[open-government] Stop Secret Contracts! Launch of new global campaign

Mon Mar 3 14:22:28 UTC 2014

Thanks both :-)

@Adarkwah - great to get your perspective. I would see G20 and OGP as
better targets than G8, and particularly the C20 process as being a good
route of engagement. Certainly we are very aware of the variety of
international contexts, and are really interested in developing a better
global picture of the different needs and objectives of different groups
working around these issues. We hope to be able to support civil society
groups to do national level campaigning in the way that they feel is
appropriate for gaining greater transparency in government contracting in
their country.

@James - absolutely. We are, as mentioned above, very aware that the
specific demands which will have most traction will vary depending on local
contexts, and hope to support local initiatives who have the best
understanding of the issues in their area. In the UK, for example, one of
our supporting partners is a group who are calling for companies which
receive government contracts to deliver public services to be subject to
the same FOI requirements as the government itself. Such a demand might be
less appropriate elsewhere. If you are not already aware of them, the Open
Contracting Partnership's Global
Principles<http://www.open-contracting.org/global_principles> are
a useful starting point for discussion. Maybe you could say a bit more
about the jurisdictions you think have some level of transparency but where
it is still inadequate. Do you believe there are jurisdictions in which
they've got the rules right? Do feel free to email me off list if you'd
like to!

Overall, openness and transparency in contracting touches on a whole host
of issues, bringing together a diverse range of groups and individuals who
share the belief that governments should be accountable to citizens for how
public money is spent. For this campaign to be effective, we will need
people within our networks to help make these issues make sense where you
are from.

Best,

Theodora

On 3 March 2014 13:46, Adarkwah Dickman <dickmadarkwah at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi Theodora,
> I think the Open Government Partnership will be a great start to push this
> Agenda. I have a little concern with G8 and G20.
> If G8 starts to propagate this petition, it will feel forced on some
> countries and it will be hard to get third world countries involved. Many
> Countries like to appear independent and most of the time act to
> disassociate themselves from what the G8/advanced world supports. An
> instance is the Gay/Homosexual rights. My country feels strongly that the
> advance world is trying to choke it in its throat. So I think engaging a
> platform that has both advanced and developing economies will be a good
> start.
>
>
> Best Regards
> Dickman Adarkwah
> Events Director
> Youth Economic Dialogue
> +233243463579+233243463579
>
>
>   On Monday, March 3, 2014 1:22 PM, Theodora Middleton <
> theodora.middleton at okfn.org> wrote:
>  Hi James,
>
> The aim of the petition, along with the growing list of supporting civil
> society orgs, is to build a strong call from civil society to governments.
> We, and campaign partners, will be engaging at key international events
> this year including the G8, G20 and OGP events to push this up the agenda,
> and will be supporting national level advocacy by groups working in
> countries around the world. We are coordinating closely with other
> established initiatives in this area to help popularise what can sometimes
> seem a bureaucratic issue.
>
> Does that help? Feel free to ask more questions, and also to make any
> suggestions as to how you think the campaign could be most effective!
>
> All the best,
>
> Theodora
>
>
> On 27 February 2014 16:25, James McKinney <james at opennorth.ca> wrote:
>
> I'm in favor of stopping secret contracts, but I can't tell what this
> campaign is doing to stop them, besides signing a petition?
>
>
> On 2014-02-27, at 10:59 AM, Theodora Middleton wrote:
>
> Hi all (apologies for cross-posting :-) ),
>
> Today we have launched a new campaign, Stop Secret Contracts, calling for
> an end to secrecy in government contracts. We believe this is a crucial
> issue which goes to the heart of transparency and accountability in
> government, and we're really excited to be joined by over 30 organisations
> around the world, including the Sunlight Foundation, Transparency
> International and Global Witness.
>
> The website is here: http://StopSecretContracts.org/<http://stopsecretcontracts.org/>
> The blog post is here:
> http://blog.okfn.org/2014/02/27/stop-secret-contracts-new-global-campaign-launched/
> Image here: http://stopsecretcontracts.org/promo.png
>
> We're tweeting on #SecretContracts
>
> If you support the aims of the campaign, please sign the petition<http://stopsecretcontracts.org/>!
> If you would like to get more involved, get in touch with
> contact at stopsecretcontracts.org
>
> Please do share far and wide!
>
> All the best,
>
> Theodora
>
> --
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> *Press Officer  |  skype: theodora.middleton*
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> *The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>*
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-- 

*Theodora MiddletonPress Officer  |  skype: theodora.middletonThe Open
Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>Empowering through Open
Knowledgehttp://okfn.org/ <http://okfn.org/>  |  @okfn
<http://twitter.com/OKFN>  |  OKF on Facebook
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