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