The Data Revolution and OGP: Ships Passing in the Night?

The belief that open, reliable and transparent data will drive better development outcomes in developed and developing countries is one of the founding principles of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). This can be seen in many of the more than 2000 open government reform commitments that the 65 participating countries have made since 2011. Relatedly the UN Secretary-General has just appointed an Independent Expert Advisory Group to make recommendations on bringing about a ‘Data Revolution’ in sustainable development. This includes addressing how data is produced and used, building capacity and data literacy, strengthening accountability systems and improving monitoring of development outcomes. For a ‘Data Revolution’ to be successful it will require transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More and accountability to be placed at the heart of complex development systems.

The opportunity for collaboration with OGP should not be missed, as many of the objectives are shared. This can include:

1) Using OGP National Action Plans to see what relevant commitments policymakers and politicians in OGP governments are already making on the ‘Data Revolution’;

2) Using the OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism to find out what countries are implementing well on the ‘Data Revolution’, and what they are struggling with;

3) Converging on some best practice principles for a ‘Data Revolution’, for example on open data standards;

4) The Expert Advisory Group making concrete suggestions that countries could decide to include in future OGP National Action Plans, thereby using the OGP platform as a means to implement a ‘Data Revolution’. 

The first step should be to analyse the National Action Plans that OGP countries are required to co-create with civil society every two years. There are now 85 of these action plans in existence, with many countries recently publishing their second two-year plan. These plans contain concrete commitments on a wide range of issues, including, but not limited to: access to information laws; increasing budget and fiscal transparency; commitments to tackle anonymous company ownership; open contractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... More and procurement reform; political financing; opening up government data; improving extractive industriesApplying open government values of transparency, participation, and accountability to extractive industries can decrease corruption, safeguard community interests and needs, and support environmental ... transparency; and creating open policy making platforms. OGP can offer useful, practical models on how countries are linking the production and uptake of data for more effective governance or better service delivery. Action plans have many examples of countries doing this, which can offer useful lessons on which approaches work and why other approaches didn’t. It should be a relatively simple exercise to look through these plans and identify content that is most relevant to a ‘Data Revolution’.

OGP commitments are useful inputs to the Expert Advisory Group because they represent practical steps that governments are already taking to meet the objectives of a ‘Data Revolution’. OGP is not a standard-setting international organisation, so any government commitment–in theory–comes with national political backing and the resources to implement the policy. It is also a requirement that OGP countries work with civil society to design their commitments, meaning when done well the National Action Plans are more participatory and reflective of civil society priorities than other areas of government policy. For example, Sierra Leone recently published their first OGP plan, which included a 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 “pass a robust and proactive Archives and Records Management Act to support the implementation of the Right to Access Information Act in a bid to improve public transparency”. This is clearly relevant to ensuring that historical data is well managed and accessible, and is a commitment that other countries will likely consider taking up in future.

OGP has an Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) which assesses countries on the implementation of their National Action Plans. Forty-three of these reports have now been published. A logical step for the Advisory Group would be to use these reports as inputs on what is working and what is not working as governments try to implement reforms relevant to the ‘Data Revolution’. A good example of this is Tanzania’s 2012 commitment to “finalise a water point mapping system for Local Government Authorities and make the disaggregated data available online and other means of communication” and to “strengthen the use of sectoral Management Information Systems (health, education, water), by making disaggregated data available online in machine readable format”. Both of these commitments were judged by the IRM to be of potentially high impact if well implemented. In 2014 the Tanzania IRM Progress Report found that both commitments had seen substantial progress but more work remained. On the mapping system the IRM researcher for Tanzania wrote:

The government’s progress report shows that a total of 132 local government authorities have data available on the Water Point Mapping System database. However, the government reports that provision of equipment for routine data and training at the local government level has not been done. The IRM researcher recommends further work on basic implementation of this commitment.

Of course this is just one example. From the consolidation of the national statistics system in Dominican Republic, to improving accessibility of local budgets in Croatia, there are a huge variety of relevant OGP commitments that can help inform the work of the Advisory Group.

Collaboration should also extend to the principles on which a ‘Data Revolution’ should be based. This does not only mean encouraging ‘open by default’ but focusing on the end users throughout the design of systems to better collect and publish data. This should include civil society who need the space and freedom to advocate for the types of data that improve accountability of government, even if that is sometimes uncomfortable for officials. Experience from OGP countries suggests that tackling some tough political issues like taxPlacing transparency, accountability, and participation at the center of tax policy can ensure that burdens are distributed equitably across society. Technical specifications: Commitments related to c... evasion, political financing, corruption, and national security, is essential to avoiding policy reforms only focused on technical fixes.

There are clearly many opportunities for collaboration between OGP and the ‘Data Revolution’ which should not be missed. The 65 OGP participating countries are voluntarily making relevant commitments and will continue to do so. Given OGP comes with a ready made accountability mechanism, and a platform for working with civil society, future National Action Plans could contain even more commitments relevant to implementing a ‘Data Revolution’.

This is of course just one contribution to post-2015 development framework, which will seek to cover many other vital issues. As President Obama said at OGP’s UN event in September, OGP-inspired reforms are not “flashy” and don’t “generate a lot of headlines” but they are helping to promote better governments and stronger civil societies. The ‘Data Revolution’ Advisory Group can play an important role in taking this message to all UN countries, and building on the reforms already underway across OGP.

Please get in touch with any questions about OGP and using the Independent Reporting Mechanism’s data – @josephpowell