Open Government Partnership

Hope plus delivery equals trust

June 6, 2025 by Open Government Team No Comments | Category Uncategorized

Following the First Minister’s Democracy Gathering in April, we asked if the speakers from the event could contribute their reflections to our blog. Juliet Swann, from Transparency International UK and co-chair of the Open Government Steering Group is the first to offer their thoughts.

When the First Minister announced he was convening civil society, faith groups, trade unions and politicians to collaboratively discuss how ‘hope plus delivery equals trust’ it seemed like an obvious fit for open government.

So when I was invited to offer thoughts on the impact of disinformation and perceptions of corruption on trust in democracy on behalf of Transparency International UK, I had open government principles and ways of working at the forefront of my mind.

As I developed a briefing for the First Minister and shaped my contribution to the summit, I was repeatedly struck that the four streams of conversation the FM had identified:

• equality and inclusion;
• disinformation;
• trust in politics; and
• public participation,

were not just intertwined but were really tricky wicked problems. The discussion on the day only confirmed just how inter-connected and complex these issues are, and that tackling them requires a collaborative and participative approach.

It has been suggested that the open government partnership would be a good fit for the outcomes from the Democracy Summit, which I find hard to disagree with.

In Scotland our action plan for working together as government and civil society to deliver our shared objectives coincides with the parliamentary elections timetable, so we are in the preliminary stages of thinking what we might work on together after the election next May. As co-chair I would welcome that co-creation process where we share priorities for action to include consideration of the four themes that were discussed. Certainly, each of them is also identified by the open government partnership as areas where principles of transparency, accountability, integrity, inclusion and participation can improve policy development and delivery. Which also means we can find support from fellow OGP members globally who are also working on these challenges.

In the meantime, do get in touch if your work touches on these themes or to share your reflections or experiences.

Contact the Open Government team

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