Open Government Partnership for Better Public Services
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From: Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation
- Published on: 21 November 2025
- Last updated on: 21 November 2025
Since 2011, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) has been working with its international membership towards a shared vision: open governments working in partnership with civil society and people to strengthen democracy and deliver better societal outcomes.
OGP members include 77 countries, 150 local governments and over 1,000 civil society organisations. Their mission is to inspire, connect, and enable a growing community of reformers and champions from government and civil society to take action together. This sense of shared purpose permeated this year’s global summit, which took place in Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain.
Ireland was represented at the summit by two government and two civil society partners who are members of the multi-stakeholder forum working on Ireland’s fourth National Action Plan to support Open Government. While every country’s National Action Plan is different, actions come under one of a number of shared themes – transparency, public accountability, inclusion, and civic participation. In particular, countries are encouraged to take action to guard civic space, expand access to justice, enhance public participation and fight corruption.
The summit included a wide range of workshops, panel discussions and presentations on topics including public integrity and ethics; data and research to support people’s access to justice; digital governance; and innovation labs that use participatory methods to develop better policies and services. All of the topics focussed on government reform and highlighted how by being transparent and open, and by pro-actively engaging with the communities they serve, local and national governments can collaborate to problem-solve around complex issues, develop and deliver the services people need, and build trust.
Government officials, policy analysts, designers, technical experts, researchers and civil society leaders joined together across the range of workshops and discussions to interrogate a range of challenges across countries and communities, and to support each other in working towards solutions.
You can find out more about Ireland’s fourth National Action Plan. If you are interested in learning more and finding out how you can get involved, please contact IrelandOpenGovernment@per.gov.ie
