The governments and civil society of Costa Rica and Mexico are pleased to announce that the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Regional Meeting for the Americas will take place in San José, Costa Rica on 18-19 November 2014. This meeting will be preceded by a Civil Society Day, which will take place on November 17.

The Open Government Partnership currently includes 17 participant countries from the Americas region that are committed to making open government reforms in close coordination with civil society. These governments, and others that are not yet part of OGP, have implemented reforms to further strengthen transparency, citizen participation, collaboration and accountability in their countries.

The Regional Meeting in Costa Rica will serve as a space to highlight good practices and successful initiatives, discuss the challenges faced, and establish support and peer exchange regional mechanisms. All open government reformers champions in the region are welcome to attend the event, including: official delegates from Americas countries currently participating or considering future participation in OGP, public servants from all levels of government, representatives of civil society and non-governmental organizations, representatives of international, regional and multilateral agencies, the business sector, and the academic community.

Latin America boasts the highest proportion of OGP participating countries, and participation has been successful: The first round of National Action Plans (NAP) submitted by 14 of the countries led to a combined 328 open government initiatives or activities. With most of the regional members developing or implementing their second NAP, now is an important time to reflect on lessons learned from recent experiences and explore new ways to empower civil engagement through the OGP process.

Some common trends emerge after speaking with experts working in fiscal transparency, budget disclosure, freedom of information and expression, technology and innovation, and citizen participation. This assessment addresses these trends, examines areas for improvement, and identifies opportunities to enhance civil society engagement in the OGP process. Experts identified a number of ambitious OGP initiatives, including:

Commitments to enhance disclosure on state budgets and public procurement. Such initiatives have increased the availability of state-held information through the creation of transparency portals in countries throughout the region.

Transparency measures have also spread to sector-based initiatives, including commitments to join the international Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI).

Ninety-four of Latin America’s OGP commitments related to access to public information. These included commitments to enact reforms to strengthen the implementation of existing access laws and pass new laws in countries where they did not exist. Importantly, OGP efforts also expanded open government to public entities beyond the executive to the legislative and judicial branches.