Participants & trainers on the final day of the Regional Open Data Training
Regional training for government officials
Access to open data is a means to increase transparency, promote citizen participation and catalyze innovation and economic development. Open data enables governments to engage in a constructive and informed exchanges with citizens and activists. It additionally creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to transform public information into services and businesses.
For those reasons, UNDP in Europe and Central Asia’s Anti-Corruption for Development programme has been actively promoting and supporting steps toward effective open data in the region. On the 17 and 18th of September 2014, 40 high level government officials from 15 countries in the region were brought together to discuss way forwards regarding publication of their national databases.
The workshop was organized with the support of the Partnership for Open Data network and trainers from the Open Data Institute, the Open Knowledge Foundation and the World Bank.
Through extremely interactive sessions, government officials focused on why and how they could effectively open data. They described the challenges currently faced by their administration. They learned about strategies adopted by countries who faced similar situations.
Participants also had the opportunity to experiment with the technicalities of data opening. They most importantly ended the workshop committing to detailed strategic next steps for their own government and administration. UNDP and its partners have already started working on formalizing a regional network to support their initiatives.
Want to know more?
Check out the workshop’s program: http://fr.slideshare.net/undpeuropeandcis/open-data-for-social-and-economic-growth
