Steering Committee Members of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) met on Thursday 12th January,2023 at Committee Room One in the House of Parliament, to discuss the 2021-2023 action plan review report submitted by the Independent Report Mechanism. This meeting was facilitated by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy(WFD), and was chaired by the OGP Coordinator at the National Council for Civic Education and Development (NaCCED), Mrs. Hannah Jimmy.
The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is responsible for providing independent evidence based and objective reporting to hold OGP member countries accountable and support their open government efforts. It provides more targeted and timely recommendations, shares knowledge and international know-how.
Sierra Leone’s 2021 – 2023 Nation Action Plan (NAP 4) commitment comprise 4 commitments – Open Parliament, Access to Justice, Open Free and Fair Elections, and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives; of these four according to the IRM review, Open Parliament and Extractives are substantial commitments and Access to justice and Open Elections are modest. The report states that Sierra Leone met all the minimum requirement to act according to OGP processes during the development and implementation period under review.
The NAP 4 was co-created through high-level consultation that involved an 18-person steering committee with equal representation from civil society and government, setup by National Council for civic education (NACCED). The action plan reflects civil society input, with commitment on Open Parliament and Access to Justice emanating from civil society.
During the Independent Report Action Plan Review meeting, the steering committee members carefully assessed the report page by page to fact check every detail. However, comments were raised by Mr. Mohamed Baimba Koroma, National Coordinator Sierra Leones Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (SLEITI)-page twelve and thirteen that has to do with opportunities, challenges and recommendation during implementation under legislation and mining.
Additionally, other members of the steering committee made comments and corrections on several other pages of the report that needs to be reviewed and changed by the IRM.
The Country Representative for WFD, Rev. Alusine Diamond Suma, suggested that development of Action plan review should not necessarily be a Sierra Leonean expert, however he advised that the reviewer should just be guided and provided with enough detail to develop a comprehensive analysis. Rev. Suma further stated that the open parliament commitment has demonstrated that parliamentary engagement has the potential to advance open government reforms and this was seen in the advancement of the Gender empowerment bill. “If fully implemented, this second commitment holds the potential to strengthen parliamentary engagement in open government reforms through greater collaboration with civil society” he added.
NAP IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS UPDATE
As part of the meeting, a NAP 4 implementation update was also done by steering committee members. Committee representatives give updates on the status of implementation of the different NAP 4 commitments. However, the WFD Country Representative, emphasizes on open parliament structures that involves public interface with parliament that has made parliament grow and improve.
Other steering committee members were of the view that open election in 2023 will benefit the progress of OGP, as this commitment aims to support the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone’s work to deliver elections in a credible, transparent, and accountable manner.
The meeting was adjourned to February and will be hosted by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
