Co-creating an Open Government Action Plan: The Case of Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly, Ghana MERLIN CHATWIN AND GODWIN ARKU ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the limited literature on open government initiatives at the subnational level in developing countries. It examines the motivations of actors in a local government authority to utilize the capabilities of various stakeholders to overcome constraints in cocreating an action plan for open government reforms. This empirical analysis utilized qualitative fieldwork conducted in Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly, Ghana’s third largest local government. The findings demonstrate that a confluence of citizen demand for openness, and willingness within the gover- nance stakeholders, are motivating the pursuit of open government reforms. Viewed through an open innovation frame- work, we argue that achieving good governance through information transparency, public participation, and accountability reforms is hindered by the institutional environment. Ghana’s subnational governments need national level commitment to provide the resources, mandate, and authority to become truly “open.” Introduction T here is an emerging global consensus that the concept of “openness” in government is critical to the development of equitable and inclusive societies. Less clear is how subnational govern- ments design and implement reforms that aim to “open government.” While the term “open gov- ernment” was first utilized in academic literature in the U.S. to refer to citizens’ right to information (Parks 1957), it is now used globally in a far broader way. At the leading edge of our understanding of open government is the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multi-country collective launched in 2011. The OGP began with eight founding countries and has now expanded to include 75 govern- ments. Recently, there has been a shift to include subnational authorities in open government reforms. While national and subnational governments alike are quick to adopt the language of open government, there is limited research on the impact these reforms have on the lives of the public. The limited literature and experience with open government at the subnational level, specifically within developing countries, highlights questions related to its implementation and impact, relevance to subnational levels of government, the capacity of stakeholders to engage in co-creation processes, and the institutional environment necessary for open government reforms to be sustained. Consider- ing these lingering questions, the goal in this paper is to critically assess and gain an understanding Merlin Chatwin is a Ph.D. candidate Geography, Western University, London N6A 3K7, Canada. His e-mail address is: mchatwin@uwo.ca. Godwin Arku is an Associate Professor Geography, Western University, London N6A 5C2, Canada. His e-mail address is: garku@uwo.ca. The authors are thankful for support of this project from Western Univer- sity’s Faculty Research Development Fund/SSHRC Endowment Fund. As well, the first author is grateful for the generous funding support provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Research was collected by staff of Reboot within the context of a project supporting the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly in their Open Government Partnership Subnational Action Plan development. A special thank you to Nicole Anand, William Amoah and Nonso Jideofor for their leadership in all aspects of design, data collection and preliminary analysis. We thank all research participants for their time and thoughtful perspectives on the topic. [Correction added on 04 January 2018, after first online publication: Acknowledgments have been inserted.] Submitted May 2017; revised August 2017; accepted October 2017. V C 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc Growth and Change DOI: 10.1111/grow.12234 Vol. 00 No. 00 (Month 2017), pp. 00–00