Meeting the Challenge of Open Data

Next week is our Annual Aid Management Program (AMP) Good Practices Workshop – and this year’s theme is “Meeting the Challenge of Open Data.” However, the “Data Revolution” is already underway, and many attending countries have already gone public with their Aid Management Platforms – so why this theme, and why now?

Here’s why: At Development Gateway, we know that Open Data is about much more than throwing data out into the universe; it’s about using that information once it’s available, and getting back to the why behind data transparency.

One of the great things about the Data Revolution is that it prods us to take stock of data we already have. There are goldmines of data – right now – and a million different ways to use and evaluate this information. But what can the development community do to ensure that this information is used to make better decisions about development resource allocation?

For part of the workshop, we will get our hands dirty with the data we already have by shaping it into useful data analytics and visuals; we will host a deep-dive session on the IATI data standard to discuss challenges, improvements, and how to use this data in-country; and we will also hear from civil society representatives and agencies (Open Nepal and USAID-Nepal) on how they have used data from Nepal’s public Aid Management Platform.

Our hope is that these sessions will not only encourage more data use for decisionmaking in our partner countries, but also demonstrate the demand for more transparent and accessible data from non-government actors. Whether our country partners have public data, or haven’t yet taken that step, we look forward to meeting the challenge of open data together.

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