CCW Appoints María Baron, Global Executive Director of Directorio Legislativo, as Advisor at the 2025 OGP Summit

Leveraging OGP Leadership to Strengthen Taiwan’s Role in the Global Open Government Movement

During the 2025 Open Government Partnership (OGP) Summit, Citizen Congress Watch (CCW) officially presented an Advisory Appointment Certificate to María Baron, Global Executive Director of Directorio Legislativo (DL) of Argentina, represented by CCW Deputy Executive Director James Kan. This appointment marks a new milestone in expanding Taiwan’s engagement with global democratic networks and open government initiatives.

María Baron, a journalist and governance expert, is a globally recognized leader in transparency and civic participation. She served as OGP Civil Society Co-Chair (2020–2021), where she played a pivotal role in advancing open parliament principles, gender equity, and inclusive governance across member states. Currently serving as Chair of the OGP Board, María continues to bridge governments and civil society organizations worldwide in pursuit of openness and accountability.

As the founder and Global Executive Director of Directorio Legislativo (DL), María has transformed DL into one of Latin America’s most respected parliamentary monitoring organizations. Through its flagship initiative Open Congress, DL develops innovative civic tools and regional networks:

• 📘 Directory of Legislators — a regional database that reveals who represents citizens in Latin American parliaments and how they perform their duties.
• 🌐 Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency — uniting 24 organizations across 12 countries to raise regional standards for openness and accountability.
• 🤝 OPeN | Open Parliament — a global consortium providing technical support to legislatures implementing open parliament policies.

DL and CCW share a common mission: to promote transparent, accountable, and citizen-centered legislatures. While DL leads reforms across Latin America, CCW has spearheaded similar efforts in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan through data-driven evaluation systems and transparency indicators. Their collaboration through the Asia Parliamentary Transparency Survey builds a cross-regional bridge of shared learning and democratic innovation.

By appointing María Baron as an advisor, CCW seeks to leverage her leadership and global network within OGP to amplify Taiwan’s visibility and participation in international dialogues on open government. Although Taiwan is not yet an OGP member state, CCW continues to act as a civil society representative advocating for greater openness and regional collaboration aligned with OGP values.

This collaboration also aligns with CCW’s recent milestone — the launch of the Asia Parliamentary Transparency Index (APTI). Co-hosted with the Asia Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, the APTI Workshop (Tokyo, Sept 18–19) convened 14 parliamentary monitoring organizations from nine Asian countries and Argentina to build the first regional framework for legislative transparency.

Anchored in Taiwan, CCW will continue to lead the Asia Parliamentary Transparency Survey, with plans to publish a comparative report in 2026. Through this initiative, CCW and its partners aim to strengthen trust in parliaments and expand the global coalition of civil societies working toward open, accountable democracy.