Evaluation

From Open Government Pioneer Project

Aims and objectives

Introduction

How do we know that the Open Government Pioneers UK initiative is making a difference?

  • The evaluation of the core activities funded by the Big Lottery Fund UK was delivered in partnership with an external consultant with expertise in this area selected by the Project board.
  • The evaluation of the equality activities involved an equality impact assessment and further consultancy budget for specific equality expertise was allocated for this.

We want the learn from the mistakes we make and build on the successes we create. Is there evidence that a diverse range of citizens and civil society are any closer to engaging the decisions that affect them as a result of the Open Government Pioneers Project UK?

Objective

Track progress towards the following four big outcomes:

  1. Empowered engaged citizens, leveraging their knowledge of SDGs.
  2. Political representatives have greater awareness of SDGs and types of actions required.
  3. Government officials have a better plan for involving citizens.
  4. Open government seen as instrumental, and a common good towards progressing SDGs.


Overall approach

  • To use an open and agile approach to monitoring, learning and evaluation
  • To assess how successful the project is at opening up government progress against the Sustainable Development Goals to citizen participation
  • To inform future activities that support Open Government approaches to delivering the Sustainable Development Goals

Beneficiary involvement

Beneficiary Involvement Sharing learning
Influencers - politicians, government officials, institutional partners As critical friends, advisors on positioning of the initiative and its outputs Learning shared via briefings and presentations
Participants - civil society activists, engaged citizens Directly involved in shaping the project's design, analysis and presentation from the start (using the Wiki and other digital platforms) Learning shared via collaborative Wiki and through Forums, including Forum polling
General Public e-petitions, social media, comments on new sites Learning shared via mainstream media reflective articles

How the project has been evaluated

STREAM INDICATORS EVIDENCE COLLECTION METHOD RESPONSIBILITY WHEN REPORTED
Awareness (Capacity) Articulation of issues Events, blogs, forum posts, wiki posts, website updates Analytics & narrative report All Bi-annually
Publicity & Promotion Tweets, articles, media coverage Analytics & narrative report All Bi-annually
Sharing (Learning) New approaches & tools used Itemisation of new tools & methods used Narrative report All Bi-annually
Methods & approaches shared with project partners and other stakeholders Details of new tools & methods shared Narrative report All Bi-annually
Participation (Engagement) New participants/members Forum registrations, twitter followers Analytics & narrative report All Bi-annually
New collaborations Number of new partners & collaborators Analytics & narrative report All Bi-annually
Digital platform interaction Number of website/platform visits & interactions Analytics All Bi-annually
Event & webinar attendees Number & demographic Analytics All Bi-annually
Influence (Outcomes/Impact) Progress with SDGs Implementation plan Narrative report All Bi-annually
Citizen involvement Participation opportunities created Narrative report All Bi-annually
Policy influence Influence on government policy, for example, the PfG, SDG implementation plan Analytics & narrative report All Bi-annually
Transparency & accountability of process Government utilisation of OG methods in the planning & implementation process Narrative report All Bi-annually

Agile learning approach

  • Initial data collected in the first quarter of the project informed a baseline (against the Data subjects in the table below)
  • An assessment was made of any changes when reported (quarterly, monthly or annually as appropriate). Advice from Reference Group partners was sought as appropriate.
  • Recommendations were made to the Project Board by the Delivery Group to change project elements based on this assessment.

