Welcome to a new series of newsletters covering the activities of the Open Data for Development Network (OD4D), including project updates, blogs, and publications, as well as the latest info on our regional and global initiatives. Please feel free to share with your networks. You are receiving this OD4D newsletter because you have previously subscribed to related OD4D, IODC, or ODRN information. You can update your preferences or unsubscribe at the bottom of the page.

The Feminist Open Government Initiative

The Feminist Open Government (FOGO) initiative aims to advance gender equality and better governance through increased transparency, participation, accountability, and government responsiveness. Our OD4D hubs are working together with the Open Government Partnership to map opportunities and challenges to advance FOGO in developing countries. The initiative’s research activities are designed to be action-oriented, informed by evidence, and conducted in such a way that government reformers and civil society partners in OGP member countries can apply the results. During the Phase I of FOGO, our OD4D hubs supported initial research to map how open government processes are designed and include (or exclude) women in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, providing a baseline mapping and series of recommendations. In Phase II, recently completed, FOGO activities supported the Africa Freedom of Information Centre, CARE International, Equal Measures 2030, Oxfam Novib, and Tecnicas Rudas to explore substantive gender commitments and tools.

Phase 3 of the Feminist Open Government Initiative is now underway and will work to drive forward the transparent publishing of gender-disaggregated data to address pay gaps in low and middle-income contexts with a concentration on vulnerable groups of workers. The overarching goal moving into this next phase is to increase awareness of the context-specific drivers behind these pay gaps and highlight the challenges related to publishing gender disaggregated data, as well as to explore the role transparency can play addressing inequalities in pay.

For more information, check out the FOGO website.

The State of Open Data

Cover photo of The State of Open Data

The State of Open Data, Algorithms, and AI

In 2019, the OD4D Network, with the support of over 60 authors, published "The State of Open Data", a comprehensive review of 10 years of open data around the world. In each of these newsletters, we will be featuring one of the key chapters. This month, we're looking the chapter on Algorithms and AI. In this chapter, Tim Davies points out that open data has long been recognized as a key asset used to boost artificial intelligence (AI) research and practice, but although governments have often intended the supply of open data to act as a lever to stimulate the domestic AI industry, open data communities across most sectors have been relatively slow to engage with AI.
Open data work has nonetheless had a powerful and positive influence on the development of AI. Policy interest in supporting domestic AI development has the potential to support both the release of government data and regulatory action to encourage private sector data disclosures. Open data is one of the tools that concerned observers of AI are turning to in order to sketch out ways to make machine learning fair, accountable, and transparent. At the same time, a realization of what AI can do is starting to change the privacy conversation around open data.
Work is needed to track the use of open data in AI systems and to develop approaches that address the potential bias or opacity of algorithms through the strategic release of open data and the careful creation of inclusive open data infrastructures. AI approaches also often rely on centralizing big datasets and personalizing services through the application of black-box algorithms. Open data approaches can offer an important counter-narrative by focusing on both big and small data and enabling collective responses to social and developmental challenges.

You can read the full chapter here and share your reflections with @stateofopendata on twitter.

Spotlight on AODN

This month, we caught up with Linet, who works at one of our OD4D hubs in Africa (AOD N) to find out a bit more about her and the work she does.

C: What is your role at African Open Data Network (AODN)?
L: I’m the Program Lead at AODN, which essentially means that I’m in charge of making sure things run smoothly from program design, to implementation, to review. I’ve been with AODN for two years now and been the Program Lead for about a year. I really enjoy it - it’s fun getting to work with a huge group of people.

C: Wow – sounds like a very important (and busy) role! Can you tell us about an interesting project you're working on?
L: The African Open Data Fellowship has to be the project I have the most fun working on. I enjoy getting to chat to people from different backgrounds and hearing their perspectives on this work. I have also found that providing direct technical support to various government ministries through the fellowship has been really useful for advancing open data. Before, we had problems explaining what ‘open data’ could actually mean for governments. People often think it’s one more thing they have to ‘learn about’, but in many cases, it’s actually something that they already have and that can help them do their jobs better - they just need to understand how to leverage it. Building champions in the public service helps further open data work and it’s quite exciting to witness it happening through the Fellowship.

C: Sounds like an amazing project! What's one thing you wish more people knew about the work you do?
L: I wish the link between open data and sustainable and inclusive economic development was a bit more obvious to people. Because our work primarily targets policy change, it can take a little while before you actually start to see tangible results. I feel like this lag can sometimes make data for development harder to sell.

C: Lastly, give us one fun fact about yourself…
L: I love the outdoors - activities like hiking and biking. I find it super useful to unwind and take time away from the stresses of the city and work.

C: And it sounds like you deserve a break!

Recent OD4D News & Project Updates:

The Global Data Barometer will be hosting a series of thematic consultations in August to identify the metrics to be covered in the 2021 survey. To find out more, follow updates at https://globaldatabarometer.org - GDB

ILDA's Next Generation of Researchers - A few months ago we launched a research call seeking new contributions to ongoing discussions around data and various societal challenges of public interest in Latin America because we want to add new voices and perspectives to these critical discussions. These newly selected researchers not only demonstrate vast experience and knowledge in their various areas of expertise, but their respective priority areas of interest have never been more relevant:
- Migration data
- Data and cultural sectors
- Data on violence against people from the LGBTIQ+ community
- Gender biases in the production of geographic data
We look forward to their contribution. For more information, click here (in Spanish) - ILDA

O fficial launch of our virtual mentorship program by the Caribbean School of Data (CSOD) in collaboration with Google.org. Mentorship is a key lever for the CSOD program and will be an integral component of the online CSOD Community, together with our training programs and employers' network, as we work toward achieving our mission of increased employability through digital and data literacy throughout the Caribbean region. - CIO

The Tell Your MP initiative has provided an important experiment on the merits and challenges of Participatory Budgeting approaches within inner-city community contexts. Jamaica’s Constituency Development Fund (CDF) which was established in 2007 to “promote human and infrastructure development at the community and constituency levels” provided a rich context for this project. Using the Port Allegre model of participatory budgeting as a template, the initiative established an enabling web/mobile technology platform and a service blueprint for the CDF key Actors and processes. The project generated many insights about strategies and the use of technology to enable youth- and citizen-engagement, especially in inner-city communities. Details of these findings and recommendations are synthesized in this project report. - COI

Hope you were able to join us for the last Africa Open Data Network (AODN) April Webinar on the 4th of June. The webinar included an overview of the Africa Open Data Fellowship Program for 2019 and a discussion on the inaugural Drivers of Data for Development in Africa report. The report explores major drivers for development data and includes four country case studies from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. Access the Report here. AODN

Recent OD4D Blogs & Publications

About OD4D
Open Data for Development (OD4D) is committed to advancing the understanding, use, and impact of open data. Our projects support critical research and the evolution of open data ecosystems in developing countries in order to spur social change, increase government transparency, and support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For more information, visit us at www.od4d.net or contact us at info@od4d.net.

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