The Open Development Ecosystem

Uganda Open Development MeetingHotel Africana, Kampala

11th September 2012

Decide on priority data to collect

Statistics department collects data

Analyse and draw conclusions

Apply results to policies & plans

Publish & disseminate results

What we have always known – a hierarchical uni-directional system

With respect to data & development the model was ......

Decide development priority & data in some government ministry

Assign the collection and preliminary analysis data a statistics office

Engage consultants (responding to pre-determined Terms of Reference) or semi-autonomous institutions and University departments tin deeper analysis

Draw conclusions, and make recommendations; Publish the outcomes in some (authoritative) official

document/s; And on a few occasions, conduct a workshop or symposium to

“disseminate” the final product.

But approach ........

Ignored different interests , needs and inputs of a range of stakeholders

Assumed that selected priorities were always right and worked in the best interests of citizens

Created opportunities for “hiding” some aspects of information

De-prioritised the interactive nature of development Limited transparency & accountability

Even when transparency (openness) agenda grew .....

The focus was on “bits and pieces” of opennessOpen governmentAid transparencyExtractive industries transparencyCivil society transparency Open dataTransparency of private flows

The open development concept helps us to ........

Conceptualise development in a series of “stakeholder interrelationships”

See the mutuality of “vertical” and “horizontal” links

Agree on the “values” before putting in place systems

Incorporate citizen empowerment Continuously assess “value added”

(accountability)

Works in the same way as “An ecosystem”

A natural system consisting of all plants, animals and microorganisms, which function with all the physical factors of the environment

........ interconnected components?

Not about ........ Complex data

Or computer systems .......

Or ..... Advanced communications systems

Or ..... Media images

It is more about ........ Community development

Or .... Better still

But this must recognise a level of mutualism

.... And some of it is delicate mutualism

More recently though it has been changed by ......technology

....... Technology!!!

The Open development ecosystem

The open development “system” is a combination of, and interaction between many different parts and stakeholders a key challenge is linking up these parts towards a common objective

Data producers & analysts

Technology, applications &

communications

Think tanks & academia

Development & policy

entrepreneursMedia

Government Ministries/Sectors

Citizens & community-

based organisations

Government, CSOs, private

sector & development

partners??

Government of Kenyaopen data initiative

www.opendata.go.ke@KenyaOpenData

A stakeholder-based open development ecosystem