From Open Government to Democratic Security: Ukraine Proposes New Strategic Priorities for the Global OGP at the OECD Forum in Paris

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A special high-level panel discussion, “From Call to Action to Results: Sustaining Momentum for Open Government Reforms,” took place in Paris as part of the 2026 OECD Global Forum on Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy. Representatives of international institutions, governments, and civil society gathered to discuss the future of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the emerging strategic challenges facing democracy, and the imperative to translate political commitments into tangible results.

Opening the discussion, Aidan Eyakuze, Chief Executive Officer of OGP, recalled the Global Call to Action launched by the Partnership on the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly. The initiative seeks to build on OGP's fifteen years of experience, translating its achievements into renewed strategic ambition, concrete reforms, and measurable outcomes that make a meaningful difference in people's lives.

Elsa Pilichowski, Director for Public Governance at the OECD, emphasised the importance of moving beyond consultations towards decisive action and ambitious reforms. She highlighted transparency in beneficial ownership information as a critical component of integrity and accountable governance. The Memorandum of Understanding between the OECD and OGP provides an important framework for advancing shared reform ambitions through closer cooperation and coordinated action.

Stefan Kossoff, OGP Government Co-Chair and Head of Democratic Governance at the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), identified trust, prosperity, and democratic resilience as key strategic challenges. He underscored OGP's value as an effective mechanism for engaging governments, strengthening coordination across different levels of governance, and advancing reforms through collective efforts.

Laura Neuman, OGP Civil Society Co-Chair and Senior Advisor at The Carter Center, stressed the need to deliver meaningful and tangible results. The next phase of OGP's development, she emphasised, must go beyond renewed declarations of openness and focus on protecting civic space, ensuring meaningful public participation in decision-making, promoting integrity, strengthening information resilience, advancing responsible digital governance, and translating reform commitments into practice.

Ukraine's Proposal: Democratic Security as a New Strategic Priority for OGP

Olesia Arkhypska, Civil Society Co-Chair of Ukraine's OGP Coordination Council and Head of Special Programmes and Projects at the Safe Ukraine 2030 Foundation, contributed to the discussion by presenting three interconnected proposals for the strategic evolution of the global Partnership.

First: Reimagining OGP's Role in Response to Emerging Global Threats to Democracy

The next decade must mark a fundamental shift from opening up government institutions towards establishing shared responsibility between governments and societies for the future of democracy. OGP has the potential to become one of the key international mechanisms for strengthening democratic resilience and shaping a New Culture of Security. This does not mean transforming OGP into a security organisation. Rather, it means expanding the practical application of its founding values. Openness, transparency, participation, and accountability must evolve beyond principles of good governance to become essential instruments for safeguarding democracy, strengthening public trust, and reinforcing the resilience of states and societies.

Second: Institutionalising Democratic Security as a Cross-Cutting Strategic Priority of the Global OGP

Amid growing information and cognitive threats, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, economic dependencies, and declining trust in institutions, democratic security must become an integral dimension of modern governance. Achieving this requires new mechanisms for responsible multistakeholder partnership that move beyond formal civil society participation towards genuine opportunities to co-create policies and decisions, exercise democratic oversight, and share responsibility for outcomes. Such an approach would enable OGP to strengthen the connection between open government reforms and the broader imperative of safeguarding democratic institutions, public trust, and societal resilience.

Third: Establishing an International Mechanism to Translate Global Political Calls into Joint Action

This is precisely the model proposed through “TRUSTA: Strategic Action Framework”, an initiative launched in Ukraine under the New Culture of Security programme in cooperation with partners from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Moldova. TRUSTA proposes the establishment of an international coalition of reformers under the auspices of OGP to jointly develop, pilot, and scale innovative democratic security solutions. Priority areas include community security, responsible investment governance, information resilience, democratic oversight of artificial intelligence, and parliamentary accountability. Together with its European partners, Ukraine could serve as one of the practical testing grounds for these solutions, generating evidence and experience that could subsequently be adapted and replicated in other countries. Realising this vision would require political support from OGP's leadership, stronger international cooperation with the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Union, dedicated donor engagement, and robust mechanisms for measuring tangible outcomes.

From Global Commitments to a New Culture of Shared Responsibility

The central message is clear: democracy can no longer afford to respond to threats only after they emerge. It must develop the capacity to anticipate risks, prevent crises, and act proactively. A New Culture of Security calls for a fundamental transformation in the relationship between governments and societies: from consultation to policy co-creation, from formal participation to genuine partnership, and from declarations of intent to shared accountability for measurable results.

“For fifteen years, OGP has helped governments become more open to their societies. The next decade must enable governments and societies to assume shared responsibility for the future of democracy. This is precisely the transformation we propose to advance through TRUSTA,” emphasised Olesia Arkhypska.

Ukraine's proposed approach seeks to complement OGP's global agenda with a practical model of responsible multistakeholder partnership, positioning democratic security as one of the strategic outcomes of open government.

Openness builds trust. Responsible partnership turns trust into collective action. And collective action strengthens democratic resilience and security.