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Sri Lanka to lose OGP membership due to non-submission of action plan
View(s):Sri Lanka risks losing its membership of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) – a global initiative to secure commitments from governments to promote open government, combat corruption and improve governance – as it has not submitted the mandatory OGP action plan or indicated a desire to stay on.
Membership will expire next week. “Should the Government of Sri Lanka fail to submit an action plan within the next year or work with the Steering Committee to establish a clear roadmap for its delivery, the Government of Sri Lanka will be automatically withdrawn from the list of OGP members as of 10 May 2025,” the OGP Steering Committee said in a resolution passed in May last year. This was conveyed to Sri Lanka the same month.
OGP brings together governments and civil society to promote transparency, accountability, and participation in governance. In 2015, Sri Lanka became the first country in South Asia to join the initiative. The 68th member (OGP currently has 152 countries), it became eligible to join with the recognition of the right to information in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
An OGP action plan is a document developed by a government in partnership with civil society, outlining specific commitments the government will make to improve transparency, citizen participation, and accountability.
But Sri Lanka ran into trouble when civil society organisations (CSOs) engaged in the co-creation of its third action plan collectively withdrew in February 2024 to oppose Government actions, specifically the passing of the Online Safety Act and attempts to introduce an anti-terrorism law. They have not rejoined.
Subsequently, in May 2024, the OGP wrote to Saman Ekanayake, then Secretary to the President, notifying him that, as Sri Lanka had not submitted an action plan for three years, the country was designated for a period of one year as “inactive” within the initiative. The inactivity status would immediately be lifted upon the submission of an OGP action plan. But this has not been done.
The OGP resolution observes that the Government of Sri Lanka has been under procedural review since February 2023 as it had acted contrary to the OGP process for over three consecutive cycles – that is, by failing to meet minimum standards in its 2019-2021 action plan; and not delivering an action plan in 2021 or 2022.
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