Great Ideas for OGP Action Plans: Bridging Access to Information and Open Data with Effective Records Management

This post is part of a blog series we are running over the next few weeks to highlight core open government issues and give you ideas to consider as you develop your new action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen.... Last week we looked at how open contracting can help governments deliver on the promise of more effective and trustworthy government. This week, we look at how bridging access to information and open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici... with effective records management can enhance a country’s ability to achieve their open government goals and priorities.

-The OGP Support UnitThe OGP Support Unit is a small, permanent group of staff that work closely with the Steering Committee and the Independent Reporting Mechanism to advance the goals of the Open Government Partnership.... 

Unmanaged Digital Records Bring High Risks for Open Government

The 2015 World Development Report raises important concerns about the risks of the failure to manage digital records and the impact on public transparency and accountability.  It  ‘is fair to say that long-term preservation of digital records and information in most countries in the world is at serious risk’^[1].  The problem begins at the point when the records and information are created.

Records, as defined in international standards, are information, in any form or format, created, received and maintained as evidence and as an asset, in pursuit of legal obligations or in the transaction of business^[2].  As citizens and governments rely increasingly on digital records created on desktop computers, in databases, in email, on mobile devices, on websites and via social media platforms, records management must become an essential part of open government.

Access to information (ATI) and open data are pillars of open government.  ATI should make public sector information available to support citizens’ rights, effective services, anticorruption measures and improved investor confidence. Open data should ‘foster more transparent, accountable, efficient, responsive and effective governments and civil society and private sector organisations’^[3].  There has been an assumption that reliable public information exists and can be opened to the public through these initiatives.  However, as demonstrated by regular warnings about the poor state of public sector records coming from the press, auditors, fraud investigators, court officials, academic researchers, records professionals, and authoritative sources such as the World Bank, this assumption needs to be challenged.

The reality is that without a control regime of laws, policies, practices and skills, digital records lose their value as evidence, placing openness, ATI and open data at risk.^[4]  If computer systems do not systematically capture metadata to provide context, records can lack legal value and be difficult to locate, interpret, share, reuse and migrate to new formats and environments. Similarly, unmanaged data, like unmanaged records, can easily be lost, lose value as evidence, and become increasingly difficult to access, share and manage.  Moreover, where public sector data is extracted or aggregated from poor records, for example payroll and employment data extracted from pay and personnel records, the result is poor quality data.

Records Management Commitments

The 51 OGP countries now developing action plans can minimise risks for records and data and strengthen openness by developing records management commitments. Two resources can help jump start the process. Firstly, a suite of internationally agreed records management standards is available to support high quality records and data.^[5] The standards define controls, such as registration, access, security, metadata capture and retention; they offer data models and provide guidance on preservation, such as converting datasets from relational tables to XML files for secure long-term storage and access. Secondly, the Open Government Guide^[6], aligned to the standards, offers sample records management commitments that can be tailored to country requirements, including:

Role of the National Archives

Implementing the standards and the Guide requires professional support.  National archives, the main bodies with statutory responsibility for public sector records, can contribute essential expertise. In lower resourced countries, given the lack of resources, national archives have found it difficult to develop digital records management capacity.  However, with resources, they can access solutions through a global professional network linked by standards, guidance material, professional associations, and online networks. For instance, the Norwegian Archives’ Archival Data Description Mark-up Language and the Swiss Federal Archives’ Software Independent Archiving of Relational Databases Standard have helped the National Archives of Finland to develop techniques, tools, methods and practices for protecting authenticity, integrity and usability of databases and registers.  The same sort of collaboration can help extend digital records management capacity globally.

Lessons from Nordic Countries

A growing number of countries now recognise the seriousness of the risks involved and the benefits of addressing them, as illustrated by three case studies from Nordic countries.^[7]  Through their commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... to openness and advanced use of technology, these countries understand the important of high quality digital information. Estonia applies records management principles to any information needed as evidence and achieves highly successful systems that link and exchange records and data across the public sector.  Finland is harmonising laws, practices, standards and administrative responsibilities for information management, including records and data, to enhance digital governanceAs evolving technologies present new opportunities for governments and citizens to advance openness and accountability, OGP participating governments are working to create policies that deal with the ... More. Norway, the first country to introduce (1984) a records management standard to structure and manage digital records and metadata in government agencies, uses the metadata to enable rapid public access to records.

For more information on records management in the Nordic countries, refer to this report.

Conclusion

As governments rely increasingly on digital information systems, it is necessary to link together public records, data and the systems used to create and manage them in compliance with international standards.   Harmonising records management commitments with ATI and open data commitments through national action plans will deepen the impact of the OGP process, help to maximise the use of resources, and enhance OGP countries’ ability to achieve their open government goals and priorities.