Guest post: Open Aid Data Conference
The Open Aid Data Conference on the 28th and 29th of September has been a success. This great event would not have been possible without the strong support of our partner organisations. Aidinfo in the UK has been supporting the conference through sponsoring and by offering a free training on data analysis. Isabel Bucknall has been part of the aidinfo team at the conference. In the following blog post she describes her take on the event.
Last week, aidinfo spent two days in Berlin at the Open Aid Data Conference. Claudia Schwegmann from Open Aid organised the conference with support from the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Open Knowledge Foundation, Transparency International Germany, Oxfam Germany, One and Open for Change.This excellent event was designed to stimulate the debate on transparency and open data in aid and development cooperation. Bringing together open data developers, aid and development practitioners from both public and non-government sectors, the conference brought about a vibrant set of discussions. It was inspiring to see such a diverse group together and share their experiences and ideas.The first day comprised a training workshop on different data sources on aid and development cooperation. We led this event, which ran alongside a hackday organised by the Open Knowledge Foundation. The collaboration of policy makers and analysts, with open data specialists and developers, continued a lively tradition of exploring open data and bottom-up solutions for aid and development. Participants worked on several projects to understand what can be done with data that is already available in the public domain. They also discussed how organisations can implement open data practices. Their feedback indicated that their success and progress came from bringing together these two groups of people and engaging in practical discussions.
Day 2 of the conference opened with a series of presentations on open data and transparency from 3 different development organisations. (You can browse the videos on the Open Aid Data Conference website.) These were followed by “walk the talk” sessions, where participants had a chance to see several practical examples of transparency in development cooperation (including the work of the International Aid Transparency Initiative), and the use of open data.It was exciting to be part of an event with such a sense of enthusiasm, energy and creativity that brought together the open data and aid transparency worlds in order to improve the effectiveness of aid and development cooperation.We learnt a lot about open data initiatives and transparency, but pulled out two key messages from the event:
- Transparency and open data should be about learning
Becoming transparent and opening data can teach organisations a lot about the way they work and their efficiency. Beris Gwynne from World Vision International stressed that accountability is as much about learning as it is about compliance.” Transparency and accountability of an organisation to its partners is not only about meeting a standard, but ensuring that you can learn from the information you produce through that standard. It is a necessary but not sufficient end to improve accountability and increased effectiveness of development work. As such it should stimulate discussions around what organisations do, what they do or don’t achieve, and from that, what they can learn.
- Publishing open data can often become more effective with collaboration from government, civil society and open data specialists.
There was some discussion around the cooperation and support that open data specialists can offer to the public sector, and how consultation with civil society can ensure that the publication of open data is effective and useful. Collaboration of this kind opens up a more creative and accountable working model, that enables all types of organisations to publish open data that can then be harnessed to improve efficiency and effectiveness.The conference was closed with an inspiring keynote speech from Peter Eigen, founder of Transparency International, who stressed the scope and importance of transparency and open data in the development sector, most importantly recognising that although the numbers that organisations open up can’t fight poverty, data can be used as an empowering tool - the starting point for increased pressure and accountability.
For more information on the Open Aid Data Conference, you can find details at www.openaiddata.de . aidinfo are also hoping to be at the Warsaw Open Government Data Camp 2011 to continue discussing this pertinent and exciting agenda.
