Peculiarities of open data in the different regions of the world

Fecha de la noticia: 16-12-2016

Open data en el mundo

The results of the third edition of the Open Data Barometer clearly show how open data have already become a global trend throughout the world, with more than half of the 92 countries analyzed actively working on their initiatives to open up the information. Nevertheless, it also shows us that there are great differences depending on the region we analyze, with North America clearly leading at regional level followed by Europe and Africa in the last position.

Taking into account the great differences that exist among the different regions, some questions arise: what are the reasons behind these differences? What are the barriers that make the development of open data so different among regions? And above all how can we accelerate progress in those countries that are currently less developed? As an example, let's see below the situation in some of the most representative regions:

Latin America

According to the latest results of the Open Data Barometer for the region, its performance is slightly higher than the global average. Some countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay or Colombia show a systematic advance during the last three years, whereas in the rest of the region the decline in the last year is worrisome.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the region is the fact that it is precisely the agents of civil society who are leading the efforts to harness the potential of open data in the region. Reference organizations such as IMCO in Mexico or DATA  in Uruguay are making great efforts to make citizens benefit from open data through services such as Mejora tu Escuela or A tu Servicio that help them make informed decisions using public information. This is also possible because, although the open data availability is still quite limited, there is a greater culture of access to public information in the region that is based on a fairly consistent regulation in a good number of countries.

However, the role of some governments is also noteworthy. This is the case, for example, of Mexico, which has not only become the regional leader thanks to its continued progress in recent years, but it is also leading international reference initiatives such as the Open Data Charter.

At the last Regional Open Data Conference held in Colombia the challenges posed by the open data progress in Latin America during the next year were discussed, including but not limited to:

  • Capacity development for the collection, transformation, openness and use of data;
  • Generation of local and regional impact through the re-use of relevant open data;
  • Raising awareness among public employees and society; or
  • Entrepreneurship boost through the use of data.

Sub-Saharan Africa

The current situation in the region is not particularly encouraging, nowadays its performance is quite moderate, both globally and in comparison with other developing countries from different regions.

According to the data from the regional report by Open Data Barometer, the best-positioned country in the region is Kenya, occupying the 42nd place in the ranking (for a total of 92) and worsening its position in comparison with the previous year. In addition, 6 of the last 10 countries in the global ranking belong to the continent and 15 of the 21 countries analyzed for the region have worsened their scores.

The biggest problem for the open data development in the region is that the existing initiatives rely almost exclusively on isolated short-term actions, supported exclusively by specific short-range international aid funds, and with goals that are not aligned with the needs expressed by the respective governments. This results in a sustainability problem of these initiatives in the medium and long term without guarantees of continuity. Moreover, there is a leadership gap in the region that must also be addressed.

Nevertheless, not everything is negative and there are some promising signs. Some countries such as Nigeria or South Africa have made very significant progress, in addition to other countries such as Burkina Faso, Senegal, Rwanda, Tanzania or Ivory Coast where the trend is also promising.

On the other hand, it is expected that the adoption of the African Data Consensus by multiple communities related to the data in the region will boost the openness of data. In addition, the open data community is more dynamic and vibrant, as demonstrated by the first Africa Open Data Conference, whose discussions will continue at the first World Data Forum to be held in January 2017 in the City of the Cape. The Africa Open Data community, with more than 100 active participants nowadays, or the openAfrica platform, the largest open data repository on the continent managed by volunteers belonging to more than 40 civil society organizations, are some positives signs of this change.

East Asia and Pacific

In this case, and again according to the analysis performed by the Barometer in the region, although in general terms the region is well positioned globally with up to three countries (Australia, New Zealand and Korea) positioned within the top-ten and the Philippines as the country that has evolved the most in the last year, there is a stagnation in the performance of individual countries and even some significant setbacks in several cases.

In addition, despite the growth in recent years as regards the number of initiatives, both nationally and locally, the quality of published data is still limited. Unlike Latin America, one of the main barriers to progress in this case is the poor historical tradition of the right of access to public information in the region, where only one third of the countries have legislation in this regard. On the other hand, although the global ranking is dominated mainly by OECD countries with high per capita incomes, in the case of Asia many modest countries such as Indonesia or the Philippines are performing better than other richer countries such as Thailand or Malaysia.

On the other hand, and despite a strong correlation between the amount of available data and the impact obtained, there are also serious reliability problems in the still small amount of available data. Some cases that illustrate this very clearly are the reliability problems of geographical information in Indonesia, similar problems with water management data in Vietnam or the total unreliability of the census data in Myanmar.

In order to improve the open data situation in the region up to 2020, last year a workshop was held where representatives from 11 countries participated with the goal of establishing the priority working areas for the coming years, reaching the conclusion that the improvement goals should be the following:

  • Improve the government commitment to data publication.
  • Develop and implement a standard for the openness of data in the region through an open and participatory process;
  • Establish the necessary partnerships among different sectors and organizations; and
  • Improve the capacity of citizens in the use of data and their re-use.

Advancing in the global and regional open data agendas

During the recent International Open Data Conference held in Madrid, we also had the opportunity to discuss some of these issues and know several examples of what is being done in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, the Middle East or Balkans.