OGP is a multi-stakeholder Global Initiative with over 80 countries in the World participating. The focus of the OGP is to improve government transparency, accountability, responsiveness to citizens’ needs and promotes inclusive participation in decision-making, policy formulation, development planning, budgeting, service delivery, monitoring and reporting. OGP brings together government, civil society and private sector champions of reform who recognize that governments are much likely to be effective and credible if they open their doors to public inputs and oversig

PNG’s intent to be an OGP member country was accepted and officially announced by the OGP Co-chairs on 28th October 2015, at the OGP Global Summit in Mexico. This follows the National Executive Council (NEC) Decision No.148/2014, endorsing PNG’s intention of becoming an OGP member country. As a member of the OGP, this commits PNG to providing an  ‘open government to effect service delivery to its citizens’. This aligns with the aspirations envisioned in the National Constitution of Papua New Guinea.

There were three commitments under the Cluster 1 (Freedom of Information) and implemented in NAP 2018-2020. The first Commitment concerns Legislation on Access to Information. The objective is to develop a Legislation on Access to Information that will enable greater participation of citizens in the management of public affairs. The initial attempt was made by the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) to draft the Access to Information Bill in late 2019 but was interrupted by the Covid-19 restrictions. This commitment is to be continued in the second NAP 2021-2023 with sufficient funding and stakeholder consultations and complete the Access to Information Bill and submit to Parliament for endorsement.