Description
The Government of Canada will work with international partners to increase the transparency of international development funding, and to share skills and knowledge with developing countries to ensure that everyone can reap the benefits of open government.
- Lead departments:
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Global Affairs Canada, the International Development Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, and Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
- Email address for enquiries:
- Other involved actors:
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Open Government Partnership, International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN), Open Data for Development (OD4D) and associated networks
- Overall status:
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All deliverables on schedule.
Planned result
Governments and civil society organizations around the world will have the knowledge, tools, and expertise needed to support greater public access to open data and information, especially in relation to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Key indicator
| Indicator | Target | Latest actual data (and data collection date) |
|---|---|---|
| Number of government and civil society leaders with increased knowledge and skills to support greater openness and transparency | At least 500 open data leaders in government and civil society in developing countries trained or learning from peers by June 2018 | Data on 2017 participation numbers in the open leadership initiatives will be available in March 2018. |
| Addition of new agriculture and nutrition data, made available to Canadians in open formats under the Government of Canada’s open licence | At least 30 new agricultural or nutrition datasets added to open government portal by June 2018 | As of April 2018, AAFC has released 68 datasets to the open data portal since November 2016. |
| Number of agriculture and nutritional stakeholders who have an increased awareness of GODAN | 5 stakeholders with increased awareness of GODAN by June 2018 | In the February 2018 Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Innovation Working Group Meeting, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada presented the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative to over 23 fellow agricultural working group members. The presentation highlighted the GODAN vision, opportunity, and benefit of the initiative. |
| Capacity-building activities in Francophone countries | Supporting organization of a regional conference for African Francophone countries, and funding participation of officials from 4 countries in the region. |
Supported the Conférence d'Afrique Francophone sur les Données Ouvertes in June 2017 in Burikna Faso, with representatives from over 22 countries participating (Feuille de Route de CAFDO) In November 2017, Open Burkina was selected to coordinate the African Francophone Open Data Community (CAFDO) and act as a regional hub to coordinate work around research, innovation, and capacity building in Francophone Africa. Planning for capacity building activities with local representatives has commenced. |
| Recognition of International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) as reference for aid transparency | At least 10 formal endorsements of IATI (i.e. new members, declarations, resolutions) |
Since July 2016, 12 new members have joined IATI: the governments of Italy, France, Somalia, and Guinea; the International Organization for Migration, World Health Organization, International Finance Corporation, Akvo, Synergy International Systems, Plan International Oxfam Novib, and Oxfam America (as of October 2017). Between October 2017 and May 2018: The government of Mali, São Tomé and Príncipe, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, and the Association of Freelance Journalists have joined IATI. The United Nations Secretary General’s Second Report on the Repositioning of the UN Development System commits to system-wide transparency and membership in IATI. |
Status
Status of Open Government Plan milestones (complete, substantial, limited, not started)
Complete:
- 18.1 Endorse the Open Government Partnership’s Joint Declaration on Open Government for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (PDF, 36 KB), and leverage Canada’s participation in the Open Government Partnership to help support the declaration’s commitments.
- 18.2 Leverage Canada’s role as chair of the International Aid Transparency Initiative to support international good practices on aid transparency and greater interoperability among data standards (e.g., aid, public procurement, public accounts, corporate identifiers) to enable greater accountability and improve the effectiveness of development finance.
- At the recent IATI Members’ Assembly chaired by Canada, members reviewed progress on important initiatives and set directions for an increased focus on use of open aid data. In remarks to IATI members, the Chair of the OECD-DAC highlighted the importance of transparency and accountability, and the complementarity between IATI and the DAC.
- 18.3 Provide training and peer-learning to at least 500 open data leaders in government and civil society in developing countries, provide technical assistance to at least 10 developing countries, increasing the quality and ambition of their open data policies, and assess how capacity-building activities affect communities.
- 18.4 Work with international organizations and partners in developing countries to implement innovative open data projects with impact on anti-corruption, local governance, health, and education.
Substantial:
- 18.5 In support of Canada’s role as a partner in the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN):
- 18.5.1 Increase the amount of high-value, reusable agriculture and nutrition data made available to Canadians in open formats under the Government of Canada’s open licence; and
- 18.5.2 Participate in the planning of the GODAN Summit in September 2016 in order to support the global agenda for opening agriculture and nutrition data around the world.
- AAFC has released more than 68 datasets to the Open Government Portal since November 2016, significantly increasing the amount of open agriculture and nutrition data available to data users around the world.
- AAFC continues to be an active member of GODAN, recognizing the important role this organization plays in supporting open agriculture and nutrition data to drive sustainable development outcomes. Additionally, AAFC extended the offer of support to the GODAN Summit planning committee, in the form of departmental resources. Unfortunately, at the time this support was offered, the Summit was already advanced to a point where our additional resources would not be required by the planning committee. However, AAFC was pleased to actively participate in the Agricultural Open Data Package working group session during the Summit
Other completed milestones:
- Offered support in the planning of the GODAN Summit and - with OD4D - hosted consultations on the Agriculture open data package. Participated and represented Canadian perspective on agricultural open data at the GODAN Summit.
- Increase awareness of the GODAN initiative to Canadian agricultural partners.
- The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation endorsed IATI as an open data standard for development cooperation in the outcome document of its Second High-Level Meeting (Nairobi, December 2016).
- France became of member of IATI in December 2016. Other new members include the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (UNFAO), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
- The IATI Secretariat supported the recent launch of identify-org, a collaborative initiative to tackle the need for organization identifiers
- Through OD4D, the International Development Research Centre co-hosted the International Open Data Conference and capacity building pre-events, including the Open Data Leaders’ Summit, the second Open Data Research Symposium and School of Data Unconference
- February 2018: Well over the target of 10 formal endorsements of IATI: 16 new members have joined IATI, and several declarations highlight the importance of transparency in development cooperation and commit to IATI implementation.
Challenges
- How can we help Canadians see the value of engaging in, supporting and leading transparency and accountability initiatives globally?
- A challenge is fostering better international collaboration, cooperation and learning between international initiatives and local Canadian initiatives. Do you have any advice on how best to do this? Are there any particular partners we should work with?