𝑩𝒚 𝑷. 𝑽𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑲𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒆

𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐀, 𝐀𝐮𝐠. 𝟐𝟐 (𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐀) – The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Information Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT) has kicked off the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Secretariat aimed at elevating transparency, and accountability in Liberia.

Speaking at a steering committee meeting held at MICAT on August 21, 2024, MICAT Deputy Minister for Administration, Johnny S. Tarkpah emphasized the need for government line ministries and agencies to prioritize the OGP national plan.

According to the MICAT Deputy Minister, who is the OGP Chairperson, the OGP is a framework that is responsible to initiate actions that will foster good governance and open government processes, stating that the committee is responsible to hold government accountable to what they promised to do in their National Determined Plan (NDP).

Min. Tarkpah pointed out that civil society is a partner in the OGP workings and is responsible to put the Government of Liberia's feet to the fire in making sure that the government does what it ought to do.

He emphasized that the goal of the OGP is to ensure that the activeness of the government is openly done across the counties.

“There are several ministries and agencies that are responsible to roll out these commitments, and my role is to make sure that when they make those commitments, they should live by them because civil society will also be engaging us on how far we have come as a government,” the Minister asserted.

He disclosed that in two years, the OGP international partners will come to Liberia aimed at assessing the workings of the institution.

“Finance is one of these institutions that we will be assessing, various institutions have various priorities, the OGP partnership will pass through me to communicate to various government lines ministries and agencies as a chairperson” he noted.

The OGP head revealed that the government is lagging in the implementation of its national plan of action because of the recent election. The plan of action was not active from 2022 to 2024.

The Minister cited that the meeting had kickoff the process of being able to go in the field to engage and see what various government ministries and agencies will be committing to from 2025 to 2027.

“In OGP, the government works with civil society to create action plans with concrete reforms. This model helps ensure citizens play a role in shaping a country's national plan. OGP members address issues, such as justice, gender, health, education, digital governance, right to information, civic space, natural resources, corruption and more,” the MICAT Deputy Minister asserted.