By Carole Excell (Posted: March 15, 2016)
The Open Government Partnership provides an opportunity for Governments to make commitments to improve open government and participation of citizens. Natural Resource Commitments have not yet been high on the agenda of Governments of the partnership with less than 5% of the total number of commitments being focused on natural resource openness. Most of the commitments made in the natural resource sector have been centered on the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative. The Natural Resource and Openness Working Group is working to change this and has issued a number of Issue briefs to support Governments in thinking about the types of commitments that could be made in relation to the sector. One new issue brief just released centers around how governments can promote disclosure of environmental information through the partnership. It provides recommendations on commitments around environmental portals, release of documentation relevant to local communities, monitoring, enforcement and environmental impacts.