4th International Open Data Conference

This session will assess the progress made in advancing the data revolution for sustainable development and the challenges, opportunities, and priority action areas for the year ahead. This session address the following questions:

• What have been some of the successes and challenges in advancing an open data revolution for sustainable development over the past year since the Global Goals were adopted and Global Partnership was formed?

• How can we more powerfully and sustainably advance a data revolution for sustainable development that specifically seizes the opportunities of open data along with other new sources of data?

• What are some of priority action areas for moving the agenda forward over the next 1, 3, 5 years?

The purpose of the session is to bring together key sector leaders to showcase examples of how open data is deepening the impact of their work (e.g., natural resources governance through environmental data disclosure, service delivery in health and education, fiscal transparency through open budget data, access to information through proactive disclosure, anti-corruption through open contracting data) and highlight opportunities presented by Open Government Partnership (OGP) to scale up and deepen those efforts.

Through a facilitated roundtable discussion, we hope to:

1. Establish how open data is the connector and key driver of impact across sectors (health, education, fiscal transparency, access to information, natural resources, and anti-corruption, open contracting, etc.).

2. Showcase with real examples how open data is being used in OGP countries to deepen the impact of open government reforms at the sector level.

3. Unpack the theory of change at work and draw conclusions on what’s working, what’s not working, and why and how future interventions can be successful.

4. Seek ideas on how OGP can scale up and deepen the impact of open government reforms using open data approaches so that it benefits citizens beyond intermediary data users.

The open data community has made significant progress in developing platforms to make open data more available and accessible. Many solutions are now available either as open source, subscription (e.g., Software As a Service) or traditionally licensed products. As a result, there are many opportunities and factors for data providers, particularly government ministries, to consider in their decision making and selection criteria. This session will provide an overview of the current state of open data publishing platforms. Representatives of several leading data platforms will give “lightning talks” on the demands and trends they’re seeing and what they think might be in store for the future. There will also be a “town hall” style discussion for audience members to share the challenges they are experiencing and get the views of the panel.