Points of View

NI Open Government Network Blog – Open Government Partnership Global Summit 2019

10th June 2019

Written by Connor McLean “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time…” – speaker at OGP Summit quoting Winston Churchill  This year’s OGP Summit was hosted in the Canadian capital, Ottawa. The sixth international gathering of its…


UK IRM Researcher Reflects on the UK End-of-Term Report for 2016-18 NAP

14th May 2019

The End of Term report for the UK’s last Open Government National Action Plan (NAP) has been published. The report summarizes the results of the 3rd NAP, covering October 2017 to May 2018, and includes some relevant developments up to October 2018. So here’s a few things the NAP tells us about where we are…



The Windrush Scandal: the case for increasing BME participation in decision-making

20th March 2019

This commitment idea has been produced by Runnymede Trust. This action was part of the Open Government Pioneers Project. Check out more commitment ideas here. The Windrush Scandal of 2018 shocked the nation. British Subjects who had moved predominantly from the Caribbean to the UK at a young age, were wrongly detained, deported and denied…


Data Transparency for Social Change

15th March 2019

This case study was written by Runnymede Trust as part of the Open Government Pioneers Project. Check out the other case studies here. If we hope to reduce ethnic inequalities then high quality data is essential. The government’s launch of the Race Disparity Audit in 2017 was a positive step, putting a plethora of data…


NI Open Government Network Blog – Where is my Good Friday Agreement?

26th February 2019

Written By Colm Burns I voted for the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in May 1998 because I felt it was the right thing to do. I was 20 and not politically active, and hadn’t actually read the Agreement but I did grow up in North Belfast beside Girdwood Army Barracks. I remember the bombs and…