Feminist Open Government

The Feminist Open Government (FOGO) initiative aims to advance gender equality and better governance through increased transparency, participation, accountability, and government responsiveness. The OD4D hubs are working together with the Open Government Partnership to map opportunities and challenges to advance FOGO in developing countries. The Feminist Open Government emerged as a pillar of the OGP chairmanship of civil society co-chair (Nathaniel Heller of Results for Development) and the Government of Canada. The Feminist Open Government Initiative leverages the Open Government Partnership to build a coordinated global coalition around a gender-centric approach to Open Government. The Feminist Open Government Initiative is a partnership between OGP, the International Development Research Centre, Results for Development and the Government of Canada. Initial funding for the initiative is provided by the International Development Research Centre and the Government of Canada.

The initiative’s research will be action-oriented, informed by evidence, and produced in such a way that government reformers and civil society partners in OGP member countries can use it. In Phase I, covered by this publication, The Open Data for Development (OD4D) network of hubs supported initial research, published here, to map the current state of how open government processes are designed and include (or exclude) women in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and provide a baseline mapping and series of recommendations. Phase II, currently in progress and selected through a global open research call, is supporting the Africa Freedom of Information Centre, CARE International, Equal Measures 2030, Oxfam Novib, and Tecnicas Rudas to explore substantive gender commitments and tools.