Open data: the great allies to eradicate inequality

Is it possible to find in the data the necessary help to solve the real problems that our society faces? While it is true that data alone cannot be transformed into food for the most disadvantaged, nor can it make weapons disappear in conflict zones or inequalities in the world, they are very useful when it comes to providing information on the causes that cause certain events or situations. Thanks to them, we can better assess the reasons and consequences of these situations, and act so that they do not recur.

Once, thanks to open data, we identify the causes that cause these types of events, we must take one more step: use this information to develop solutions and services that help us solve problems such as, for example, the lack of social inclusion of marginalized groups or inequalities caused by gender, economic or social issues.

When we speak of inclusion, we refer to the process by which both individuals and communities of people, such as migrants, refugees, socially disadvantaged groups or individuals, can interact and integrate in their communities in a satisfactory way and with the same opportunities.

Next, we will see some examples of the importance of open data when creating instruments and services that help the integration of this type of groups, focusing especially on the challenges that our country faces.

Problems related to inequality in Spain and digital solutions based on open data to solve them

Labor insertion

In a context where the health crisis is damaging our economy, it is essential to bring job opportunities closer to citizens. The open publication of job offers and courses, as the Basque Employment Service does through its Lanbide platform, is allowing many job web portals and training centers to add these offers to their catalog easily, promoting their dissemination and , therefore, the labor insertion of job seekers.

Depopulation of rural areas

Currently in Spain it is necessary to make users more visible and aware of the great depopulation problem suffered by some areas of our country, in which its inhabitants have less and less social resources, which sometimes leads to increasing their isolation.

Tool such as "La España Vacía", which consists of a series of interactive maps that show the Spanish demographic evolution, help us to make visible and understand the problem, while platforms such as Plan Repuebla can serve to attract businesses and new inhabitants to areas with lower population density.

Gender inequality 

There are platforms that function as a great channel of awareness and support for women victims of sexist violence, offering testimonies and analysis of the current situation. This is the case of Desprotegides, a portal created in Catalonia that seeks to make visible the serious problem of sexist violence suffered by thousands of women in the world today, in this case with updated data on the number of victims in the Catalan community.

One step further goes the Data COVID Gender project created by the Barcelona Open Data Initiative together with the Gender and ICT group (GENTIC) of the Internet Interdisciplicary Institute (IN3). The project consists of analyzing the impact that gender and occupational segregation have on the prevalence of the coronavirus. It has been one of the 15 proposals chosen by the Catalan Health Quality and Evaluation Agency (Aquas) of the Department of Health to carry out research in data analytics on the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19 in Catalonia.

Integration of people with disabilities

In recent years, simple applications that, using open data, provide useful information about the environment. In this article you can find different applications created by companies and citizens, but also public services are working in this regard. As an example, the city of Murcia has launched a free application that allows people with hearing disabilities to receive information about municipal services and carry out the procedures they request by way of videoconference through a smartphone.

Relevant information about the coronavirus for risk groups

Curvaenaragon.com is a web page developed by the Government of Aragon whose main objective is to show updated information on the situation of Covid-19 in the autonomous community, breaking down the data by the different provinces (Huesca, Zaragoza and Teruel).

This website allows all citizens who reside or have to travel to Aragon to consult the evolution of the pandemic in the area, especially for the risk groups that are most vulnerable to this pathology.

In short, there are more and more applications and technologies that, thanks to open data, allow us to obtain useful information about the environment in order to offer solutions to problems such as inequality, disability, poverty or violence, among others.

These are just some examples of applications that use open data to favor the eradication of inequality, but if you know of any other that fulfills a similar function, do not hesitate to register it on our portal or send us an email to contacto@datos.gob.es

Content elaborated by datos.gob.es team.