Regional Seminar on “Open Government for the Francophone African Countries” on 22 and 23 November 2018 in Tunis

Under the supervision of the President of the Government, the e-Government Unit at the Ministry of the Civil Services, the Modernization of the Administration and Public Policies in cooperation of the French Development Agency and the French International Channel (CFI) organized the regional seminar on the Open Government for the French-Speaking African Countries on 22 and 23 November 2018 in Tunis.

Noting that Tunisia is considered the first Afro-Francophone country has joined the OGP initiative since January 14, 2014. In this context, It developed and implemented two action plans which contribute to enhance transparency and integrity of the government action and to further involve citizens in decision-making as well as the promotion of the use of the ICT in order to support openness and accountability. Through a participatory approach with the civil society, Tunisia launched the third OGP action plan for the period 2018-2020 comprising 13 commitments.

This seminar, which gathered the French-speaking African countries on the open government axis, enabled to exchange the successful experiences related to the Open Government Partnership and to strengthe the efforts of countries wishing to join this network. Tunisa has been selected to host this seminar given its several achievements in the open government field. In this regard, various successful Tunisian experiences in this area have been presented.

The PAGOF project funded by the French Development Agency aimed at supporting French-speaking African countries to establish the Open Government reforms. The PAGOF project involves the three countries members in the OGP initiative up to 2017 which are Tunisia, Côte d’ivoire, Burkina Faso, in addition to Morocco and Senegal which joined the OGP in 2018. Furthermore, this program aims to strengthen the efforts of other countries during the process of joining the OGP initiative.

This regional conference brought together more than 120 participants of senior public officials and civil society representatives from the african countries (Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Senegal, Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, Togo, Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Cameroon) in addition to several international and regional experts on the open government issues ( Office of the Open Government Partnership, French Development Agency, World Bank, Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, international Budget Partnership, ETALAB).