{"id":78,"date":"2018-08-13T18:06:17","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T17:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/open-government-partnership\/?p=78"},"modified":"2019-06-03T14:20:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T13:20:33","slug":"scotland-on-the-international-stage-the-open-government-global-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/open-government-partnership\/2018\/08\/13\/scotland-on-the-international-stage-the-open-government-global-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland on the international stage – the open government global summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

We went all the way to Georgia, and what did we learn? Our big takeaways from the global summit on open government to share with you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over 2,000 people gathered in Tbilisi, Georgia for the Global Summit<\/a> of the Open Government Partnership<\/a>\u00a0 in July 2018. The gathering over 3 days is a chance for all 90 countries and governments that are part of the international open government movement to meet, share ideas, be inspired and learn from each other.<\/p>\n

Two of our colleagues from the Open Government team at Scottish Government were lucky enough to be there, along with a large delegation from Scotland \u2013 including representatives from civil society, the OGP Scotland Steering Group<\/a> and also the Scottish Information Commissioner. Scotland was well represented at this international event. This helped promote to Scotland, and our reputation for innovation, prepared to experiment and test out ideas on open government. Read on for details of some open pubolic discussion meetings later this month in Dundee, Glasgow, Inverness and Edinburgh where you can get involved.<\/p>\n

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Logo of OGP Georgia Summit #OGPGeorgia<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sharing the Scottish experience<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We were there to learn from others and to present some of the work Scotland is doing on open government, hosting and attending sessions which teased out some of the different ideas, challenges and examples of good practice around openness and participation.<\/p>\n

Our team hosted a session on civic participation, bringing together experts from across the globe to explore ways for people to get involved in the decisions that affect their lives – through the lens of experiences on three continents. We concentrated on practical tips and examples from places all round the world: Secondi Takoradi in Ghana, Austin in Texas, Paris, Scotland, Tbilisi in Georgia, and the Basque Country in Spain. The golden thread running through the work in all of these places was clear and really struck a chord with the audience. All had found ways to work with and for people. The means and methods discussed may have been different, but whether they were deliberative, design thinking or digital, all these examples were civil socity and governments making efforts aimed to rebuild trust in the service or government. Collectively, our top tips for getting it right were making participation relevant, reaching out to people where they are, approaching them with openness, honesty and empathy, really listening and feeding back the outcomes. And it was voted as one of the most useful and interesting events of the summit!<\/p>\n

Our partners from Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) also hosted a discussion looking at how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be supported by Open Government, sharing Scotland\u2019s experience of aligning our National Performance Framework with the SDGs, an open government commitment in our last plan. And co-chair of the Scottish OGP steering Group, Lucy McTernan, took part in a panel discussion on how open government can work in decentralised and devolved countries, an issue very close to our heart after we hosted the first UK OGP summit earlier this year.<\/p>\n

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OGP Georgia welcome sign<\/p><\/div>\n

Hot topics dominating discussions \u2013 should Scotland be thinking about these issues?<\/h3>\n

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Over the 3 days of the conference, there were some subjects that came up again and again. Some of these key themes included;<\/p>\n