Data underpinning evaluation

Stream Data subject Data Relevant targets Collection method Responsibility When reported
Capacity Opengov forum Registrations

Posts and replies

Increase forum registrations from 1000 to 5000 and aim for fivefold increase in each nation Website usage stats Each nation lead partner Quarterly
Capacity Opengov pioneers Wiki Visits

Active contributions

Citations

Tbc after setting baseline Website analytics

Google analytics

SCVO Monthly
Capacity Opengov collaboration Contributions to crowdsourcing platforms

New initiatives between citizens sparked as a result of project activities

Submissions from 20% of members during lifecycle of project Crowdsourcing platform analytics

Forum polling

Involve UK Quarterly
Engagement Opengov website Blog reads

Google ranking

tbc Website analytics

Google analytics

Involve UK Quarterly
Engagement Positioning of Open Government agenda in delivery of SDGs Stakeholder analysis Qualitative Influencer interviews / meetings Each nation lead partner Quarterly
Engagement Impact on SDG progress Policy documents (government) Qualitative & # of citations Rapid review and appraisal Consultant Annually
Learning Knowledge of what works in using Open Government to progress SDGs Blogs and articles from members Submissions from 20% of members during lifecycle of project Media analysis Each nation lead partner Annually
Learning Engagement between Pioneer civil society on what works Pioneer forum engagement

Posts and replies

Forum polls

Tbc after setting baseline Website usage stats SCVO & Involve UK Quarterly
Learning Engagement between UK nations on what works Stakeholder analysis Qualitative Influencer interviews / meetings NIEL Annually

Independent evaluator

We needed to ensure that the project success was properly and independently assessed by an independent evaluator. This was for the following reasons:

  • The use of an independent evaluation consultant was agreed by project core partners and specified in the bid to the Big Lottery Fund UK. There would be an expectation of this by all partners who have reviewed the application and the plans which was published on the project Wiki at that time
  • An independent evaluation would allow a more objective evaluation of the success of the project than project core partners interviewing or getting feedback themselves from project beneficiaries
  • A single independent evaluation rather than separate evaluations in each UK home nation would allow us to stay within budget and capture differences and common experiences across the nations.
  • We used the process of recruiting the independent evaluator to generate a conversation between existing and prospective delivery partners on our evaluation approach. In particular, we sought advice on how to get a clearer line of sight between the project output delivery and progress towards outcomes

We openly advertised and recruited an evaluation partner (consultant) to deliver the independent evaluation and the equalities evaluation. The project's Delivery Group's recommendation to the project board was to use a single evaluator for both the main and equalities evaluation of the project. This recognised the importance of embedding equalities in the overall evaluation approach. It also fit into the outcome Empowered engaged citizens, leveraging their knowledge of SDGs, emphasising the focus on engaging people whose voices are least heard.

In order to inform the process used to recruit the evaluation consultant, we drew on the pilot approach we used to recruit the equalities trainer for the project team. This involved an open approach, where potential delivery partners self-identified their interest on this Wiki on the Partners page. They were subsequently added to the Opengovernment Pioneers Project Partners forum and were encouraged to comment on the overall process and brief openly to other partners before making their pitch.

Access the evaluator tender brief here.

The evaluation will involved interviews with project partners, project participants and government, and was supported by the data collected as part of the project's monitoring activities and a discussion with the project board and input from project's forums around evaluation priorities. The evaluator was expected to make recommendations about how to continue and develop the engagement of citizens and civil society in using open government to secure progress towards SDGs.

Mutualgain was appointed as the independent evaluator. See Partners page for more about them.

Evaluation Outputs

You can access all the outputs from the evaluation activities at this webpage - www.mutualgain.org/ogpeval

You can access the full draft of Mutualgain's independent evaluation report (Nov 2018) here. It is in PDF format.

Self-evaluation

It is important that this project does not rely completely on the independent evaluation to understand the difference it is making.

Therefore:

  1. The UK Conference included a workshop component to facilitate stakeholder analysis, where project participants collectively deliberated around what works in delivering open government approaches to SDGs.
  2. The Activity sprint on international learning in Summer 2018 also provided international level learning about what works and external perspectives on how the project is making a difference based on International webinars
  3. Crucially, the independent evaluation was accompanied by six monthly self-evaluations by each core partner for each home nation which was captured and reported through this Wiki.


