Linking Open Government Partnership and the Sustainable Development Goals in Macedonia

Macedonia’s Experience
The Government of the Republic of Macedonia joined the OGP in 2011 and has since prepared three National Action Plans for Open Government. Aiming to maximize the benefit from OGP at national level, and keeping up with the developments of the International OGP, the Ministry of Information Society and Administration, in cooperation with the Center for Research and Policy Making and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), embarked on the mainstreaming of the SDGs in the 2016-2018 OGP Action Plan. Public awareness of the goals of the OGP and of the recently adopted SDGs was low among civil society and public servants. As part of the objective to help implement the SDGs through the OGP Action Plan 2016-2018, it was  therefore necessary to inform stakeholders about the value both initiatives can bring to our society. Three thematic coalition-building events were organized to engage more people from civil society, the business sector and the academic community before the preparation of the first draft version of the OGP Action Plan 2016-2018 and to present the SDG’s. The topics of these meetings were broad and included (1) transparency and accountability, (2) freedom of information and open data, and (3) public service. The Second Public Consultative Meeting for the OGP AP 2016-2018 gave space to better inform stakeholders about the 2030 Agenda and about its relevance for OGP. The participants were encouraged to think and propose how measures of the Open Government Partnership Action Plan may be relevant and adjusted with the Agenda for Sustainable Development. All of the measures proposed by the coalition, as well as the second draft version of the OGP Action Plan 2016-2018 were then linked with the SDGs they help achieve. These events have significantly contributed to broad awareness raising of both the OGP and the SDGs among civil society, academia and the private sector. Now, the majority of the measures of the OGP Action Plan 2016-2018 aligned with Goal 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions), while others matched Goal 1 (no poverty) Goal 3 (good health and well-being), Goal 5 (gender equality), Goal 6 (clean water and sanitation), Goal 13 (climate change) and Goal 17 (Partnerships for the goals). More here