Ghana joined the global community in observing the annual Open Gov Week which was marked this year from May 18 to May 22 spearheaded by the Right To Information Commission (RTIC).
At a forum held to climax activities to celebrate the Week, the Executive Secretary of the Right To Information Commission. Ms. Genevieve Shirley Lartey (Esq), reiterated the commitment of the Commission to upholding the tenets of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) including Transparency, Civic Participation, Public Accountability and Technology and Innovation.
She said Ghana’s membership of the OGP represent deliberate and meaningful efforts toward building a governance culture where access to information is not treated as a privilege but recognized and upheld as a fundamental right essential to accountability, citizen empowerment and inclusive governance.
The Executive Secretary disclosed that the Commission’s obligation under the OGP provided an important platform for translating its statutory mandate into practical and measurable reforms and that under the National Action Plan (NAP5), the Commission has undertaken key commitments, including supporting the passage of the Regulations to operationalize the Right To Information Act, conducting 110 Compliance exercises and developing Education, Information and Communication materials for public awareness creation etc.
Ms Lartey called on the staff of the Commission to continuously ensure that the values ‘we advocate for externally, including transparency, accountability and responsiveness, are equally embedded within our internal institutional culture’. The Open Gov Week forum at RTIC featured a round table panel discussion on ‘’Towards an Open Governance System: Role of the RTIC ‘’
According to Mr. Michael Sakyiama, the OGP Focal Person at the Commission, Ghana has been part of the global community of the OPG since 2016 with the Commission coming on board in 2023. The OGP brings together over 75 countries and 150 Local Governments throughout the world with majority of them from the developed world.
In a related development, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Caucus on Open Government Partnership and member of Parliament for Ho West, Mr. Emmanuel Kwasi Bedrah in a message to mark the 2026 annual Open Gov Week, expressed his appreciation to the Government and People of Ghana for being members of the global community aimed at ensuring rule of accountability, probity, inclusivity anchored on the free and unimpeded access to information.
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