This brief summarizes and synthesizes the findings from five in-depth case studies that explore when and how pro-reform actors have been able to leverage the Open Government Partnership (OGP) — its processes, spaces, and resources — to pursue improved government responsiveness and accountability. It is one of a number of recent efforts to explore the contribution of OGP to more open and effective governance.1 Our research, undertaken by teams of local open government experts in five countries, covers Albania, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Philippines and Tanzania.

This summary and the research products on which it is based, are not an evaluation of OGP, nor do they speak to OGP’s role in motivating a global movement toward openness, something that is an important part of OGP’s overall approach but which was not part of our assignment. Rather, we focus on lessons and reflections distilled from case studies about how OGP is playing out, in practice, in five particular contexts. Our aim is to contribute to a richer understanding of whether and how OGP is supporting progress toward more open government, in order to inform action by OGP stakeholders at the global and country levels.