Timescales for evaluation

Milestone Timescale Status
Evaluation plan on Wiki

Delivery Group Self-evaluation

May 17 Completed
Meeting with Project Board

Paper outlining equalities impact proofing project activities

Jun 17 Completed
Recruitment process agreed Aug 17 Completed
Recruitment of evaluators

Delivery Group Self-evaluation

Dec / Jan 18 Completed
Evaluator session with Project Board Jan 18 Completed
Evaluation delivery

Delivery Group Self-evaluation

May 18 Completed
Evaluation report and recommendations Jul 18 Completed - see here
UK wide sprint to review project and legacy Sep 18 Completed - see here

How did we ensure a strong equalities focus?

This Open Government Pioneers Project was primarily about raising awareness and supporting the implementation of the SDGs through Open Government principles and methods, with an emphasis on reaching groups who have difficulty in having their voices heard.

We used the following approaches to ensure an equalities focus is embedded at all stage and all activities of the project:

  • Prioritising budget and engagement with partners and groups supporting those without a strong voice in opengovernment and SDG discussions
  • Securing strong buy-in to this project from a variety of equalities-focused civil society organisations
  • Ensuring all project activities seek wider engagement than the 'usual suspects' - e.g. using livestreaming, non-jargon language, accessibility checks for digital platforms.
  • Ensuring all project activities are as open and accessible as possible at the design stage to people who face additional barriers to engaging the decisions that affect them.
  • We will learn from the existing evidence base available to us, starting with the research and reports referenced at Analysis and theory of change#Who participates.3F

Project Impact

Updated March 2019

Overall impact assessment

  • The project has facilitated a significant renewal of interest in the Sustainable Development Goals which had been flagging since the launch of the SDGs in late 2015, and has been integral to other SDG initiatives such as the UKSSD report.
  • The project has substantially increased interest and visibility in the Open Government Partnership and action plans amongst the policy communities in Scotland and Wales, and has begun to provide visibility to wider audiences, including as a global exemplar on the international opengoverment and SDG stage.
  • The project has secured a greater appreciation by government and civil society participants across the UK and internationally and has engaged a broader constituency of interests in the open government partnership of the link between OGP and SDGs in Northern Ireland and England.
  • The project is beginning to broaden awareness and interest in OGP and SDGs in the broader public and media. There has been a very positive Open Government Partnership international evaluator's report on the project's structures and engagements, and recommendations around governance which have now been secured for the future.
  • The project has brought both engagement and leadership around open government and SDGs to young people, and has pioneered engagement with people from minority and disability groups.

Impact against outcomes

NB. Text in italics is due for an update.

Outcomes Beneficiary Impact assessment Areas for improvement
Political representatives have greater awareness of SDGs and types of actions required. Influencers - politicians, government officials, institutional partners UK level:
  • UKSSD launched a report on progress around UK SDGs and have engaged directly with the opengovpioneers project at the highest level, including a lead role for our core partner Involve in the chapter on SDG 16. This report was presented at a side event at the UN High Level Political Forum in July 2018.
  • We have published a series of proposals by equalities and human rights organisations that identify how open government can be harnesses to progress certain Sustainable Development Goals in England and the UK.

Scotland:

  • Strong political visibility for SDGs facilitated by scotgov aligning it with a revised national outcome framework. Considerable role for the SDG Scotland network in this process.
  • Key Scotland political leaders from Scotgov, local councils and Scottish Parliament have responded to our letter on how they will implement the SDGs.
  • A reshuffle has now prioritised Open Government at Cabinet (Mike Russell MSP) rather than junior minister level.
  • Scottish Government is working closely with the SDG Network Scotland as it's primary partner to take forward Scotland's contribution to the UK Voluntary National Review and Scottish Supplementary Review.

Northern Ireland:

  • Difficult situation with Assembly suspension. The NI Open Government Network has contributed to efforts to pilot a citizens Assembly in NI. A pilot should be run in 2018 and the topic received widespread mainstream and political attention. Civil servants attended the conference and online content received considerable traction.
  • Secured a commitment for consideration by the NICS Board about publicly mapping the SDGs to the PfG.

