The Conference "Open Government Partnership: Platform for the Adoption of the Principles of Proactive Transparency“, which aimed to promote the values and principles of the global initiative Open Government Partnership (OGP) as well as obligations deriving from the membership of Bosnia and Herzegovina in this initiative, was held on December 01, 2015 in Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.

By joining this initiative in September 2014, Bosnia and Herzegovina made a commitment to create a two-year action plan with a list of concrete measures and activities which would promote accountability and transparency of government. The action plan should have been developed in the period from January to June 2015. However, this deadline was not met, since the leading institution or coordinating body responsible for initiating the process of drafting the plan and monitoring its implementation has not been established. Participants at the conference pointed out that it is necessary to speed up the process of forming a coordinating body, in order to develop action plan for the implementation of the Open Government Partnership by June 2016. Having in mind that the action plan needs to be developed in collaboration with civil society, proposed measures that are formulated at public consultations held in 2015 in Sarajevo, can be a good basis for further activities in this field. Proposed measures are published on the website ogp.ba.

Conference participants had the opportunity to hear how other countries have used the Open Government Partnership to implement a number of reforms in the area of good governance and providing better services to citizens. Eleanor Stewart from the UK Foreign Office talked about the good practices in the UK, which is one of the leaders in the field of open data. Tomislav Vračić from the Croatian Ministry of Public Administration presented Croatia’s achievements within the OGP initiative, which, among other things, include a portal for access to electronic public administration services called "e-Citizens". This project won the first prize in this year's OGP global summit in Mexico.

Also, a discussion on the modernization of the Free Access to Information Law in BiH was initiated. The recommendations for improving the monitoring and enforcement of this law, available in the latest policy brief by Analitika, as well as proposals of amendments regulating the obligation of proactive disclosure were presented. The event brought together representatives of legislative and executive authorities in BiH, representatives of public institutions involved in the implementation of the initiative Open Government Partnership, representatives of the international community, civil society organizations and experts in this field.

This event was organized by Public Interest Advocacy Center, Center for Social Research Analitika and Ministry of Justice of BiH, and supported by European Union and Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Sarajevo.