Powering up open contracting: open contracting at the OGP Global Summit

It’s time to join up the data on what’s happening when at the OGP Summit!

With 20+ events throughout the week, open contracting is a central theme. And that’s for a good reason: Fair and effective public contracting can provide everyone, everywhere with the public goods, services and works they need.

Making that bold vision a reality is at the core of our new strategy, but we can’t get there without you! Make sure to join us at our Bold is Better Strategy Launch Reception on Thursday, 30 May to learn more about our plans and how you can help lead the way.

To pass the time on your trip to Ottawa, we’d like to share some reading: Gavin envisions how artificial intelligence, big data, and digitization provide a new opportunity to ask the right questions to identify solutions and hold government accountable. On Apolitical, Kathrin and Citymart’s Sascha Haselmayer share 3 lessons from city reforms all over the world and why you don’t need a black belt in procurement to follow best practice. And on the IMF’s Public Financial Management blog, Lindsey explores how open contracting can help get better value for money. We also have some fresh insights from Buenos Aires and Kenya. Finally, for our more technical followers, we’d like to share some details on the latest update of the Open Contracting Data Standard, setting it up for faster improvements.  

Here’s a quick run through of what’s happening next week. Mark your calendar and we look forward to catching up with you!

Side events

Monday

• OGP Academy Day: Let’s explore the hottest open contracting research on the role of business and hear the latest analysis from Colombia, Paraguay & Ukraine.

Tuesday

• Civil Society Day: We’ll grill some of our open contracting idols with some hard questions in celebrity interviews.
• Hivos Local Open Contracting Initiative Workshop (by invitation only): Learn about open contracting at the sub-national level & help design the new LOCI program.

Wednesday

• Contracting 5 Working Group meeting (by invitation only): C5 members will meet to discuss advances and lessons from implementing open contracting.
• Feminist Open Government side event: All voices matter. It’s time to make public contracting inclusive. We’ll discuss how. And make sure to check out the campaign video for #BreaktheRoles.
• Local Open Government Day: Short feedback loops, direct impact. Let’s explore implementing open contracting at the local level.
• Hivos thematic open contracting roundtables on Investigative Journalism, Extractive Industries, and Health.

Thursday

• Bold is Better Strategy Launch Reception: Celebrate our new strategy with us!

During the Global Summit

Thursday

• 10:30 – Impact: Open government as the means to what end?
• 12:00 – Participation: Building trust and better infrastructure: The best methods to engage citizens and have lasting impact.
• 13:40 – Impact: Making public procurement 10 times better.
• 15:10 – Impact: Entrenching open government principles, culture, and practices.
• 15:10 – Open: Implementing open contracting and beneficial ownership to combat corruption in challenging contexts
• 16:40 – Plenary: Break the Roles: Putting inclusion at the center of open government
• 18:30 – Bold is Better reception!

Friday

• 10:30 – Inclusion: Storytelling for public contracting reforms: Data literacy and informed citizen reporting for inclusive public contracting reforms
• 12:00 – Participation: Agile procurement case studies: How better government purchasing decisions yield better citizen outcomes
• 12:00 – Inclusion: Beyond inclusion! From inclusivity to responsiveness in public procurement to empower women, youth and underrepresented communities.
• 13:40 – Participation: Local matters! Where open contracting results matter most to people.