A guest post from Ahmed Tareq Rashid reflecting on panels on ‘Delivering the International Open Data Charter’ and ‘Global Partnership on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development’
The Third International Open Data Conference showcased the tremendous interest in open data by governments, civil society organizations, funding agencies, practitioners and academics. Particularly impressive was the number of government representatives and civil society activists from developing countries. This is significant because it is shows that developing countries recognize that data is a fundamental driver of development. To be sure, convincing developing countries about the importance of data is not an easy task —building bridges or investing in vaccines may have greater political leverage. Yet, the data gap in developing countries is shocking. As one participant at the conference pointed out, measurement of poverty levels in Africa is often based on extrapolation of data collected a decade ago.
Sustaining the political commitment of developing country governments is a real challenge. We heard at the conference that at the turn of the century, data was high in the political agenda before losing momentum. Now that open data and the “data revolution” is firmly back in the agenda, developing countries are encouraged to participate in several global platforms, principles, campaigns, task forces, on (open) data. Prominent among these are the Open Government Partnership, UN’s Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution and the International Open Data Charter. While there is no doubt a need for platform(s) to advance open data across the globe, is there a risk that countries may have too many goals and “action plans”? My intention here is not to discuss these important initiatives already undertaken or being developed, but rather to raise some general points based on the discussions at the two sessions that are especially relevant for developing countries.
Complementarity is key
Global platforms should not supersede regional, country and local level initiatives. While all stakeholders will benefit from a common understanding of goals and practices of open data, unique approaches may be required in some contexts that may or may not be applicable elsewhere. There needs to be a recognition that countries are at different levels in the implementation of open data principles or in the “data revolution”. The Africa Data Consensus is an example of a continental initiative that calls for an evidence-based development policy by and for Africa.
(Open) data initiatives need to be inclusive
A question that reverberated in the sessions is how to make the global partnerships, charters, or campaigns inclusive. How can we ensure that the views and perspectives of various stakeholders such as civil society and the private sector? More importantly, can input from citizens be taken into account? A suggestion that came from the discussions is crowd-sourcing the drafting the handbook of International Open Data Charter.
The “data revolution” must be open
If data is to lead to better development outcomes, it must be accessible. It is worth repeating that making the data open is the most effective way to realize its full potential. Martin Tisné of Omidyar Network stressed that we cannot assume that the data revolution will be open by default. It is here that global multi-stakeholder platforms such as those mentioned above could be particularly useful in promoting openness and transparency in the way data is use