7 Annex: More about the process leading up to the Fifth Action Plan
7.1 Stakeholders’ Forum meeting 23 June 2022
Work on the Fifth Action Plan continued by letter to the Stakeholders’ Forum on 3 June 2022. The letter included an invitation to a meeting on 23 June. The meeting was attended by participants from both public administration and civil society.
Prior to the meeting, participants (from both public administration and civil society) were asked to provide input on possible commitments to the action plan. The letter outlined the seven areas that the Government had prioritised and invited civil society to make further suggestions.
The meeting was chaired by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development.
7.2 The consultation round
At the meeting on 23 June, there were discussions about spreading awareness of the OGP by inviting people to a major seminar on the OGP in order to get more input on the action plan, among other things. One of the measures would be a public consultation where everyone can contribute or comment on proposals. The case was posted under "Consultations" on regjeringa.no on 1 July 2022 with a deadline for input on 25 August 2022. By then, submissions had already been received from the Norwegian Children and Youth Council (LNU), Media companies, Publish What You Pay and Tax Justice.5
Consultations give everyone the opportunity to make submissions and express their views. Participation is consequently not only limited to organised interests. It also provides an opportunity to gain access into what proposals are being put forward, since all contributions are open. Anyone can participate in the consultations, and all consultation documents and contributions to the consultations are registered and logged and are publicly available.
In total, several submissions were received during the consultation, both from individuals and organisations. In addition, input came from the public administration itself. The contributions were successively posted on regjeringa.no.
7.3 Stakeholders’ Forum meeting on 20 September 2022
In a letter dated 31 August, KDD, together with the OGP Council, invited participants to the second meeting of the Stakeholders’ Forum on 20 September. The meeting took the form of a seminar on openness work in Norway: The questions we wanted to shed light on were:
- How can we create a more efficient and user-friendly administration through greater openness in Norway?
- What should our joint openness work be about?
- What is important to address in the coming years?
The desire was to bring together people across sectors to inspire and chart the way forward in the coming years. This would give all sectors the opportunity to influence national developments and create new partnerships for the work in the years to come. The aim of the seminar was to raise awareness of the OGP/Partnership on Open Government in Norway – and to mutually inspire efforts by:
- bringing people together across sectors
- developing a more common standpoint/common understanding of the challenges in Norway
- giving stakeholders a space to discuss, get to know each other better, develop relationships and possible cooperation and develop a basis for further work on the Fifth Action Plan.
The meeting was organised with introductions from, among others, former Norwegian IRM representative Pål W. Skedsmo. After the introductions, the participants were divided into smaller groups with participation from both public administration and civil society, who discussed the contributions received while being asked to develop these into concrete commitments and to come up with new proposals. This meeting was chaired by State Secretary Gunn Karin Gjul of KDD, and she also participated in one of the groups.
7.4 Meeting with members of the Stakeholders’ Forum on 13 and 16 January 2023
On the basis of the consultation round and the outcome of the meeting in September, KDD sent out an overview of the input received for the action plan, both from public administration and from civil society. In total, this involved a list of around 25 different proposals for commitments. In consultation with the OGP Council, KDD proposed to proceed forward with a smaller number of commitments. KDD asked the relevant ministries and civil society organisations to jointly prepare commitments. The OGP’s standard form for commitments was used as a template.
Two meetings were held on 13 and 16 January with participation from both public administration and civil society.
7.5 Follow-up of the meetings in January 2023 – the process towards finalisation
After the meetings in January, which were chaired by KDD, the public administration and civil society held a follow-up meeting to concretise the individual commitments. The overall action plan proposal was circulated for comment in mid-May 2023.
KDD sent a letter to the Stakeholders’ Forum on 16 November, later updated on 1 December, with a comprehensive overview of commitments received, totalling approx. 25 items. Several of the proposed commitments covered the same areas, so that the actual number of topics that could be included in the action plan was lower. The OGP Council was consulted on the contents of the letter.
Based on the feedback on the submitted contributions, KDD drew up a list of topics that seemed particularly relevant for continued work. The list emphasised areas where there is room for improvement (where Norway did not come out well in comparisons, where we are not satisfied with our status and where there is room for "stretch") and as a follow-up to the IRM comments. These were: anti-corruption, archives/journalling, public procurement, plain language, digital inclusion and combating digital exclusion. In some of the areas the Government had prioritised, no input was received, neither from the public administration nor from civil society. This applied, for example, to chemistry and the environment.
7.6 Comments after the consultation process in June 2023
From civil society, the action plan has been commented on by the Norwegian Communication Association, Norwegian Society of Records Managers and Archivists and Transparency International, Norway.
The Norwegian Communication Association wishes to ask questions about how the enforcement of the regulations for universal design of ICT solutions will be followed up. The Association also emphasises the work on anti-corruption and the efforts to establish an open lobby register in Norway.
The Norwegian Society of Records Managers and Archivists has some suggestions for additions under initiative 5.5 ("Evaluation of the publishing service eInnsyn").