Wales:

  • In Wales the focus of the project is on the Well-being Goals. There is a particular focus on the engagement & involvement elements of the Well-being of Future Generations Act (the 5 ways of working) and a number of network meetings between civil society & Government officials have now taken place ensuring better involvement in the most integrated way, and learning is shared. We have recently met with the relevant Minister to discuss the commitments in Wales and the integration with the WFG Act, and have ongoing meetings with civil servants on this issue.
  • England: Civil society has been scoping city-level political representatives with a view to informing them of the need to implement SDGs.
UK: Continued need to push the SDG up on government priorities (although some success as they are now working on National Voluntary Review to the UN). We also need to ensure the proposals for reform are incoporated in to long-term government action.

NI: political literacy around the SDGs is still low. Continue to raise understanding through the Pioneer conference and include OG Implementation Group in deliberative citizen engagement training.

Government officials have a better plan for involving citizens. Participants - civil society activists, engaged citizens UK Opengov networks:
  • Government has been responsive and engaged with our forums in Scotland and Wales. UK Gov has had limited engagement and interest at a political level, but officials have maintained links in England and Northern Ireland.
  • UK Government have included a commitment in the Open Government Action Plan to fund a series of new participatory and engagement methods in English Councils to bring in citizens into the decision making process at the local level (called Innovations in Democracy Fund).
  • The Open Government Action Plan includes other commitments on open policy making to ensure relevant stakeholder input to government policy areas.
  • We have shared with DCMS a gendered analysis of the current action plan to ensure that implementation of it includes a greater role for women's voices.
  • Involve have been part of discussions with UKSSD, DFID and others around how the UK will produce its national voluntary report on implementation of the SDGs to the UN, and how to involve a broad groups of people and citizens in that process.

Scotland:

  • The project has been working closely with Scotgov on consultation activities to develop the Open Government Action Plan for Scotland with was launched in Feb 2019.
  • The Scottish Open Government Multi-stakeholder forum (with elections facilitated by this project) has met regularly with Scotgov and engaged with the Action plan. The formal structure in Scotland for overseeing action plans is now complete and embedded.
  • Scottish Government joined the SDG Network Scotland's working group on the Voluntary National Review, and agreed to launch call for evidence period and an open commenting period on draft chapters to secure wider input on SDG progress.

Northern Ireland:

  • Close working with NI Government, but difficult to progress without Ministerial direction.
  • Engagement with the UK OGP action plan will be key influence. Continued engagement with relevant government officials and inclusion of an SDGs commitment within the NI OG Commitment asks
  • Staff at the NI Assembly have signed up to deliberative citizen engagement training

Wales:

  • Following a consultation with civil society we have met with the Welsh Government for a two way discussion on what civil society would like from the next NAP and their early plans for the 4th NAP. Early signs are that the next NAP will heavily reflect the asks civil society have made and will prioritise engagement and participation.

England:

  • Government officials have provided informal feedback on whether new metro-mayors could be invited to submit application as subnational OGP pioneer.
In Scotland, we need to explore how to improve enthusiasm in engaging government in partnership on opening up government.

NI: Continue to push for the OG commitments to be progressed by the NICS Board. This will be difficult.

Wales: It will be important to engage civil society from the outset of developing themes and commitments rather than just consulting them. There is a risk of this at the moment, and our project will be key to making sure this happens.

In UK/England, we need to ensure that the projects that form part of the Innovations in Democracy Fund are successful and impactful.

