Upload
lucy-chambers
View
4.128
Download
1
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
The slides from the #GIFT2012 talk by @OKFN - Technology for Transparent and Accountable Public Finance
Citation preview
by Rufus Pollock, Lucy Chambers & Velichka DimitrovaOpen Knowledge Foundation
@okfn[.org], event hashtag #TTAPF
● Case studies of technology to promote transparency and accountability around revenue, spending and off-budget information
● Transparency around and participation in
decision making (e.g. participatory budgeting)
● Feedback from users of the tools as well as
creators (where possible) ● Qualitative not quantative research (in
general)
Terms of Reference
● Non-profit founded in 2004 ● Build and foster tools and communities to
create, use and share open knowledge and data
● Activities include
○ CKAN - data portal platform which powers many governmental and non-governmental portals around the world
○ OpenSpending.org - platform to upload, explore and visualise financial data
○ 15+ working groups and local chapters
The Open Knowledge Foundation
What is Open Data (exactly)? http://OpenDefinition.org/ defines open data as:
Data that anyone is free to use, re-use and redistribute data without technical or legal restrictions.
Why Open Data? ● transparency● innovation
Overview of Projects
Publishing Fiscal Data
Data Portals
http://data.gov.uk/
http://www.data.gov.bc.ca/ http://www.digitalbrain.go.kr
Publishing Fiscal Data: HighlightsHighlights
● Portals deliver consolidation of resources in one convenient location
● Data portals can be useful both within government as well as outside
● An explicit open data policy is not needed to start an open data portal
Recommendations
● Open financial data must be openly licensed and available in machine readable format (in bulk)
● Keep it simple - one can begin extremely simply
● Engage with your provider and user community
● Open tools for open data
Using Fiscal Data
How easy is it to actually find and use data?
● Fiscal transparency is about more than budgets: e.g. procurement, corporate identifiers
● How are things at present? Feedback was mixed● Key complaints:
○ Machine readability: PDFs - 10 complaints○ Disappearing data or hidden data○ Lack of supporting documentation to complement data releases○ Poor quality: 6 responses, e.g. inconsistencies between years
What can be done about this?
Standards for Fiscal Data
Standards for Fiscal Data Standards enable a distributed rather than a centralised approach in data publication and use● No or very limited general data standards in existence and in use
Recommendations ● Use well-known, commonly used formats (CSV, XLS or XML) for the
release of data.● Adopt existing coding conventions for shared entities● Publish additional information on the coding schemes used, such
as functional or economic classifications, charts of account● A simple user-driven standard for transaction-level spending data.
Best Case Scenario● A global spending data registry - similar to the IATI registry for aid
information
Revenue, Spending and Invisible Money
Tools for Oversight
Where Does the Money Come From?
http://sierraleone.revenuesystems.org/
http://www.revenuewatch.org/issues/data-tools
Where Does the Money Come From? ● User groups and audiences might not be whom you
expected, e.g. GoSL ● Bear in mind less-web-savvy users and lower bandwidth
/ older computers ● “Data is not always actionable simply because it is
available.” ● Substantial data-cleaning and data-wrangling may be
required
Where Does the Money Go? Tools for Oversight
Presenting Fiscal Data: Journalists
http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/budgets/
● Not used to working with raw data● Often rely on pre-computed
statistics● Up to date data (want notification
services)● Tools more commonly used by
advocacy groups, more time to dedicate to research.
● Structured data around the budgeting process e.g. how different MPs voted
● Disaggregated data
Getting Off-Budget On-Budget: OpenSpending and Publish What You Fund bit.ly/uganda-example
The importance of good data... a personal anecdote...
OpenSpending / PWYF joint project - mapping aid onto budgets
Data Collection and Wrangling
Visualisation
6 months - multiple people
< 1 man month
Where Does the Money Go? Summary
● Raw, machine readable data is vital. Converting data is one of the most labour-intensive parts of the process.
● Very few projects are currently able to trace difference
between planned and actual expenditure. Sunlight’s work in the United States is one of the few examples of success in this area.
Social Auditing and Following the Invisible Money
http://nrega.ap.gov.in/
Key resources for social auditors...
publishing (near) real time data.coming soon, mobile data collection
Social Auditing and Following the Invisible Money
● Technology (e.g. mobile) can help transform traditional labour-intensive social auditing practices - possibility to scale up significantly
● SMS technology has the possibility of reaching out to
rural areas ● Many project rely on sub-national level data to function:
it is at local and regional level ● Technology + social audit offers possibility of close to
real-time feedback and reporting
Participation
Participation http://solokotakita.org/
Participation http://demo.citizenbudget.com/
Participation: Highlights● Outreach and feedback: examples from World Bank and others of
effective use of tech for outreach and feedback e.g. geo-targeted SMS automatic phone-calls with the voice of the mayor and the Gol Mobile App http://bit.ly/gol-app
● Deliberation: Allowing citizens to submit their own project ideas (http:
//budgetballot.com/).
● Remote participation: online voting and surveys (numerous examples in census.) (http://demo.citizenbudget.com)
● Raising additional funds: Leih Deiner Stadt Geld in Germany (https:
//www.leihdeinerstadtgeld.de/)
● Increasing Budget Literacy http://demo.budgetallocator.com/ "Although you have balanced your budget, based on your current selections, we may still have to increase rates by 6.4%. Typically a 1% rates increase equates to 12 cents a week."
Highlights
Data, More and Better
● Publish more and publish openly○ Hard to utilize technology without access to data○ Data portals can play a key role here
● Data quality is still poor:○ Bulk machine-readable data - spreadsheet NOT
PDF○ Better use of standards (+ new, simple, standard(s))○ Connections to other datasets through e.g. reference
identifiers, geospatial information ○ Very significant portion of time spent cleaning and
preparing data● Timely data releases● Opportunity to build on IBP's OBI work
Reaching Out
● Technology can foster closer collaboration between
advocacy NGOs and journalists (and vice-versa: closer collaboration enhances value of tech)
● Extensive capacity-building for journalists to enable
them to analyze and present data. ● Tech and esp mobile can clearly play a significant role
on reaching out whether to inform or to receive feedback
Participation● Technology can add additional channels for
participation to reach out to 'the hard to reach' - tools are not a substitute for face-to-face contact.
● Keep it simple: Effective tools can target a particular
part of the PB process rather than a 'super-app' that will work at every stage.
● Technology can also be overwhelming, e.g. allowing
unfacilitated debate can create a lot of additional work for policy-makers to extract the key points
Technology Is Not a Magic Potion ● The report provides clear examples how technology can
and is delivering real benefits in relation to fiscal transparency.
● BUT technology is not a "magic potion". ● The existence of data and apps do not guarantee use
and use does not guarantee change.
Data Analysis Change
Participatatory BudgetingOutreachLots of NON-tech stuffOpen Data + Portals
Tools, Applications, Visualizations
Thanks
Rufus Pollock - @rufuspollockLucy Chambers - @lucyfedia
Velichka Dimitrova - @vndimitrova@okfn