{"id":168620,"date":"2023-06-30T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=168620"},"modified":"2023-06-29T18:45:06","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T23:45:06","slug":"open-data-and-open-government-why-they-are-essential-in-bridging-the-transparency-and-accountability-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2023\/06\/open-data-and-open-government-why-they-are-essential-in-bridging-the-transparency-and-accountability-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Data and Open Government: Why they are essential in bridging the transparency and accountability gap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Although there have been longstanding efforts by Caribbean countries to digitally transform their governments, it is questionable the degree of success that has been realised when the Average Joe is likely to be of the view that public sectors across the region are less open than they had previously been. Moreover, the focus on Open Data and Open Government also seemed to have stalled, though they are critical in supporting greater transparency and accountability and reducing corruption in the public sector.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On 22 June, the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) launched the \u2018Data 4 Development\u2019, an online monitoring platform that should facilitate the use of data and statistics for analysis, monitoring and evaluation by all stakeholders. The platform should also strengthen the PIOJ\u2019s planning and policy development capability, whilst also emphasising the importance of tracking the changes occurring across the society to better inform the plans and policies that are implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Data 4 Development<\/a> platform is live and presents graphs across four main pillars: Economy; Living Standards; Human Development; and Environment, thanks to the data visualiser functionality that has been integrated into the platform. However currently, the data available seems limited, and it is hoped that more data \u2013 both in terms of time frames covered and the granularity of the data sets \u2013 will improve in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said this, the launch of the Data 4 Development platform seems to harken back to the early 2010s when there was a lot of discussion and advocacy for greater Open Data (OD) and Open Government (OG) even in the Caribbean region. At that time there was some effort to improve government transparency and to make government-collected data more available and accessible; but in recent years, that thrust has not been as evident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Open Data and the ease of access data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the Open Data Handbook<\/a>, \u201cOpen data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike\u201d. <\/em>A critical component of this definition is the availability and accessibility of the data, which would cover the scope or completeness of the data (should be available as a whole), the cost (a reasonable reproduction cost) and modes of access (preferably a digital format that can be downloaded), and the state of the data itself (in a modifiable\/editable format).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the region, a few countries, such as Barbados, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, have established data portals through which some datasets can be accessed.  However, they are not as comprehensive as they could be \u2013 granted that most countries do not appear to yet have a means through which government-generated datasets can be accessed electronically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the argument may be made that the data is available and can be requested at any time, and if necessary, provisions under access to information legislation can facilitate access (as permitted), a common challenge is the extent to which government ministries, departments and agencies are prepared to share the data has been saved in an editable format. Currently, reports in which data has been aggregated are usually what is provided, rather than spreadsheet files. Additionally, when access to information laws are invoked, and more so should an issue need to be escalated, the process can be protracted, which ultimately may hinder or even thwart the work for which the data was being requested in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has e-government in the Caribbean been at odds with Open Government and Open Data?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To varying degrees, Caribbean countries have been trying to facilitate the digital transformation of their governments, which in some quarters, may be considered a progression from the concept of e-government, which has some distinct phases, starting from the conversion of physical forms and documents into an electronic format to digital payments and engagement of stakeholders. However, the realisation of e-government is uneven and still underdeveloped across the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the COVID-19 pandemic would have emphasised the importance of having more digitally driven governments, along with the need for authoritative data that can be relied upon to make critical decisions, it may have been expected that there would have been a marked improvement in the Open Government and Open Data efforts. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, it appears that facilitating greater access to data and more transparency in government is no longer top of mind \u2013 though during the height of the pandemic citizens across the region were being apprised of the state of infections on almost a daily basis. Moreover, that data was critical in tracking the infection rates, identifying potential hotspots as well as building various digital solutions to support the health management effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transparency and accountability in government<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although the evidence may be primarily anecdotal, accusations of corruption or lack and transparency are regularly levelled at Caribbean governments. In some instances, the corruption is the form of bribes and misappropriation of funds whilst, in other instances, the processes or policies that are being followed are not clear and have not been publicly shared. \u00a0In the 2022 assessment of the Corruption Perceptions Index<\/a>, just a handful of countries scored over 50%: \u00a0Barbados, the Bahamas, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Dominica and Grenada. Thus, most Caribbean countries scored beneath that threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, it is highlighted that in conducting the exercise, Transparency International would be seeking to evaluate the extent to which there is transparency, accountability and corruption in the public sector. Further, though the results would suggest that more developed countries may be less corrupt, an argument could also be made that there is a relationship between transparency and the state of digital development, with more digitally-enabled governments having systems that support greater transparency and accountability and less corruption by public officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary, there may be a sense that Open Data and Open Government are dead in the Caribbean region as they are no longer as prominent as they had been in the past. That should not be the case. In seeking to digitally transform government, increasing transparency and accountability should be crucial outcomes. Caribbean governments should be moving beyond being stingy with the data they possess and being more open with the processes they follow, clearly identifying the laws and policies through which they are empowered and are being guided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image credit:\u00a0 FOX (Pexels<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although there have been longstanding efforts by Caribbean countries to digitally transform their governments, it is questionable the degree of success that has been realised when the Average Joe is likely to be of the view that public sectors across the region are less open than they had previously been. Moreover, the focus on Open Data and Open Government also seemed to have stalled, though they are critical in supporting greater transparency and accountability and reducing corruption in the public sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[502,219,503,212,504,15],"class_list":["post-168620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ict-tech","tag-accountability","tag-open-data","tag-open-government","tag-policy-2","tag-transparency","tag-trends","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Close-Up-Photography-of-Person-Hand-Fingers-Holding-Crystal-Ball-FOX-Pexels.jpg?fit=1024%2C591&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-HRG","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168622,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168620\/revisions\/168622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}