The Open Data Maturity Report is an annual survey of European data portals. The latest report, published in 2020, is the sixth edition in a series launched in 2015 and assesses the level of open data maturity in the Member States of the European Union (EU27) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). In 2020, several countries in the Eastern Partnership region (Azerbaijan, Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia) were included in this assessment for the first time. The report measures open data maturity in four main dimensions: policy, impact, portal, and quality.

This year, Denmark scoredhighest results, rankingnear the top in all four dimensions. Leading European countries also included Spain, France, Ireland, Estonia, Poland and Austria.

Key Findings

- Out of 35 countries assessed by the Open Data Maturity Report, Georgia ranks second to last.

- Ukraine ranked first among the EaP countries surveyed by the report and scored higher than the EU average.

- Georgia ranks lowest among EaP countires in 3 out of 4 dimensions of the report. The only exception is the Open Data Portal dimension, where Georgia ranks above only Azerbaijan.

- Georgia scored very low in the “Open Data Impact” dimension, since impact is not currently measured by any of the assessed metrics (social, economic, political, environmental).

- Georgia scored relatively high in the “Open Data Portal” dimension in comparison to other dimensions. Even in this regard, however, Georgia ranks very low among the assessed countries, only surpassing Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein.

Georgia’s Main Challenges and Recommendations

- At this stage, Georgia still has not developed an open data regulatory framework and national strategy.Because ofthis, the country has received low scores in the open data policy dimension. It is advisable to start working on these documents in a timely manner, or to add an open data component to the updated version of the Open Government Partnership Action Plan (as found in Moldova), in order to clearly emphasize the importance of open data at the national level.

- It is important to develop a guidebook at the national level, to assist public data publishers in the publication process. A similar guidebook has already been introduced in other Eastern Partnership countries.

- In comparison to other countries included in the report, Georgia has made little effort to measure the impact and results of open data, which has led to the lowest results in this dimension. Current trends in EU countries show that more and more attention is paid to monitoring and measuring the social and economic impact of open data. The introduction of this practice in Georgia will facilitate both the commercial use of open data and the promotion of civic initiatives.

- It is important to update the Georgian Open Data Portal, taking into account international good practice and important global trends, and incorporating improvements such as publishing data in more formats including API, diversity of published data, encouraging the use of published databases and the creation of new services / applications by displaying them in the relevant section of the website. It is also important to systematically monitor the number of unique visitors and active users of the portal and make this information availablepublicly.

- One of the trends identified in the report is related to the increased importance of public data and information due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, many EU countries implemented various measures to improve access to open data (awareness-raising campaigns, promotion of data use, development of data-driven platforms, etc.). In this regard, activity in Georgia is quite low and lags behind other Eastern Partnership countries. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure open access to any type of data primarily related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Open Data Maturity Report 2020 – Results of Georgia

/public/upload/Analysis/ENG ODM-2020 Final.pdf

This material has been financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. Responsibility for the content rests entirely with the creator. Sida does not necessarily share the expressed views and interpretations.