in meaningful parliamentary representation of citizens' needs in lawmaking compared to corporate and political influence.
Categories: open governance OGP OGP Africa Regional Meeting Civil Society
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