Building Citizen Trust through Openness and Transparency

Cities are where real progress is made for sustainable development and where the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals will be successful. Urban areas are where governments are closest to their citizens and where essential public services like education, health and transport are delivered to people. However, with this proximity comes a responsibility for cities to be more transparent, accountable, and responsive to their citizens’ needs. Doing so has been shown to improve citizen trust and engagement in government. More open government practices at the city level can directly improve quality of life for all while advancing sustainable urban development and inclusion.This panel of open government leaders in cities will focus on the importance of innovation in open government and transparency for addressing urbanization challenges and building citizen trust. City and CSO pioneers in open government will share specific examples, such as participatory budgeting at the neighborhood level or opening up municipal transport data to improve the quality of service. Organized by the Open Government Partnership, a multi lateral initiative made up of 15 local governments and 75 countries and over two thousand civil society organizations to make their governments more open, inclusive and responsive, this session will also serve as a welcome to additional participants into the OGP Local Program. OGP Local recognizes and supports the role that municipal, city, metropolitan, state, regional, and provincial entities play in advancing open government, due to their close proximity to citizens and the crucial public services they provide. The OGP Local program aims to harness the innovation and momentum demonstrated by local governments and civil society partners across the world.