PEER LEARNING STUDY VISIT BY A DELEGATION FROM THE REPUBLIC OF PHILIPPINES TO THE OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP OFFICE IN GHANA
A delegation from the Presidential Communications Office and the Freedom of Information Project Management Office from the Republic of Philippines paid a peer learning visit to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Secretariat in Ghana under the Public Sector Reform Secretariat on Friday, 4th October, 2024. The meeting was held at the conference room of the Office of the Senior Presidential Advisor.
The visiting Team were Ms. Krizia Casey P. Avejar (Head of Delegation) and Chief Communications and Capacity Development Division; Ms. Hennesy D. Ozawa, Project Development Officer II; Ms. Sabrina Anya A. Feliciano, Project Development Officer I; Ms. Germie Ann Caber, Executive Assistant II; and Ms. Rainnie F. Emano Administrative Officer I. They visited the OGP Secretariat to learn best practices regarding the development and implementation of the OGP National Action Plans and the commitments expected of lead implementing agencies in Ghana and learn about Ghana’s OGP advocacy initiatives on Access to Information/Right to Information, reforms on Transparency and Open Government.
The Team was engaged in a fruitful peer learning discussions and areas of interest with some of the OGP Steering Committee members and lead implementing agencies. It was chaired by Mrs. Mary Awelana Addah, Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative and co-chair of the OGP Steering Committee. Also present were Mrs. Thelma Ohene-Asiamah, Director and OGP Point of Contact in Ghana; Dr. (Mrs.) Winifred Nafisa Mahama, acting Head, Information Services Department; and Mr. Musah Issah, acting Director, Regulatory Unit at the National Information Technology Agency.
Other members present were Mrs. Linda Quao, State Attorney, Office of Registrar of Companies; Mrs. Lucille Hewlett Annan, Commission Secretary, National Commission for Civic Education; Mrs. Esther Ahulu, Program Manager, Right to Information Coalition/Coalition of Human Rights Initiative; Mr. Stephen Azantilow, Director of Anti-Corruption, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice; Mrs. Elizabeth Obeng-Yeboah, Director at the Office of the Head of Civil Service; Ms. Nora Lartey, Programme Officer at the Ministry of Information; and Mr. Sosthenes Senanu Nyadroh, Deputy Chief Information Officer, Information Services Department.
Mrs. Ohene-Asiamah made a presentation on the background of the OGP especially on the global and national context, structure of Ghana’s OGP, Ghana’s OGP terms of reference and the National Action Plans developed and implemented so far. She provided cogent information on the global front by indicating that since 2011 till date, OGP members have grown from 8 to 75 national level membership, and 150 local OGP members with 7 from Ghana. According to her, 10 out of the 75 countries globally were from Africa which included Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina-Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tunisia, and Tanzania.
She added that the Ghana OGP was governed by a 20-member Steering Committee with membership drawn from relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). It was established in August 2012 and currently chaired by the Senior Presidential Advisor, and co-chaired by CSOs representative, the Ghana Integrity Initiative. The multi-stakeholder steering committee members have responsibility for the development of the National Action Plans, which capture the country’s OGP commitments. OGP Ghana has working groups drawn out of the Steering Committee around the various thematic areas of OGP namely; Transparency, Citizen Participation, Accountability and Technology and Innovation.
Dr. Nafisa Mahama also made a presentation on transparency under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by specifying that the commitments in the 5th National Action Plan covers three key-fold areas. The areas were, to create public awareness on the RTI Act on how it operates and obligations of public institutions; pass regulations to fully operationalize the RTI Act and provide adequate funding for the implementation of the RTI Act.
Some of the milestone activities covered include, to complete the roll-out of the administrative structures in all regions of Ghana. She mentioned that the RTI Commission has opened two administrative offices; one in Kumasi and the other one in Sunyani. Again, 505 Information Units covering 16 Regional Coordinating Councils; 260 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs); 229 MDAs as well as Access to Information Division officers at 192 MMDAs and 129 MDAs across the country to process RTI requests of their respective institutions.
She made it clear that the training and capacity building of information officers to handle applications for information has been undertaken where 350 information officers assigned to public institutions have all been trained among other milestone activities.
The final presentation by Mr. Musah Issah was centred on commitment 14 of the 5th National Action Plan which focused on data sharing and intermediation of public service delivery platforms. He indicated that there was the need to implement government’s digitalization initiatives to ensure quality Information Communications Technology (ICT) and provide best practices and standards. In that regard, some of the policies and laws produced to support the regulation were the Ghana ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD); NITA Act 771; Electronic Transactions Act 2008, Act 772; Cyber Security Act 2020, Act 1038; and Data Protection Act 2012, Act 843.
He said, “the ability to share data seamlessly was critical for effective and efficient governance, however the inability to share data in government affect the decision making process of government, since government institutions largely operate in silos. This commitment therefore would set up the framework and guidelines to implement government’s data interoperability policy to enhance data sharing and intermediation”.
Mr. Issah added that the impact expected of this commitment on the data sharing and intermediation would facilitate the sharing of data among all the Information Technology systems in government and enable data driven decision making process by government. Citizens would be able to interact with institutions to validate, verify, ascertain information related to various subject areas such as product quality, registration status of a company from Food and Drugs and Standard Authorities. It would also strengthen consumer protection and competition in the digital economy and the security agencies largely would be able to share data to solve crime incidence against a citizen.
The peer learning meeting ended successfully with further explanations provided on issues related to the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that would ensure the commitments were regularly adhered.
In providing her concluding remarks, Mrs. Mary Addah underscored the fact that despite the challenges identified, a lot of efforts had gone into the development and implementation of key commitments in the OGP 5th National Action Plan. She intimated that the OGP Steering Committee were encouraged by this peer learning meeting and were assured that the explanation and insight provided would help them appreciate the processes involved in the development and implementation of Ghana’s OGP National Action Plans.