Open Government: Let a Thousand Flowers of Information Bloom

Perhaps the most important reason we need open government, in a world marked by so much strife, is because we acutely need to build trust. Openness can bring governments and citizens together, cultivate shared understandings, and help solve our practical problems.

It starts with sharing information. 

In Mexico, when the civil society group Fundar showed that services were not reaching women, that clinics were not open and that medicines meant to be free were anything but, the Ministry of Health used the evidence to negotiate a better deal with parliament and to take steps to save lives.