So what are we going to do?

Update! Note that I did an update post — here

The last few weeks have shown us the best and worst of our public institutions.

We have seen the best, in my view, in how they have responded to the Brexit crisis. We have seen confidence (in our response to the ruckus from across the sea), competence (in our diplomatic and political engagement and use of evidence), collaboration (in bringing our EU colleagues with us), and a united stand behind the public good in cross-party consensus.

In parallel, if I have this right, we have seen:

• a government brought to the brink of collapse a week before era defining negotiations because …
• a political leader tried to cover up and hide her failings, in a context where…
• public officials were untruthful in slandering a citizen who…
• had attempted to make the public aware of wrongdoing by these institutions.

In this fiasco, we have found a case study of what can happen when there is a cultural and systematic failure of openness — openness in information, in facing up to and acknowledging failures, and in dealing openly with colleagues and the public.

So there are things that are going very wrong, and that need to be confronted.

But to me the Brexit response, not this fiasco, reflects who we are as a country — the energy, ideas, creativity, integrity, drive and professionalism that I am surrounded by everyday, among those inside and outside of our public institutions.

Imagine what we could achieve if we focused that energy on confronting our governance problems!

I have spent the last 7 or 8 years working on questions on governance and transparency.* Overseas, from London to Ouagadougou. Basically everywhere except home.

I moved home two years ago this month, in part to find a way to contribute. I have done my fair share of moaning in the pub, tweeting, and half-writing blogs that never leave my GDrive. But then I get distracted by my contract work, and wait for someone else to do something. Well, no more waiting for someone else to do something. NO MORE! Here is what I am going to do:

I have budgeted 120 hours of my time over the next 12 weeks to see what we can do.

(I really have, in my snazzy time-keeping app “Harvest”.)

Fumbally Exchange have given me three months of desk space as a “high potential start-up”. I have a laptop, a phone, some good shoe leather, and access to plenty of coffee.

I can’t do a huge amount on my own, so I want to really think about that question how we harness and focus that energy that exists towards addressing these issues.

I’ve always loved the “stone soup” parable — the “magic stone” that prompts hungry villagers to add their hoarded food to a communal pot, producing a soup that can feed everyone. So I’m codenaming this project #StoneSoup, because once something has a hashtag, it exists.

So what should we do? Who should I meet? What is already going on? What ideas do you have? Want to help?

Here is what I want to have done at the end of these 12 weeks:

Worked out what an on-going project could look like. Here are two ideas to get the ball rolling:

1. An organisation that would come up with practical ideas on implementable reforms to improve transparency and accountability; perhaps short papers focused on different sectors like policing, health, governance etc.
2. An umbrella under which people can do practical transparency-focused projects. For example rankings of public service providers like hospitals, uncovering stories of wrongdoing, supports to those who want to publish information etc.

Kick off a concrete piece of work, perhaps looking like some of the above, and be on the way to getting it finished.

What do you think? What structures have been tried and worked or failed? What areas are ripe for action and ideas to improve transparency? What project ideas do you have?

Here are the parameters:

• Vision: to make our state and government more transparent and open, and beyond that more accountable*
• Objective: work out where and how to enable as wide a range of people as possible — officials, academics, politicians, activists, tech-heads, journalists, voters, entrepreneurs, researchers — to use their work, platform and interactions to make our institutions more transparent and accountable
• Spirit: a belief that Ireland (including our public institutions) is full of great people with integrity and ideas on how to improve things; a belief in the need to find and celebrate stories of good work, successes and achievements; a readiness to work in a political, but non-partisan way (because good governance is not a left/ right thing)

Comment below, tweet ideas to me @LizCarolan or using #StoneSoup, or drop me an email hello@lizcarolan.com

We have to try, right?

L x

*I actually wrote a short thing on the difference between transparency and accountability, and what is needed for one to lead to the other, here: http://www.transparency-initiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/taiodc_draft_data4accountabilityframework.pdf