Spain to co-chair the Open Government Partnership: the central role of open data

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an initiative that brings together government leaders and civil society representatives to promote more transparent, participatory and inclusive governance.

The presidency of the project, which already involves more than 75 countries and more than 100 local governments, is rotating. This year, it is the turn of Spain, which will co-chair, together with the Philippine organisation Bankay Kita, Cielo Magno from 1 October until 30 September 2025.

Spain was chosen to co-chair this multilateral organisation at the 8th Global Conference of the Open Government Partnership, which was held in September last year in Tallinn (Estonia). For years, Spain has been represented in the Alliance by the three levels of public administration: national, regional and local. In addition to the Spanish Government, the OGP includes Autonomous Communities such as the Basque Country, Catalonia and Aragon and local entities such as the Madrid City Council.

As part of this commitment, at the Tallinn Summit, Spain took a further step forward by being elected to co-chair the Steering Committee for the period 2024-2025. The presidency involves leading the Steering Committee, promoting OGP initiatives and leading the thematic areas of open government. In this sense, Spain is committed to promoting with greater commitment those measures that seek greater citizen involvement in public decision-making through deliberative processes.

Open data for a more open government

To take over the co-presidency, the Minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, Óscar López, travelled to New York this week in the context of the United Nations General Assembly. At this ceremony, the Minister emphasised that the Co-Presidency's programme will highlight three aspects: placing the citizen at the centre of decision-making, strengthening democracy to make it more resilient, and the protection of rights. ‘We also want to promote innovative ideas by taking advantage of the opportunities offered by technology, especially open data and artificial intelligence, which must serve as tools with which to successfully tackle the dual green and digital transition,’ he said in his speech.

In addition to promoting a more open government, Minister López has insisted on the search for a ‘qualitative leap’ so that democracy transcends the act of voting, strengthening citizen participation in decision-making. On the other hand, the minister stressed the need to carry out reforms through consensus and social participation. In this sense, the Open Government Guide is a reference document to help institutions through innovative methodologies, concrete recommendations and international guidelines.

IX Global Summit 2025

Assuming the co-presidency of the OGP also brings with it the responsibility to organise the IX Global Summit in 2025. This event, which will bring together more than 2,000 representatives of governments and civil society, will address issues related to open government. At the OGP 2025 Global Summit in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the most promising and impactful reforms submitted to the Open Government Challenge will be recognised through the Open Gov Awards.

This will be the ninth OGP Global Summit. Previous OGP Global Summits have been held in Canada, Georgia, Estonia, France, Korea, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Brazil.

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