Establish National Centre for Open Data Competence (UA0095)

Open data has a substantial economic, social and anti-corruption impact and contributes to the enhancement of the transparency and accountability of public authorities. Moreover, open data is a valuable resource facilitating the country’s economic development, including its digital economy, which is demonstrated by the results of global research. It is expected that the G-20 economies will increase their GDPs by 1.1 percent due to opening priority data sets. The Kyiv School of Economics and the Open Data Institute (UK) have analysed the potential economic impact of open data in Ukraine by using the European Commission’s research methodology. The study revealed that open data has resulted in over USD 700 million in revenue coming into Ukraine. If Ukraine further develops its open data policy, income could grow to USD 1.14 billion, or by 0.92 per cent of GDP, by 2025. However, there is also a significant problem: information administrators lack the knowledge and skills to operate open data in a highquality and effective manner. Moreover, there is low awareness on the part of the public and members of the business community as to the opportunities and ways to use open data. Establishing the National Centre for Open Data Competence will have a positive impact on raising awareness among information administrators and open data users, and will contribute to Ukraine’s rise in international anti-corruption ratings. It is expected that the National Centre for Open Data Competence will: offer knowledge base and training courses for various target audiences; bring together open-data-based services; and, become a platform for communications and the collection of propositions from the public as regards forming the national open data policy. 29 Meeting this obligation will contribute to raising the public information administrators’ awareness as to operations with open data; increasing the involvement of civil society and business representatives in solving problematic issues of using and working with open data; and, popularising the social, economic, and anti-corruption impact of open data.

Steps Responsible persons Time-frame Partners Performance indicator 1. Making amendments to legal and normative acts Ministry of Digital Transformation April 2021 Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on amending the resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine concerning open data has been adopted 2. Putting the National Centre for Open Data Competence into pilot operation Ministry of Digital Transformation July–December 2021 the joint United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and UK Department for International Development (UK aid) project “Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/TAPAS” (by agreement) International Charity Organization East Europe Foundation (by agreement) the online platform has been put into pilot operation; proposals on improving the online platform have been prepared based on the pilot operation and feedback from civil society institutions; and the online platform has been refined (if necessary) 3. Putting the National Centre for Open Data Competence into operation Ministry of Digital Transformation January– December 2022 the joint United States Agency for International the National Centre for Open Data Competence has been put into operation 30 Steps Responsible persons Time-frame Partners Performance indicator Development (USAID) and UK Department for International Development (UK aid) project “Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/TAPAS” (by agreement) International Charity Organization East Europe Foundation (by agreement)

Action Plan Review

Commitment 9: Establishing the National Centre for Open Data Competence

Results Report

Commitment 9. Establishing the National Centre for Open Data Competence

Implementing agency: Ministry of Digital Transformation

Context and objectives

Ukraine operates multiple platforms that provide access to open data on public procurement, public spending, public property sales, budget, and other information on public finances. [76] A number of datasets and registries are published on the Unified Open Data Portal. A 2015 government resolution regulates the provisions on open data and defines high-priority datasets to open. [77] The Ministry of Digital Transformation is responsible for open data policy and the Unified Open Data Portal.

To support these initiatives, this commitment aimed to establish a national Open Data Competence Center to provide a knowledge base and training on managing and using open data. The center would also integrate open data services in one place and help develop a national open data policy.

Did it open government? Marginal

In March 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted amendments to the definitions of open data principles and the list of open datasets. These amendments established the Open Data Competence Center as an integral part of the Unified Open Data Portal. [78] The Ministry of Digital Transformation launched the diia.data.gov.ua Open Data website in May 2021, [79] which provides information on open data standards, datasets, open data impact in various sectors of government, as well as relevant applications, resources, and services. It also allows users to suggest new datasets to open and give feedback on existing data. [80] The website was closed during the first months of the war but has since been reopened and continued providing updates on training activities. In November 2021, the government adopted an open data strategy and action plan for 2022–2025. [81]

Since 2021, the Ministry of Digital Transformation has provided two-week online courses on open data for over 10 thousand civil servants from central and regional government bodies. The training covers the creation of reusable data, publishing data on the national portal, and use of data for policy development. The Open Data Competence Center also offers educational series on Diia Digital Education, [82] which has been completed by over 100 thousand civil servants. In collaboration with international organizations, the ministry also offered trainings to businesses, civil society organizations, and journalists on using open data for monitoring and investigation. [83]

The Open Data Competence Center and the Ministry of Digital Transformation carried out a number of activities under the Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services (TAPAS) project supported by USAID and UK Aid. The Open Data Competence Center developed case studies on open data impact in areas such as health, ecology, and economy, [84] and created a toolkit on using open data to monitor businesses, public funds, court decisions, the environment, and other areas. [85] The Ministry of Digital Transformation started an educational campaign and training on open data during the war. [86] In December 2022, the ministry launched the Open Data Services Support competition for open data projects for the recovery of Ukraine from the war. [87] After the implementation period, the ministry conducted a comparative analysis of Ukraine’s open data policies and legislation with EU data regulations. [88]

Despite these achievements, the war significantly impacted Ukraine’s work on open data, with the temporary closure of many state-owned resources. Nevertheless, according to statistics, the number of datasets published on the Unified Open Data portal increased from about 59,000 to over 73,500 between mid-2021 and mid-2023. [89] While it is not possible to draw direct linkages, the capacity building efforts of the Open Data Competence Center and the Ministry of Digital Transformation likely helped increase the number and quality of the datasets by central and regional governments and the usage of open data by businesses and civil society. In the European Data Portal’s 2022 Open Data Maturity Report, Ukraine ranked second among the EU27+ countries and was recognized as an open data" Trend Setter". [90] The report noted that Ukraine continued to excel in open data policy and quality, despite the ongoing war.

Looking ahead

In time, the Open Data Competence Center can bring sustainable change to open data management in Ukraine. Although the Open Data Competence Center is not included in Ukraine’s draft sixth action plan, the draft plan includes a commitment on resuming the publication of open data to the Unified Open Data Portal. The commitment will involve updating the structure of datasets on the portal to open and machine-readable format, in particular those to which access is restricted due to martial law. It will also entail disclosing datasets on the damage caused by military actions and datasets necessary for post-war reconstruction. The IRM recommends allowing the public and other stakeholders to easily monitor open data publication and usage through assessments of data completeness and quality by providing relevant recommendations to data holders.