In May 2013, delegates convened in Mombasa for the first OGP Africa Regional Meeting; a two-day conference that brought together representatives from Civil Society Organisations, Academia, Open Government Partnership participating countries and donor organisations to discuss new ways of driving Open Government forward in Africa. Emerging from the discussions held during the meeting was concern that indigenous African mechanisms that promote open government were being sidelined in favor of new untested ones. These concerns were voiced within the context of the existing African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and the need for OGP in Africa to be relevant to Africans. This article aims to extend this dialogue, in order to identify ways in which the various agreements can be harmonised for progress to be achieved.

At The Open Institute we would like to extend this dialogue in the hope that valuable insights shall emerge which will provide those African countries planning to join the OGP or accede to the APRM with an understanding of what they should consider as they harmonize the various plans.

As a starting point to discussions we have released a paper titled “What’s the Plan?” that examines Kenya and Tanzania and the need to harmonize APRM National Programs of Action and OGP Country Action Plans to each other and other long or medium term country plans.  Please leave your comments on this page or give your feedback via Twitter using the hashtag #WhatsThePlan.