The development and promotion of local and regional instruments and policies to improve transparency, good governance and citizen participation is a fundamental strategy to promote open governance that allows sustainable development. These objectives cannot be achieved without considering the need to strengthen the capacities of local governments, including the development of participatory, innovative and sustainable tools that guarantee appropriation by citizens. These types of policies and initiatives allow improving levels of trust in public institutions and are an opportunity for citizens to have the tools and information necessary to play a more active role in society and in the construction of their own development.

The Community of Practice aims to contribute to the strengthening of the global network so it can become a benchmark for the defense of open governance and public integrity. In order to achieve this objective, it is necessary to work on: the development of joint solutions; the promotion of collaboration and exchange of experiences and public policies; the fostering of learning and promotion of social innovation. The growing need of local and regional governments around the world to connect with their citizens in a renewed way encourages the creation and development of this network to promote more efficient local and regional governments in the provision of public services, to increase citizen participation in public management, preventing and fighting corruption and rebuilding trust in the public sector at local level.

In addition to encouraging the active participation of its members, the Community of Practice will constitute leading working groups in Europe, Africa, the MEWA region, Latin America and Asia to advance a joint agenda, considering the particularities and needs of the different regions.

The 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda have recognized that sustainable development is impossible to achieve without local leadership and that today the process of localization of the 2030 Agenda goes beyond the simple adaptation of global objectives to local level and implies moving towards the idea of ​​co-creation of territories, where local governments build and facilitate new relationships with citizens to explore joint solutions at the local level that respond to global challenges and objectives.

In terms of political incidence and advocacy, the Community of Practice seeks to incorporate into the political agenda of local and regional governments and the associations that represent them the importance of developing open government policies (transparency, participation, accountability and innovation). ) as a mechanism to re-establish the trust pact of the public sector with citizens, build more effective, fair and efficient institutions and, ultimately, advance in the localization of the 2030 Agenda. Moreover, this scope of the work also pretends to strengthen the participation and advocacy of local governments in national and global policies and strategies of open Government. Specifically, the Community seeks to:

• Lead the evolution of the traditional local policies of citizen participation and transparency towards open government policies through the insertion of this new narrative into the organization as part of its strategic priorities.
• Promote strategies and instruments of transparency, accountability and prevention and fight against corruption through the promotion of good governance and the open government approach as a platform for localizing the SDGs.
• Generate an exchange framework that allows UCLG to represent, in a sustained and specialized manner, the local and regional governments in the construction of the global strategy of open government and facilitate its dialogue with other international organisms specialized in the matter in order to achieve the maximum social impact.
• Become the interlocutor with key actors for the development and effective implementation of open government policies such as the alliance for Open Government, Transparency International, OECD and defend the necessary participation of local governments in national and global strategies in this area.

For the development of the work of the Community of Practice, different mechanisms are being articulated for the implementation of specific working groups that can monitor, document and promote the different actions carried out. The reports of activities, processes and results will be presented to UCLG.

The Community of Practice seeks to generate different scales of learning by:

• The dissemination and promotion of open government strategies and policies as drivers and accelerators of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals at local level.
• The promotion of the advancement of policies of transparency, participation and effective citizen collaboration to achieve stable frameworks of coexistence and favoring the economic and social development of the territories.
• The strengthening of the role of local governments and their associations to favor their insertion in the National Open Government Plans, in national strategies and policies of transparency, anti-corruption, citizen participation, etc. as well as in the Open Government Global Agenda.
• The identification of success factors and risks in the implementation of local policies of transparency, accountability and citizen participation.
• The promotion of citizens' trust in local and regional governments, through the adoption and promotion of good governance commitments and the execution of exemplary practices in the areas of accountability, participation in decision-making and design and evaluation of public services.
• The promotion of the exercise of the rights of access to information and participation of citizens and society at the local and regional level, seeking involvement and commitment to public action.