A historic Open Government Partnership launched in New York City last September with 8 founding countries. Months later representatives from 73 countries and 55 governments have come together to present their open government action plans and formally endorse the principles in the Open Government Partnership. Yesterday, hundreds of attendees from government, civil society, media and the private sector watched in person and online as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff spoke about her country’s efforts to root out corruption and engage the Brazilian people in governance and more active citizenship. United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton preceded her, defining an open or closed society as a key dividing line of the 21st century.
Today’s agenda included more regional breakouts and an opening plenary session on the “Responsibility and Challenges that Come with Openness,” video of which is embedded below:
The plenary featured short speeches and then several questions with the following panelists:
- Omar Abdelkarim, Deputy Prime Minister, Libya
- Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet, United Kingdom
- Walid al-Saqaf, journalist and open government activist, YemenPortal.net & Alkasir
- Ben Abbes, Secretary of State, Tunisia
- Fernando Rodrigues, investigative journalist from Folha de São Paulo in Brazil.
The liveblog of the entire proceedings is embedded below.
Over the course of the conference, I interviewed many other notable attendees. Videos of the interviews are embedded below