Empowered engaged citizens, leveraging their knowledge of SDGs. General Public Scotland:
  • Almost 400 people have joined the Meetup groups set up for people and communities to engage with OGP and SDGs in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Cardiff. But despite this interest there has been limited interaction through this channel.
  • Our efforts to work with equalities organisations in Scotland to build on the meetup model has not worked, so we are going to try different approaches now.
  • We continue to build on the substantial interest shown by young people in this project. A cohort of young people were supported by this project to host and run with Project Scotland a Gathering conference in feb 2019 offering youth perspective on the SDGs.
  • Arc of Inclusion and the Centre for Good Relations has delivered a workstrand to engage around 30 equality groups and stakeholders culminating in a day conference that was regarded by a number of participants as the most inclusive event they have attended. The deliberations have set the scene for further work to secure stronger equality engagement in delivering the SDGs.

Northern Ireland:

  • Our publicity SDGs is surfacing people/orgs who are not the usual suspects.
  • Youth engagement programme has resulted in considerable awareness raising and capacity building around the SDGs and OG amongst youth groups and special needs youth groups in NI. The Democracy Games methodology is a colourful and entertaining way of engaging youth groups and inspiring children around the topic of open gov and sustainable development. Six events engaged approx. 500 young people and 20 teachers/coordinators.
  • Belfast Food Network undertaking food poverty workshops with deprived households to explore how food poverty affects them to identify ways of tackling this issue in the home as well as identifying long term policy solutions.
  • Successful Pioneer conference forging links between OG and SDGs, raising awareness of important themes amongst the general public and developing UK collaborations

Wales:

  • The three equalities projects (Interlink RCT, Diverse Cymru and Youth Cymru ) that received funding from the Wales Open Government Network have now submitted their final reports which identify barriers to inclusion as well as recommendations for more meaningful open engagement and participation. The information was gathered through a number of different workshops and events held across Wales involving a diverse range of people across civic society. Overall the three projects have helped to increase knowledge and understanding of Welsh Government or public sector structures - providing baseline information to help frame the conversations. Common themes across all projects included the lack of transparency or trust as well as not being listened to or taken seriously. On the positive side many of the participants felt 'empowered' or more confident in taking part in the conversations. All of the projects were framed around the Wales Well-Being Goals rather than the SDGs however there are clear links between the two. What was less clear was the challenges the three projects experienced themselves in running a project with open government principles. There is an opportunity to explore this further and we are looking to arrange follow up interviews.
  • One of the central asks of the Open Government Wales' civil society manifesto was for better engagement from the office of the Future Generations Commissioner with the public. We are waiting to see whether this is part of a commitment in the next NAP.
  • The Equalities projects have empowered engaged citizens to get involved in influencing areas of public policy that matter to them. Involvement is one of the principles in the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. If the recommendations in the civil society manifesto are agreed, this will further empower citizens to be involved in influencing the Goals.

England/UK:

  • We identified and invited key organisations working on various equality or human rights issues to engage in open government action plan development process.
  • We have brought a young person to the Open Government Summit in Tbilisi to introduce them to open government agenda and to link this with the childrens rights and SDG agenda. This also included ensuring the UK Steering Committee member working on children's rights in England was also at the OGP.
Scotland: We will need a better plan in place to support people who are interested in hosting meetups, as simply providing more staff time will exhaust team's resources.

NI: Encouraging teachers to adopt our framework/methodology to run their own democracy games sessions in schools, so the approach can be sustained after the lifetime of the project. Adjust the methodology for 16-24 year olds.

Wales: There is a need to share the learning from these projects with Welsh Government and other relevant public bodies.

Open government seen as instrumental towards progressing SDGs. Media, academia, funding bodies, policy professionals, charities, private sector, international networks UK wide
  • GDPR has had a major negative impact on the project. In a transition to our new forum, we have lost many members who have not opted in to move to the new forum.
  • The UKSSD led report has substantially referenced the Open Government approach to securing SDGs in the UK, largely due to this project's input.

