Open Data: Source for Changes and Innovations

Projects | Completed Projects 24 August 2015

GOOD GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE (GGI) IN GEORGIA

Project Name: "Open Data: Source for Changes and Innovations"
Donor Organization: Tetra Tech ARD, implementer of the USAID Good Governance Initiative in Georgia Project.
Country: Georgia.
Project Number: GGI-G-002
Grant Amount: GEL 56,584 (Fifty Six Thousand and Five Hundred Eighty Four Georgian Lari)
Period of Performance: September 1, 2015 – January 30, 2016

Project Description

The Government of Georgia implements the Transparency and Accountability agenda reflected in Georgia’s National Action Plan 2014-2015 for the Open Governement Partnership (OGP).

As important part of the overall effort to open government, GoG releases public data to help citizens of Georgia and other stakeholders to understand how government works and how policies are made. Government open data is a valuable resource that is as yet largely unexploited in Georgia. This potential can be effectively employed if the Government authorities turn public government data into open data. To this end information web portal www.data.gov.ge is intended to serve as one of the central sites for the open government data.

Currently, open data web portal www.data.gov.ge lacks great amount of datasets due to the weak performance of the GoG agencies and sub agencies in releasing open public data for the web portal.

In part with solid awareness raising campaign on the benefits of the open data, the project aims to improve functional effectiveness of the open data web portal www.data.gov.ge through involvement of civil society organisation with its expertise and monitoring.
Over the years IDFI has been actively developing open data standards in Georgia. IDFI has substantial experience in identifying problems and preparing studies as well as recommendations in issues related to the Open government and Freedom of Information. IDFI has been regularly monitoring disclosure of databases of open data.

Within the framework of the project using Freedom of Information (FOI) requests IDFI will identify the existing open government data in the GoG agencies that could be released for the web portal www.data.gov.ge;

With the involvement of subject matter experts IDFI will monitor and evaluate the level of accountability, proactivity, efficiency, clarity and usefulness of the GoG agencies in releasing open public data for the web portal www.data.gov.ge; IDFI will also evaluate quality, usefulness and intelligibility of published data in terms of supporting the transparency and openness of governance of the country; as well as accuracy of released data and compliance with pre-established standards;

In order to identify public demands and expectation on open government data IDFI will organize 1 workshop in Tbilisi and at least 2 workshops in GGI Partner municipalities. The workshops will increase public understanding of: a) electronic platforms for citizen communication, including www.my.gov.ge and www.data gov.ge; b) level of accountability of the GoG agencies in releasing open public data for the web portal www.data.gov.ge;

IDFI will prepare mid-term and final reports which will include all outcomes of the project. The final report will provide recommendations to Data Exchange Agency (DEA) on how to improve open data request and data collection procedures as well as quality of the submitted open data. The report will also include recommendations to the GoG agencies to ensure further improvement of their level of accountability and proactivity in releasing open public data for the web portal www.data.gov.ge. IDFI will organize close out event with participation of all relevant stakeholders to present final report of the project, including findings and recommendations.

Successful implementation of the project will further develop functional capabilities of the open data web portal www.data.gov.ge through more active and accountable participation of the GoG agencies at the same time it will significantly contribute to the improvement of public data disclosure process in order to ensure transparency and accountability of the Government and to support innovation, business development and economic growth of the country.
Project will also Increase public understanding and awareness of citizen communication electronic platforms including: www.my.gov.ge and www.data.gov.ge.

Goal and objectives

Goal of the project is to support of further development of www.data.gov.ge and implementation of open data standards in public sector of Georgia.

Main objectives of the project are:

1. To Identify existing GoG datasets that should be published on open data portals
2. To evaluate accuracy, quality and intelligibility of published data
3. To Identify public interest for data that should be published on www.data.gov.ge
4. To draft package of recommendations for development of www.data.gov.ge and implementation of open data standards in public sector.

Proposed approach and strategy

1. Based on the information received in response to FOI requests IDFI will study and describe those datasets held by public institutions, disclosure of which will make www.data.gov.ge a more complete and usable resource.

2. Within the framework of the project the Institute will not merely describe the existing datasets, but will identify the most requested and significant datasets. With this in mind IDFI will request from public institutions the statistical information on the most requested data on their activities according to the categories of the requesters such as citizens, business, investors etc. In parallel with this IDFI will organize public meetings in order to analyze the list of data suggested by citizens or other interested parties, which will form the basis for recommendations to improve www.data.gov.ge.

Technical Approach

1. Using Freedom of Information (FOI) requests IDFI will Identify the existing open government data in the GoG agencies that could be released for the web portal www.data.gov.ge;

2. After Identifying the existing open government data in Government of Georgia (GoG) agencies IDFI will monitor and evaluate the level of accountability and proactivity of the GoG agencies in releasing open public data for the web portal www.data.gov.ge;

3. IDFI will monitor and evaluate the level of efficiency, clarity and usefulness of the GoG agencies in releasing open government data for the web portal www.data.gov.ge;

4. By monitoring of the www.data.gov.ge IDFI will evaluate quality and intelligibility of published data in terms of supporting the transparency and openness of governance of the country;

5. IDFI will request all legal documents and procedures to evaluate level of accuracy of released data and compliance with pre-established standards;

6. To identify public demands and expectation on open government data IDFI will organize 1 workshop in Tbilisi and at least 2 workshops in GGI Partner municipalities. The workshops will increase public understanding of: a) electronic platforms for citizen communication, including www.my.gov.ge and www.data gov.ge; b) level of accountability of the GoG agencies in releasing open public data for the web portal www.data.gov.ge.

7. IDFI will publish mid-term and final reports which will include all outcomes of the project. The final report will provide recommendations to Data Exchange Agency (DEA) on how to improve open data request and data collection procedures as well as quality of the submitted open data. The report will also include recommendations to the GoG agencies to ensure further improvement of their level of accountability and proactivity in releasing open public data for the web portal www.data.gov.ge.

Activity Plan