NGO Federation of Nepal (NFN) organized a virtual National Dialogue on Open Government Partnership (OGP) on 23 November 2020. More than 100 participants representing various CSOs, mainly federations, associations, networks, alliances and prominent NGOs joined the meeting. The program was facilitated by the Secretary-General of NFN, Mr. Ram Prasad Subedi and Chaired by the President of NFN, Mr. Jit Ram Lama. The National Dialogue was held in the presence of Hon. Parbat Gurung, Minister of Communication and Information Technology (MOCIT) and Government Spokesperson as Chief guest and Hon. Min Bahadur Shahi, member of National Planning Commission (NPC). In the program, Mr. Krishna Hari Baskota, Former Chief Information Commissioner, National Information Commission presented a paper; his presentation was mainly based on principles, concept, core action areas, international conference on OGP, OGP monitoring, working groups in OGP, basis of OGP membership and OGP declaration. His presentation also highlighted the possible benefits of OGP for countries like Nepal and membership initiative and status of Nepal in OGP, formation of recommendation committee and recommendations for OGP in Nepal. During the program, Parbat Gurung, Minister of MOCIT, expressed his happiness to have known the OGP in depth through this program. He stated that he believes all of OGP's principles, he more specifically mentioned transparency, accountability, inclusiveness and everyone's access to information and technology would benefit Nepal and Nepali people. He committed that he will learn more on the status of OGP from the government's side and put his efforts to advocate for Nepal's membership to OGP. Min Bahadur Shahi spoke about the importance of OGP for a country like Nepal. He reiterated that the concept of OGP and its principles can never go wrong for any country. He committed personally and in capacity of a member of NPC that he will take forward the agenda of OGP so that Nepal can be a member of OGP in near future. After hearing the Minister’s and NPC member’s commitments, the CSO representatives were encouraged and planned that a small working group would be formed to take forward the advocacy for Nepal's membership to the OGP. The group would further lobby and advocate the issue with other related ministers, parliamentary committees, government mechanisms and the cabinet of the ministers. Links of the media coverage of this event: https://nepaltvonline.com/2020/11/14511/ https://bishwosandesh.com/archives/28682 https://gorkhapatraonline.com/national/2020-11-23-26978 http://annapurnapost.com/news/170450
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