Scotland

  • Following the adoption of the revised National Outcomes Framework by Scotgov, the SDGs have now been given due prominence in Government planning, and therefore recognition by Scottish Parliament and third sector. Media interest remains low however.
  • The globalgoals.scot site continues to grow and see a wide range of blogs from civil society, and there are now more the tools and resources referenced through the site for people who want to progress SDGs. It is now seen as the national platform for SDGs in Scotland by Scottish Government and other stakeholders.
  • The development of Scotland's SDG Network and the VNR Working Group, which is the principle mechanism for delivering the review in Scotland, are grounded in principles of open government and Scottish Government are supportive of this approach.

Northern Ireland:

  • As part of the NIOGN commitments for the UK NAP we included commitments on government SDGs mapping and visualisation. Still awaiting response from NICS Board.
  • Undertaking deliberative citizen engagement training for NI Assembly clerks and the OG Implementation Group allowing staff to better utilise open government methods and techniques in their engagement and consultation processes.
  • UK Environment Link Orgs have better understanding of the current state of play regarding the SDGs.

Wales:

  • As part of our work generating a civil society manifesto, which we have presented to Welsh Government, a number of the areas we have highlighted for commitments relate to Well-being goals and in turn the SDGs. These include the goal of 'a more equal Wales', for which we have highlighted both issues with equality and suggested different ways to engage with specific groups that are underrepresented. We have also called for technology to be used by Welsh Government in a more innovative and engaging way, a clear parallel with the goal of 'A more prosperous Wales'. These are just two examples where there are many more and directly shows how the work of the network in Wales is contributing to the progression and implementation of the Well-being goals into Welsh Government commitments.

England:

  • Initiation of 4th National OGP UK action plan, has used SDG themes for the first time to frame workshops.
  • We have published a series of articles by numerous civil society organisations that demosntrate how open government - through increased transparency, participation or accountability, has helped them to advocate or defend marginalised groups or human rights in line with SDG indicators.

A new plan may be needed to bring back the numbers of people engaging with the network through the forums.

While the project has had success in building more interest in open government approaches to SDGs, it is clear that breaking into the mainstream media remains a challenge.

Engagement statistics

Stats are cumulative totals, unless otherwise specified

Indicator Commentary (updated Jan 2018) Nov 2016 Mar

2017

May

2017

Dec 2017 July 2018 End Feb 2019
Pioneers project partners (organisations registered on forum as Pioneers Project partners) Most organisations have one individual registered. Delivery partner organisations have 2-3 people registered. See https://forum.opengovernment.org.uk/groups/opengovpioneers 0 55 57 87 103
Open Government Forum registrations We have seen a doubling in forum memberships for Scotland and Wales, and a notable increase for both UK and NI forums. All: 1149

Scot: 121

Wales: 29

NI: 299

All: 1310

UK: 402

Scot: 160

Wales: 34

NI: 326

Wales: 36

All: 1595

UK: 428

Scot: 260

Wales: 63

NI: 378

OLD FORUM:

All: 1749

UK: 453

Scot: 316

Wales: 67

NI: 396

NEW FORUM: All: 191

UK: 63

Scot: 45

Wales: 20

NI: 17

NEW FORUM:

All: 378

UK: 119

Scot: 97

Wales:39

NI: 48

Open Government Forum conversations Activity around posting and replies are in line with numbers of registrations. Wales: 12 UK: 411

Scot: 164

Wales: 28

NI: 185

OLD FORUM:

UK: 455

Scot: 229

Wales: 44

NI: 193

NEW FORUM:

UK: 33

Scot: 15

Wales: 4

NI: 3

NEW FORUM:

UK: 128

Scot: 59

Wales: 11

NI: 7

Wiki visits Unable to track visits due to Miraheze platform restrictions - unlikely this will change soon.
Wiki contributions Registration not required to contribute anonymously. Therefore we anticipate those that choose to register plan to contribute regularly or on multiple occasions. Wales: 1 32 contributors signed up

