The Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit is currently taking place in Mexico.  The OGP was launched in 2011 to provide an international platform for domestic reformers committed to making their governments more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens.  Since then, OGP has grown from 8 countries to the 66 participating countries In all of these countries, government and civil society are working together to develop and implement ambitious open government reforms.

Open government is a concept that holds that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public scrutiny and oversight, thus ensuring transparency.

The OECD says in its report from 2013 that ‘Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives have proliferated since the mid-2000s both at central and local government levels in OECD and non OECD countries.’

Yet does open government trigger innovation in governance and ultimately better governance and increased democracy?