Strengthening Democracy and Citizen Engagement with Sanjay Pradhan (2022)

This week on GovComms 'From the Vault,' we revisit our conversation with a special guest, the CEO of the Open Government Partnership, Sanjay Pradhan.

Sanjay joined OGP in May 2016. Prior to joining OGP, he served as the Vice President for Leadership, Learning, and Innovation at the World Bank, as well as the Vice President of the World Bank Institute, and as the Director for Governance.

David Pembroke, CEO and Founder of contentgroup, discusses with Sanjay the mission of OGP and its role in addressing governance challenges faced by ordinary citizens. Using three examples from Nigeria, Ukraine, and Costa Rica, Sanjay illustrates the impact of OGP in the real world. The pair explore the true effect OGP has in making governments more transparent, participatory, inclusive, and accountable.

"When you think of democracy, you think of the ballot box, citizens cast their vote, but all these problems existed beyond the vote. They continue to not get these services. So OGP is a way to indeed focus on the ballot box, but also beyond the ballot box empowering citizens to shape and oversee their government every year, every day, not just once in a few years when we cast our precious vote. "

They also delve into how digital technology has influenced the transparency of governments and how OGP can counter the rise of authoritarianism by tackling both domestic and external drivers.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

• Building citizens' trust
• Inclusion of marginalized groups
• Taking democracy beyond the ballot box.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.