888 page edits

50 contributors signed up

1372 page edits

75 contributors signed up

1,849 page edits

Wiki citations (currently active) Difficult to track this properly due to limitations of platform. May need to review this indicator. Currently using Google links 150 247 230
Digital platform unique users (globalgoals.scot) N/A N/A 167 1296
Digital platform page views (globalgoals.scot) Platform has been soft launched and made available to those taking an interest in SDGs. Platform has not been launched yet formally through mainstream media. N/A 147 users, 741 including returning 761 users, 1663 including returning 4766 users, 12,618 including returning 7047 users

32004 visits

Digital platform contributions *Contributions largely posted by SCVO for now 120* 115 published
Open Government Network blog reads analytics> behaviour>content drilldown> /2016/12/ + /2017/ + /2018/ + /2019/ (unique page views) stats are cumulative from end Nov 16 648 1002 2775 5854 8202
Open Government Network blog/article contributions statistics are cumulative starting end of Nov 16 (latest stats are until 03/08/2018) Wales: 1

NI:1

Scot: 2

UK: 5

Mixed: 4

Wales: 1

NI: 4

Scot: 3

UK: 9

Mixed: 4

Wales: 1

NI: 12

Scot:22

UK: 14

Mixed: 6

Wales: 5

NI: 24

Scot: 48

UK: 32

Mixed: 10

Wales: 8

NI: 28

Scot: 50

UK: 59

Mixed:10

Meetup.com registrations Trebling of meetup.com registrations which comprises mainly people not already members of the opengov forums. i.e. engaged citizens. UK (Scot and Wales): 163 UK (Scot and Wales): 200 UK (Scot and Wales): 331 UK (Scot and Wales): 397
Twitter followers Substantial increases for Wales and Scotland as these are the new networks. Scot: 175

Wales:

104

Wales: 143

Scot: 231

UK: 1997

Wales: 346

Scot: 538

NI: 1320

UK: 2246

Wales: 469

Scot: 816

NI: 1470

UK: 2419

Wales:531

Scot: 978

NI: 1627

Project Legacy

This section summarises and assess legacy options to build on the project outputs.

Legacy planning suggestions

If there is a more detailed concept note available, then the Proposals title will be hyperlinked to it.

Legacy planning suggestions
Proposals What? Why? How? When?
Equalities co-production initiative Supporting a partnership of Equalities organisations across the UK to host an open conversation around engaging people furthest from decision making into plans around SDGs and Open Government. The Opengovpioneers project opened up engagement with equalities groups, but found a much more intensive capacity building exercise is needed to engage those furthest from the decisions that effect them in using opengov as a way to progress SDGs that affect them. A consortium of equalities orgs led by a key equality network in each UK home nation, back by an online wiki to document and plan progress.

There is an opportunity for the opengovpioneers project to host an initial engagement event, that can be used to develop a proposal to BIG UK.

Early 2019
UNHS Advocate Programme A platform for collaboration to contribute towards the SDGs. To give businesses, social enterprise, individuals, and non-government organisations the opportunity to work together to contribute to the SDGs. By providing an online platform that provides opportunities for each user to contribute to the SDGs.

Upon completion of specific milestones, users receive recognition.

Currently in development.

All 4 user groups (businesses, social enterprise, individuals, and non-government organisations) can sign up now to be notified of its launch date.

