EP#128 Part one: Democracy Beyond the Ballot Box

This weeks GovComms podcast welcomes a special guest, the Open Government Partnerships CEO, Sanjay Pradhan.

Sanjay joined the OGP in May of 2016. Before reaching the OGP, Sanjay served as the World Bank’s Vice President for Leadership, Learning and Innovation and the Vice President of the World Bank Institute, and the Director for Governance. 

Host, CEO and Founder of contentgroup, David Pembroke, chats with Sanjay about the mission of the OGP and its role in tackling governance challenges faced by ordinary citizens. Using three examples from Nigeria, Ukraine and Costa Rica, Sanjay breaks down the impact of the OGP in the real world. The pair explore the true impact OGP has in making governments more transparent, more participatory, more inclusive, and more 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. "

The pair also discuss how digital technology has influenced transparency of governments.

Sanjay discusses how OGP can counter the rise of authoritarianism by tackling both domestic and external drivers.

Be sure to tune in to the Next GovComms release for Part two of our discussion with Sanjay.

Discussed in this episode:

• Building Citizens trust
• Inclusion of Marginalised groups
• Taking democracy Beyond the Ballot box.

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