ONE Statement on U.S. Commitment to Open Government Partnership

New York, NY – ONE today welcomed the launch of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in New York, where eight countries made commitments on a range of issues that will help promote accountability and development. These commitments include transparency of aid, natural resource revenues and budgets in developed and developing countries.

In his speech, President Obama reaffirmed the importance of extractives transparency by committing to implement the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) domestically. The U.S. will be the first G8 country to implement EITI – setting an example for others to follow. This commitment complements the Cardin-Lugar provision, which passed as Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act in July 2010, which will soon make it compulsory for oil, gas and mining companies registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ‘Publish What They Pay’ to foreign governments.

“America is leading by example in promoting openness and transparency of public resources that empowers citizens to hold their governments accountable,” said ONE U.S. Executive Director Sheila Nix. “ONE urges other countries to adopt similar measures to ensure better stewardship of taxpayer dollars.  Shining a light on how government resources are raised and spent helps ensure that people benefit from their countries’ wealth and investments – particularly in poor developing countries that are rich in natural resources.”

The United States’ Action Plan gives people more information about how taxpayer money is spent and allows the public to have a greater say in how government is run. On aid transparency, the U.S. has committed to ‘Release and Implement Government wide Reporting Requirements for Foreign Aid’ according to internationally comparable standards and on the Foreign Assistance Dashboard. The Action Plan emphasizes that aid transparency supports evidence-based, data-driven approaches to foreign aid.

OGP is a new international initiative aimed at securing concrete commitments from governments, in partnership with civil society, to promote transparency, increase civic participation, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. OGP is overseen by a steering committee that includes a diverse coalition of governments and civil society organizations and is co-chaired in its inaugural year by the United States and Brazil.