https://www.unhscotland.org.uk/advocate-program

Focus on Equalities - Food Poverty Food poverty is a growing issue leading to (and resulting from) a range of inequalities. Aim is to support partnership of groups which will progress activity around this and related SDGs (particularly 1,2,3). Develop partnership approach with other cities to progress. Pioneer project has been good at reaching equalities groups, but there is an argument for taking a more focused approach, and targeting specific issues or SDGs where we feel we can have impact. One such area is food poverty. Linked to proposal around equalities co-production (above). There is a local food poverty equalities event planned for Autumn, which would bring a range of groups together. Belfast Food Network is the key co-ordinating body - opportunity to link with Nourish Scotland. Early 2019
Open Glasgow initiative Supporting Glasgow City Council and Glasgow civil society to consider whether to apply for the OGP local programme next year. Glasgow is in a good place politically, technologically and socially to consider an Open Government Glasgow action plan. Initial conversations led by GCC and GCVS with SCVO support, documented openly at this wiki. Late 2019
Open Belfast Pioneer City Belfast to be a Pioneer City championing open government at local level in NI Belfast has been transformed over the past 2 decades, and the City Council has just developed a new Community Plan - the Belfast Agenda. Potential for civil society to support BCC in development of OGP Action Plan; progress range of civic engagement methods to strengthen new plan; opportunities in connecting cities such as Glasgow/Belfast. 2019
Securing the devolved civil society opengov networks Independent civil society-led networks in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, building on the infrastructure set up by the opengovpioneers project, to maintain the network, forums and engagement with Government. The BIG lottery funded Opengovpioneers project was designed to build the infrastructure, visibility and engagement with Open Government and using this to advance the SDGs. However, the BIG lottery was an accelerator project, and not designed for maintenance of the network. Funding ends 2018, therefore a new plan and delivery model and funding partner(s) is required to secure a sustainable network. As part of the legacy work, the Opengovpioneers project team will host a Mini-Summit with project partners on opportunities and interest in leading the next phase of the opengov movement. Late 2018
Gendered approach to securing the SDGs across the UK Partnership of Open Government pioneer civil society organisations across the UK Home nations using a gendered approach to open government as a means to securing SDGs We suspect that Gender equality has become one of the single most important factors holding back progress on the SDGs, but Opengovpioneers ddn't take a gendered lens to engagement in the project. Addressing this should help speed progress to achieving the SDGs. A project led by existing core partners of the opengovpioneers project to advance a gender equalities based approach to the SDGs using open government approaches. Linking into existing civil society networks and groups that focus on gender. Late 2019
Open Government 'beyond the usual suspects' Partnership of Open Government civil society organisations across the UK using new methods to engage a wider group of people on Open Government and the next Open Government Action Plans for each of the nations. The key principles of Open Government of transparency, accountability and participation could be game changing for a much wider representation of the public, and yet to date we have had limited engagement with 'harder to reach' groups. This project would have a particular emphasis on engaging more diverse groups of people in the project and development of the next plans, and would follow on from the issues identified in the Welsh network's equality projects. A project led by existing partners, but working directly with groups that specifically represent groups of people that haven't been engaged to date. 2019

Phase one report now available

Integrate Open Government into Welsh Government’s Third Sector Scheme Aim to significantly increase third sector involvement in Welsh Government policy and practice, particularly amongst equality groups, by introducing open government approaches to existing mechanisms for engagement between Welsh Government and the third sector.   Devolution introduced a statutory commitment for Welsh Government to work with the third sector, ground-breaking at the time. Through this, Welsh Government has set out ambitions to increase engagement. This includes regular dialogue between government and 25 pan-Wales third sector networks, that include equality groups. However, the approaches have become outdated. They don’t reflect new commitments for involvement in the SDGs or Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. It’s failed to use digital effectively. Using open government approaches could  significantly increase meaningful participation and engagement. The third sector networks are already demanding change and are clear they want to open up the process. The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act is a strong incentive for government. The project would draw on the work done to date, the existing mechanisms and networks and energy for change inside and outside government. The Open Government approaches that we’ve learnt to date, continued engagement with the Open Government Partnership, partners across the UK and the Open Government Network in Wales would support us to find practical solutions to achieving this. 2019 (begin early 2019)
Enlightenment 2.0 Scottish initiative to rethink progress - what it's all about and how to make it happen, inclusively The original Scottish enlightenment was recognised as a paradigm shift in the way people thought about progress. We hope to do the same again given the rise of populism and global regression. Enlightenment 1.0 was focused on educated elites. Enlightenment 2.0 should be based on human rights, responsibility to the planet and inclusion. Network, wiki page, strong cross-sector collaboration focused on individuals rather than organisations From Dec 2018
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