THE SPARKS FOR IGNITING THE DATA REVOLUTION

The data revolution should include a universal legislation requiring states to provide open, good quality data

Ever since the release of the High Level Panel report on the Post 2015 development agenda in 2013, the concept of a data revolution has gained significant traction in conversations at the global level. Nonetheless progress towards actualising the revolution in practical terms remains hamstrung by data sourcing and a myriad other challenges that can potentially be dealt with by an internationally-led consensus and sustained momentum to bring multiple stakeholders on board, and work closely with governments on issues of accessibility and usability of good quality, timely and relevant data and information.

  

I have participated in forums discussing the idea of the data revolution. I have also engaged in related conversations that seek to leverage the use of data and information for better policy making, governance and service delivery like the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and the Open Data movements. A lot has been achieved towards outlining what is meant by the data revolution, of course with diverse and sometimes divergent views, what we want to achieve with it, and what obstacles remain on the way towards realising it.

  

The World Bank has sponsored elaborate conversations on the data revolution both in international forums and within localised national level facilitated processes. The Oversees Development Institute (ODI) as well through the Post 2015 blog has sponsored a series of research work and literature on the nature and impetus behind the data revolution. The PARIS 21facilitated an event on the sides of the UN General Assembly in 2013 on engineering a development data revolution. Elsewhere Civil Society Organisations are organising a broad range of stakeholders in many countries to make sense of the data revolution and what developmental ends could be achieved from it. In East Africa Development Initiatives is engaging an ecosystem of data handlers to discuss how to make sense of and utilise the data revolution to end poverty.

  

There is near consensus that the data revolution must be underpinned by a focus on providing open data, that is of good quality – available in machine readable formats and up to date.

However, the common narrative about what impedes the data revolution seems to rest on source challenges emanating from the supply side. These apply both in developed and developing countries. The argument is that even before discussing what to do with the data and how to make it relevant to poverty reduction in order to resonate with lives of common citizens, we need to locate the data. Data providers on the other hand lament that whatever is made available, no matter how little, is not being used. So where do we stand?

I am persuaded that unless these sourcing and usability of currently available data issues are resolved there will be significant challenges in realising the data revolution.

Across the globe, the approaches to data sourcing and tackling usability challenges vary, with similarities in certain instances. Some are using national level legislation or policies to compel custodians of development data to make it available to the public, while some are using laborious and expensive processes of purchasing and digitising data that is not available in machine friendly formats. But these approaches have achieved very little since, governments - custodians of the largest proportion of development data either lack the incentive, political will, or legal frameworks to make data available.

We now know that many interventions and programmes being implemented globally and at national levels are based on poor quality data or statistics that make them tenuous and contestable.  Yet for over a decade, enormous resources have been allocated and programmes implemented to tackle development challenges. African economies are suddenly leaping into middle income status due to revisions in national statistics and introduction of data previously not considered in calculating important national development indices.

The current development data isn’t good enough. Nearly 40% of developing countries cannot measure their poverty trends over the last decade due to inadequate data. The HLP report on post 2015 development agenda and UN Secretary General’s report on poverty both call for pioneering approaches to improving quality, timeliness and relevance of development data and a fundamental rethinking of the way we use data for social good” – Dr Jim Yong Kim, World Bank President.

I am of the opinion that now more than ever, the data revolution requires an international level facilitated process, to require national governments to make good quality data available to the public. Such a process could drive country level action by multiple stakeholders to invest in producing data and translating it to usable information.

This has been achieved in other spheres, for example the declaration on human rights was ratified globally compelling states to abide by and guarantee a minimum set of rights for all their citizens.

Through diplomacy and international driven consensus, development practitioners can lobby for a similar international declaration, or better yet, a standalone goal in the post 2015 framework to guarantee access to information to all citizens across the world. This could provide the much needed leverage that actors at national levels pushing for increased access to development data can use to further the agenda of the data revolution

This blog was originally posted on Open Development Toolkit here:  http://opendevtoolkit.net/en-US/blog/sparks-igniting-revolution/ 

Africanising the Open Government Partnership

 My take-aways from the OGP Africa regional forum

The government of Kenya recently hosted the first ever OGP regional forum in Africa. The event aimed to establish guidelines for OGP activities for African countries; track and take stock of progress on the agenda to date and to strategise how to Africanise the global OGP movement further. It attracted a range of delegates from across the continent involved and interested in the pursuit of open governance - government representatives, civil society actors, academia, the media, private sector, and multilateral institutions (see link for details).

