International initiatives

Within the OpenCoesione initiative, various forms of international collaboration have been initiated, leading to the sharing of experience with networks and partners from different countries and extending the model of open government adopted for cohesion policies in Italy to other states. Over time, this has resulted in significant awards and recognition.

 

OpenCoesione and Open Government Partnership

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an international initiative launched in 2011 with the aim to support participating countries in making their governments more open, accountable, and responsive to the needs of their citizens.

In the framework of the initiative each participating country signs a national Action Plan, for a two year period, in which the government administrations together with civil society, plan and define, through measurable commitments, the actions to develop the open government model. The implementation of each Action Plan is subject to independent evaluation.

In Italy, the initiative is coordinated by the OGP Team of the Department of Public Function of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Department for Cohesion Policies has actively participated in the OGP initiative since the launch of OpenCoesione and the First National Action Plan.

By the means of opening of public data, the activities streamed at enhancing public participation and the reuse of data, OpenCoesione in the context of the open government partnership has received several and important awards, or has been indicated as a best practice:

  • In September 2023, the OpenCoesione team participated in the meeting to report the results within Commitment 5.02 "Open Standards for Inclusivity and Civil Society Participation in Monitoring Public Spending" of the Fifth National Action Plan for Open Government 2022-2023. The presentation, titled "Present and Future of OpenCoesione," is available at this link.

  • In September 2021, OGP dedicated an in-depth study to OpenCoesione and to the School of OpenCohesion project on the OpenStories portal, a space created to give communities the opportunity to share stories of progress and inspiration to change the way government serves its citizens. The article is entitled "OpenCoesione: Making EU Funds Expenditure More Transparent"

  • in March 2021, a meeting was held between the representatives of the OpenCoesione initiative at the Evaluation and analysis unit for programming of the Department for cohesion policies of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Department for programming, monitoring and evaluation of the South African government, within the framework of the path outlined in the OGP Action Plan for Africa;

  • in May 2019 OpenCoesione is among the finalists for the OpenGov Champion Award promoted by the Italian coordination, for the category "Transparency and open data"

  • In December 2016 OpenCoesione was selected by the Open Government Partnership for the recognized value, and called as the only European case together with Chile and Costa Rica, to report about its experience during the International Summit in Paris. More information here.

  • In September 2014 OpenCoesione-Monithon won 4th place at OGP Awards 2014. More information here.

  • In October 2013 OpenCoesione took part in the OGP Annual Summit in London. More information here.

See also the section Awards and Acknowledgments.

Here is the OpenCoesione contribution to the Third Action Plan.

Here is the OpenCoesione contribution to the Fourth Action Plan.

Here is the OpenCoesione contribution to the Fifth Action Plan.

All contributions to OpenCoesione's OGP initiative are available on the open.gov.it website

 

At the School of OpenCohesion in Europe

The educational program At the School of OpenCoesione (ASOC), aimed at secondary school students to promote awareness and understanding of public investment policies in territories starting from data, has been transferred, adapted, and implemented in several European Union Member States. In 2019, in collaboration with the European Commission - DG REGIO, the international experimentation of At the School of OpenCohesion (ASOC EU) was launched, and as of 2024, it has been implemented in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.

The multilingual educational material (available in Italian, English, French, German, Bulgarian, Croatian, Catalan, Greek, Portuguese, Slovenian, and Spanish) is available to all those - students, teachers, institutional representatives, citizen communities - interested in engaging in a path of in-depth exploration towards a better awareness and understanding of public investment policies in territories.

Since 2021, the ASOC ETC (European Territorial Cooperation) initiative has also been launched, made possible with the support of the INTERACT program, actively involving the Managing Authority of the Interreg Italy-Croatia program and engaging pairs of schools tasked with observing the same project, actively discussing outcomes, critical issues, and opportunities offered to territories.

Several ongoing activities are being carried out to promote, expand, and consolidate ASOC in other countries as well.

 

OpenCoesione and the G8 Open Data Action Plan

The G8 Open Data Charter was signed by the G8 leaders on 18th June 2013. The Open Data Charter establishes certain strategic principles such as that of open data by default, the increased quality and ease of reuse of data with the fundamental goals of improving government action and promoting innovation. Here is the G8 Open Data Action Plan for Italy, which features a box dedicated to OpenCoesione.

 

Timeline OGP - International initiatives