As the representative branch of government, parliaments often bear the brunt of public dissatisfaction, and, in many regions of the world, stand to benefit from a more open, responsive relationship with the public. Parliaments around the world are taking important steps to improve access to legislative information, create new mechanisms for citizen participation, and build public trust in the institution. Some of these parliaments are experimenting with new technologies or entering into collaborative relationships with civil society organizations to reinvent the way that they share information and engage with the public. Global Legislative Openness Week (GLOW) is an opportunity to highlight the good work being done around the world to build open legislative institutions. 

GLOW, which takes places this week, is also an opportunity for diverse stakeholders—including representatives from parliaments, governments, and civil society—to collaborate, share best practice, and work together in pursuit of a more representative institutions. This year, GLOW will include a range of public events, capacity building sessions, advocacy activities, and more, organized by civil society groups and parliaments in more than 20 countries around the world. 

Since its inauguration in 2014, GLOW has served as a global platform to connect, facilitate collaboration, and highlight the important work of the growing open parliament community, which includes civil society organizations, parliaments, and governments. In 2015, the Parliament of Georgia, in partnership with the Legislative Openness Working Group, and several local Georgian and international organizations, coordinated a global legislative openness conference that drew the attendance of over 100 legislators, legislative staff, and civil society representatives from more than 30 countries. Other achievements from GLOW 2015 include a successful crowdsourcing campaign led by mySociety, a parliamentary monitoring organization based in the UK, which collected basic biographical information on politicians in more than 200 countries, and the introduction of an open source tech platform by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies that helps foster greater citizen engagement in the legislative process.

NDI, in partnership with the Parliament of Georgia and others, convened a global legislative openness conference during GLOW 2015.

This year's GLOW campaign takes place from September 12 to 18, coinciding with International Day of Democracy on September 15. GLOW officially launched on September 12 at the OpenGov Hub in Washington, D.C., where NDI, the OpenGov Foundation, and the Sunlight Foundation co-hosted a public event on legislative openness reform. You can watch a recording of the event here. 

A few highlights of GLOW 2016 include:

• In Argentina, Fundación Directorio Legislativo has organized a series of events on legislative openness between September 12-13, including an event at the National Congress on how to evaluate legislative activity, a conference at the Buenos Aires Legislature to engage local MPs on transparency issues, and an event at the Buenos Aires Provincial Senate. 
• In Liberia, IREDD will launch the #TheyWorkforUs campaign, an initiative conducted in partnership with Liberian student and youth unions to advocate for increased legislative openness.
• In Kosovo, the parliament will hold Assembly Open Day to increase public engagement in parliamentary work, featuring the launch of the Kosovo Action Plan for Parliamentary Openness, a democracy-centered CSO fair, and informal meetings between citizens, civil society and MPs to foster greater citizen engagement in the Assembly.
• In Taiwan, the First Congressional Hackathon was organized by a local civil society organization with the support of the four major caucuses in Taiwan’s parliament, It was the country’s first hackathon that will focus on leveraging open data and new digital technologies to strengthen the parliament.

GLOW is coordinated by members of the Open Government Partnership's Legislative Openness Working Group (LOWG), which is co-chaired by NDI and the Congress of Chile. The Working Group is responsible for providing technical support and opportunities for peer exchange and learning to civil society groups and parliamentary representatives interested in advancing legislative openness through the Open Government Partnership (OGP). To date, nearly 15% of all OGP action plan commitments require some type of legislative action, including passing or amending legislation, conducting government oversight, or initiating reforms to open the legislative process to the public. Since its launch in 2013, the Legislative Openness Working Group has also noted an increased interest on behalf of parliaments, as measured by participation in Working Group activities and OGP regional meetings and summits. Parliamentary representatives from well over 40 OGP member countries have participated in Working Group activities. 

While activities are already gearing up around the world, it is not too late to participate in GLOW. All are encouraged to join the conversation on social media and help build momentum behind this important issue. Please follow the action — and make your voice heard — using #OpenParl16.

Published on Sept. 14, 2016