Working closely with the state

It is vital that community groups and Civil Society Organisations (CSO) work closely together and with the State, says Transparency International PNG (TIPNG).

This is to ensure that the Government is more open and accessible to the people to ensure quality service delivery.

As part of its role as CSO Co-Chair of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Papua New Guinea, TIPNG coordinated a CSO update meeting earlier this week at its office in Boroko, National Capital District.

The meeting was attended by representatives from The Voice Inc, Oxfam PNG, the Goroka District Office and the PNG Forest Certification Inc, who offered suggestions on how best to implement Papua New Guinea’s National Action Plan 2018 -2020.

One of the suggestions from participants was to strengthen CSO ties with the local level governments and district offices in provinces to ensure that all citizens have access to the information that they need in order to ensure a more open and transparent government.

The OGP is a global initiative that over 70 countries have signed up for to open up governments to citizens and allow strengthening of delivery and monitoring of public services. It is also a mechanism that goes in line with TIPNG’s mission to inform and empower citizens to fight corruption.

Twelve government departments and ten CSOs, who form PNG’s Steering Committee, initially gathered to initiate the process for the formulation of the NAP in February 2016. These Steering Committee meetings have been co-chaired by the PNG Department of National Planning and Monitoring on behalf of the government and Transparency International PNG (TIPNG) on behalf of civil society.

Under the OGP NAP, PNG signed up for four commitment clusters, which have been selected to be included in the first NAP: Public Participation, Freedom of Information, Fiscal Transparency and Extractive Resources Transparency.

CSOs will be monitoring the implementation of the agreed to NAP and have been involved in the drafting of the second action plan towards the end of the first implementation year.

This meeting follows a similar meeting in December of 2018, where TIPNG updated the wider CSO network on the endorsement of the OGP NAP by the NEC. The meeting saw attendance from the PNG Council of Churches, the Ginigoada Foundation and the Equal Playing Field program.

(TIPNG Executive Director, Arianne Kassman, speaking to Civil Society representatives during the OGP CSO update meeting)

Author: 
Press release