Strengthening Open Data Practices (MO0034)

CHALLENGE In the era of digital transformation, Open Data and Big Data offer various opportunities to public organizations. In fact, the phenomenon of Big Data has disrupted both the economic realm and the public sector in recent years, as it enables better management of the contextual factors they face. Furthermore, digital transformation provides, using massive data, an additional way for any public or private organization to ensure better performance and competitiveness. According to several studies and reports, open data activities are growing around the world; public organizations are releasing datasets, building portals, conducting hackathons, etc., with notable results in some countries. At the national level, several actions have been undertaken to promote Open Data, in particular: • The creation of the national Portal of Open Data: http://www.data.gov.ma (2011) ; • The joining of Morocco to the Open Government Partnership (2018) ; • The adoption of the law No.31.13 on the right of access to information (2018) ; • The establishment of the Commission on the Right of Access to Information (2019) ; • The establishment of an open data steering committee (2019) in charge of supervising and monitoring the implementation of this project at the national level. This committee, which is coordinated by the Digital Development Agency, is comprised of the various concerned institutions and entities; • The achievment of a study by the Digital Development Agency in partnership with the World Bank and in coordination with the various concerned institutions and entities (2020). This study resulted in the elaboration of a national action plan for the promotion of the publication and reuse of open data ; • Conducting awareness and communication workshops in the field of open data for the benefit of the managers of administrations, institutions and public companies (2020).

However, a number of issues that adversely impact the targeted objectives, are still existing mainly related to the governance, the management and the use of data: • Data governance: ambiguous legal framework, weak commitment of stakeholders ; • Data management: Lack of national open data standards, weak interoperability between public organizations’ information systems, lack of data mapping ; • Publication and use of data: Difficult access to open data held by public administrations, lack of awareness on of the importance of public data release and reuse, no lack of initiatives related to open data exploitation and reuse, lack of data anonimyzation practices, lack of data transparency culture within public administrations ; • ▪Absence of an open data release policy; absence of awareness-raising actions on the use and advantages of open data.

PROPOSED SOLUTION Accelerating the execution of the national action plan for open data development, through the implementation of several actions mainly : • ▪Elaborating and publishing data repositories required for the collection, processing, release and reuse of open data ; • Conducting more awareness campaigns and capacity building workshops related to Open Data for the benefit of ministries, public institutions/companies and territorial collectivities; • Conducting more awareness campaigns targeting companies, particularly startups, to promote the open data reuse concept; • Redesigning the unified national portal of the open data publication (www.data.gov.ma) ; • ▪The coordination and support of the concerned organizations and institutions for updating the portal contents; • Setting up an appropriate legal framework for the promotion of public open data.

EXPECTED RESULTS • Increasing number of open data released by the concerned organizations and institutions ; • ▪Strengthening transparency and trust between administration and citizens ; • ▪Promoting scientific research and innovation ; • Promoting investment and entrepreneurship ; • Promoting citizen participation and contributing to public policy debates through data and evidence.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Progress rate in building data repositories required for the collection, processing, release and reuse of open data ; • ▪Number of participants in training sessions for public administrations ; • Number of companies participating in awareness campaigns ; • Progress rate of the redesign of the unified national open data portal ; • ▪Progress rate of the elaboration of the legal framework necessary for the promotion of public open data ;

IMPACT INDICATORS Number of data published on the national portal ; • ▪Number of open data re-use cases ; • ▪Improving Morocco’s global ranking in Open Data.

See action plan for milestone activities.

Action Plan Review

Commitment 10. Promoting the Publication and Reuse of Open Data

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

Results Report

Commitment 10. Promoting the publication and reuse of open data

The Digital Development Agency (ADD) achieved substantial completion and moderate results under this commitment to promote the publication and reuse of open data in Morocco. ADD held awareness and capacity-building activities for public officials. Workshops were conducted virtually at the national and regional level and reached around 1,000 participants on a variety of topics, fostering discussions on Open Data concepts, international best practices, challenges, and successful case studies (milestone 1) ^[51].

Simultaneously, the development of data repositories essential for the collection, processing, and reuse of open data stands at 60 percent completion (milestone 2). Working groups were established to address issues such as data inventory, technical standards, common data repositories, with procedural manuals and concept notes produced. ^[52] The Agency launched the redesign of the unified national portal for open data publication, http://www.data.gov.ma, in December 2021, enhancing user experience and increasing data reuse (milestone 3). ADD reports that by the end of 2023, the portal included over 500 datasets, data producers with over 70,000 downloads of datasets and over 940,000 views. The portal includes functions for users to indicate their data needs, given feedback, and share use cases based on open data. ^[53] A legal framework for promoting public open data was being developed at the time of writing, with the Ministry of Digital Transition and Administration Reform and ADD collaborating to draft a decree (milestone 4).

Outreach and training for businesses on the importance of open data reuse were completed by March 2023 (milestone 5). ^[54] A Hackathon brough together 50 participants selected from 330 candidates in March 2023 to promote creative use of data to solve public problems. ^[55] Coordination and support to continue updating data on the portal was ongoing, with official contacts made with nearly 240 public institutions and meetings held with over 60 organizations (milestone 6). This resulted in the designation of over 180 Open Data Officers (ROD) and Data Managers (GdD), along with 37 institutions updating of datasets on the platform (milestone 6) ^[56].