“OGP will be real, only when it starts to make sense to the citizens out there” 

(Robert Hunja – World Bank)

Open governance is built on the principle of the universal right to access to information on the conduct of government and places its value in enhancing effective public oversight. It aims to open up government affairs, (previously and normatively kept secret) to make it easier to scrutinise public officers, identify and hold them to account. The argument is that access to government information enhances public participation and facilitates the audit of government actions. The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a new multilateral global governance and transparency initiative incepted in 2011. It aims to secure commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. The OGP outlines a set of principles augmented by a declaration that form the basis of the open government.  To date 45 countries (three African) have endorsed the declaration, 11 others (two African) are currently processing commitments and many more across the globe working towards attaining eligibility.

At the heart of the event was the question of how different partners could together put in place a strategy to strengthen open governance in the continent and bring forth an African perspective to the global OGP movement. Participants shared their experiences in the push for open and transparent institutions accountable to the people and brainstormed ideas on how the global OGP could respond. Discussions focused on: the role of big data, public statistics, analytics and technology in improving service delivery; managing extractive industries to ensure processes are open, transparent, participatory and accountable; and how to leverage technology and the media to bolster citizen engagement and enhance public integrity. Key issues emerging from the discussions included:

• Inadequate understanding of the concept of open governance in Africa
• The impact of the technocratic language often used by OGP practitioners and how it fails to resonate with people at local level
• The lack of engagement amongst African leaders/governments and failure to share experiences 
• The absence of strong champions for the agenda
•  The apparent overlap in governance monitoring mechanisms (OGP, African Union and United Nations, African Peer Review Mechanism etc ) and how this could be stifling progress
• The need to explore both supply and demand side issues in scaling up OGP
• The quality of information coming forth through existing open governance platforms
• The inadequate engagement of African legislatures and private sector who have great influence, political muscle and interest in good governance in the continent.

 

Civil Society – Government disconnect

Participants made the point that success of the OGP depends largely on trust and cooperation between government and civil society. Nonetheless, deliberations over the two day conference illustrated the clear tension between government and CSOs that must be addressed if we are to achieve meaningful progress.

There is currently a clear disconnect between the motivations, intentions and expectations of civil society and that of government despite both working towards the common good of the citizen. Much work related to open governance appears to be taking place in silos with little coordination, mutual awareness and strategy.  Though the need for effective partnerships between government and CSOs was emphasised, participants cautioned against very cosy relationships that create complacency and that could potentially jeopardise the watchdog role played by civil society.

 

“The era of sloganeering, CSO obstruction, political activism is gone [...] CSOs must reorient and repackage their engagement with government [... they] must begin to perceive themselves as partners with government” – (Fred Matiang’i, Cabinet Secretary for ICT – Kenya)

The African OGP steering committee must support states and civil society to collaborate with sufficient space for objective and constructive CSO monitoring and feedback in the role of ‘critical friend’. This will ensure better delivery and further progress in open governance.

  

Transforming commitments into action

It is encouraging that three African states are already members of the OGP, two others are processing commitments and a couple of others are eligible and looking to submit applications for membership. However, real success of the OGP will depend on implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the action plans developed by participating countries. Otherwise OGP membership risks being viewed as an end (utilised to score political mileage in the global political economy) rather than a means towards a greater goal of actualising good governance; transparent and accountable government institutions.

The OGP support unit must play an active role in monitoring participants to ensure they invest sufficiently in open governance, set realistic goals in their action plans, implement and accurately report on progress. Further, it must .safeguard against monopolisation of the process by government (capable of overstating progress and being overambitious in planning) and minimising dialogue between CSOs and government The African experience must, in turn, inform the wider movement.