ROA-264-9: Strengthening of Capacities of Developing Countries to Provide Access to Information for Sustainable Development through Open Government Data

Main Expectations:
- Increased capacity of senior government officials to formulate policies to develop OGD, in consultation with relevant civil society stakeholders.

- Enhanced technical capacity of governments in target countries to develop and sustain OGD platforms and applications that utilize government data, in accordance with established policy frameworks .

Objective/Purpose of Project: The objective of the project is to demonstrate the potential and benefits of using Open Government Data (OGD) in advancing transparency, accountability and sustainable development in selected countries of Latin America and East Asia regions, currently identified to be Bangladesh, Nepal, Panama, and Uruguay.
In partnership with the national counterparts , the project aims at developing a strategy for open data, particularly in thematic areas relevant to the achievement of internationally agreed development goals. Primarily, the government expenditure and budgeting data, environmental data, procurement data, demographic data, socio-economic indicators, healthcare data, geographical data and local transportation data.

The project aims at assisting with the development of a policy framework and technical infrastructure for implementation of OGD initiatives. It will strive at strengthening the open data community within selected countries. The target beneficiaries include, but are not limited to government officials responsible for data coordination in the country such as Chief Information Officers (or equivalent), Information Privacy Commissioners, Procurement Divisions and relevant government officials from ministries and governmental institutions responsible for selected policies (e.g. Ministries of Planning). Indirect beneficiaries include citizens and communities at large.

The project will also stimulate a south-south knowledge transfer and cross-fertilization of OGD by bringing together OGD-beginners with more OGD-advanced countries.
International workshops, online training courses, and availability of workshop reports will increase the outreach of the project on a global scale, particularly for countries in regions most in need of such support.

Time Frame: June 2014 - December 2016

Funding: Development Account (DA)
Proposed Budget: US$592,000
Division: DPIDG
Focus Countries: Developing Countries
Comment: This is the project that worked with Bangladesh, Nepal, Panama and Uruguay