If you wanted to provide a suggestion to your government, or express a concern, do you think they would listen? Would you even know where to send your feedback? For people around the world, the answer to both of these questions is often “No.”

The Open Government Partnership (OGP), spearheaded by the United States and Brazil, aims to change that, however, by encouraging governments to be more open, and everyone can be involved, including you. For instance, in Latvia, citizens can now use a website to send proposals directly to the Parliament. This post will focus on Georgia, so keep reading to find out how you can help Georgia’s government to become more open and responsive.

Georgia has expressed its desire to join the OGP; in order to do so, the country must develop a two-year plan for improving on its record of openness, with input from the public and civil society. A visionary plan could put Georgia in the same league as leaders in open government such as Iceland and Estonia. The Georgian government has invited TI Georgia, along with several other organizations, to provide feedback on Georgia’s proposed action plan, and we have done so.

But we think that this isn’t good enough; the Georgian public should have their say as well, so we want you to have a chance to provide the government with your feedback.

Here’s how you can do it:

1. Read the government’s draft action plan for the OGP.
2. Think of an idea for improving the draft plan, or just copy one of ours.
3. Send your idea to the Georgian government.
4. Post your feedback as a comment on www.WatchTheOGP.org, and let us know if you receive a response. The site is open to everyone and is not affiliated with the OGP itself. We’ll print out every comment on the Georgia page (no profanity, please!) and bring them with us to the OGP annual conference in Brazil in April, where we will publicize them in parallel with the Georgian government’s announcement of Georgia’s final action plan.

We hope to hear from you!