State of implementation

The Plenary of the Open Government Forum adopted at its extraordinary meeting of March 24, 2021 an Agreement for Inclusive Communication of Open Government, in which all the public and social agents involved committed themselves, through concrete actions, to:

• Spreading the Principles of Open Government in Citizenship, as well as the mechanisms through which they can make effective their rights to access information, to participate in public affairs and to demand from the authorities and personnel at the service of the Public Administrations ethical behavior.
• Contribute to overcoming the digital divide and ensuring accessibility universal In the exercise of rights related to open government under conditions of equality and non-discrimination, through specific communication actions, aimed at the most vulnerable groups or groups with special needs, favoring their social inclusion.
• Involving employees and public employeesin disseminating the culture of open government and in fulfilling the commitments and initiatives undertaken in the Fourth Open Government Plan.
• Develop synergies to ensure the impact of communication, involving other social and business actors in the communication actions that are developed in the field of open government.

The Agreement can be consulted at:

https://transparencia.gob.es/transparencia/dam/jcr:d4e4c6ec-3fa8-4004-833a-e24755be53ab/AcuerdoComunicacionInclusiva_24-03-2021.pdf

In addition, and in order to identify the communication needs on open government and serve as a basis for the development of a Communication Plan on Open Government, the DGGP, in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP), constituted, March 2021, a Community of Practice on Inclusive Open Government Communication, formed by people who are experts in communication and Open Government. This community shared, in weekly meetings in March and April, experiences, good practices and knowledge, with the aim of bringing the Open Government closer to the citizens, so that they know their rights of access to public information and participation in public affairs, and can exercise them. The conclusions were presented on April 27, 2021, in the form of Report on the inclusive communication of the Open Government.

The information note on this Community of practice is accessible at the following link:

https://transparencia.gob.es/transparencia/dam/jcr:bba67782-8557-49e0-a8de-7e50d683206b/NI_CdPcomunicacionGA.pdf

On the other hand, the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, in its Component 11, related to the modernization of Public Administrations, included as project 6 “Inclusive Open Government in digital environment”, whose first line of action, with an initial endowment of 2.07 million euros, is the development of a Open Government’s Inclusive Communication Plan, which includes three performances:

1. Development of an Open Government Inclusive Communication Campaign.
2. Elaboration and edition of informative material.
3. Signing of a collaboration agreement between the General Administration of the State and the Third Sector Platform for the inclusive communication of the Open Government.

1st) Open Government Inclusive Communication Campaign

Taking into account the Agreement approved by the Forum, the necessary documents were prepared for the tender by the General Administration of the State for the contracting of the creativity for the development of the Open Government Inclusive Communication Campaign, which aims to:

• Inform and contribute to publicize what is open government and its principles: transparency, accountability and participation; publicize the existence of the transparency portal and the mechanisms of participation existing in public life.
• Change attitudes, beliefs and stereotypes about the Administration (combat the politicization of the concept of open government) and contribute to spreading an image of transparent and close administration, facilitating the exercise of rights and contributing to the strengthening of democracy.
• Change the behaviour of the population: that they access the transparency portal, request information from the Administration, participate in consultation processes of the Administration, send proposals for the improvement of public services.

In parallel, the contracting of the Purchase of advertising spaces in the media, through a Framework Agreement that allows the centralized processing of the same (AM50/20).

The Campaign has been developed in TV, radio, outdoor advertising and networks, in 2022 and in 2023, thus fulfilling the milestones foreseen in the PRTR.

2nd) Elaboration and editing of informative material

In 2021, the contracting of informative material has been carried out through the following minor contracts:

• Adaptation to easy reading of the Open Government Education Guides for primary, secondary and baccalaureate In Basque, Catalan, Galician and Valencian.
• Digital and paper editing and printing of the Open Government Education Guides in Easy Reading Version In Basque, Catalan, Galician and Valencian.
• Production, editing and digital and paper printing of the Open Government Guide for Public Employees and Employees in Spanish.
• Elaboration and edition of a version in clear and understandable language for the citizenship of the IV Open Government Plan of Spain 2020-2024 In Spanish, co-official languages (Basque, Catalan, Galician and Valencian) and English.
• Production, editing and dissemination of videos and podcasts on Open Government

3rd) Collaboration agreement between the General State Administration and the Third Sector Platform for Inclusive Open Government Communication.

The agreement was signed on November 30, 2021.

The Platform is a non-profit organization that includes 28,000 entities at the national level whose objective is to defend the rights and interests of the most vulnerable groups due to disability, income or any other circumstances. The agreement, to which the Administration will contribute 180,000 euros financed from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Fund, responds to the common will to comply with Commitment 8 of the Fourth Plan, which consists of “developing an inclusive communication of open government”, to the content of the Agreement of the Forum of 24 March 2021, already mentioned and in particular to the will expressed by its signatories to take advantage of all the resources and means at their disposal, public and private, generating synergies for the achievement, among other objectives, of overcoming the digital divide and ensuring universal accessibility in the exercise of rights related to open government in conditions of specific and non-discriminatory actions.

The intention is, in short, that those who have the most difficulties may be the first to exercise their democratic rights and that they have the same opportunities as the rest of the citizenry to access public information and to participate in decisions and public affairs.