Access to Quality Environmental Data (BR0111)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? The environmental data currently generated by federal, state and municipal governments, and within the various government bodies that generate or hold such data, lack standardization in format and in how they are made available to civil society. Users interested in environmental issues should be allowed to access integrated data, or data capable of integration, preferably without the need to access multiple platforms to obtain them.

What is the commitment? The commitment is an effort to address problems related to standardization, consolidation and integration of environmental data, considering the need to improve quality and availability standards. Thus, initially, federal, state and municipal public bodies involved will be surveyed to verify how they can help enhance environmental data availability, integration and standardization to increase transparency for civil society. Next, given the short implementation deadline for the commitment - December 2022 - each public body involved will start implementing internal actions, preferably in alignment with the other public bodies involved and civil society, in order to complete the first stages of the data standardization and data access improvement effort.

How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? The commitment aims, in cooperation with civil society, not only to improve environmental data governance, through the coordinated action of public bodies, but also to develop a plan establishing measures for federal public bodies aimed at improving the structure of previously defined databases, with a view to discuss and prepare a preliminary proposal of technical standards to enable federal and national data integration.

Why this commitment is relevant to OGP values? This commitment is relevant to OGP values of transparency, social participation and accountability. Although a lot of information is already generated and made available, it is disclosed on different platforms and in different formats. Improving environmental data integration and access increases the effectiveness of the right to information in environmental public policies (transparency). Enabling greater standardization, consolidation and integration of environmental data also allows for a better understanding of public policies, which, in turn, enhances the capability of civil society to both influence decision-making processes and conduct public oversight more effectively and with increased accountability.

Additional information • Commitment budget: budget definition depends on progress in the participatory process of defining the changes to be implemented the systems of the public bodies involved. Currently, for example, Ibama is already implementing initiatives whose cost is estimated between 10 and 12 million reais, with a view to improving how environmental data is made available to civil society. • Other related government programs include the following: INDEX Portal; INDA Portal; Ibama and INPE Open Data; integration of SINAFLOR with state systems (Native Vegetation Protection Law). • This commitment helps implement the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): • SDG 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation • SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts • SDG 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt the biodiversity loss • SDG 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

Milestones (with verifiable deliverable) Start Date: End Date: Milestone 1 - Definition and prioritization of databases to be included in the commitment to improve data integration and quality December 2021 December 2021 Milestone 2 - Assessment of the quality of the data structure on the open databases defined on Milestone 1 January 2022 February 2022 Milestone 3 - Assessment of recommendations March 2022 April 2022 Milestone 4 - Development, with civil society engagement, of a plan establishing measures for federal public bodies to address Milestone 2 recommendations April 2022 May 2022 Milestone 5 - Discussion of technical standards for federal and national data integration: drafting of a preliminary proposal, with civil society participation May 2022 May 2022 27 Milestone 6 - Assessment of the commitment’s deliverables and definition of next steps April 2022 December 2022

Action Plan Review

Commitment 1. Access to Quality Environmental Data

Results Report

Commitment 1. Access to quality environmental data

Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Environmental Observatory of the National Council of Justice, Brasil.IO, Imaflora, InfoAmazonia, and Observatório do Código Florestal (OCF).

Context and objectives

Commitment 1 continued a strong environmental focus of Brazil action plans. [1] It was the second-most-voted theme during the consultation process and is a civil society priority commitment. [2] As producers and custodians of environmental data, public institutions have a strong history of transparency, including the commitment holders at the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), which has been systematically publishing data since 1979. [3] However, users of environmental databases have voiced concerns about the reliability of the data and difficulty of conducting analysis given lacking standardization and integration, requiring access multiple sources and websites. [4] The goal of this commitment was to bring together the custodians (the government) and the users (civil society) to co-create recommendations for improving and integrating environmental databases. These actions would then permit civil society to monitor environmental issues better and increase the transparency and accessibility of key information. [5] The IRM expressed concerns regarding the ambition level of this commitment in the Action Plan Review due to its milestones describing the development of an action plan rather than implementing certain actions. [6]

Early results: Moderate

Commitment 1 completed all of its six milestones and achieved moderate early results by transforming open government culture within the involved institutions, developing a co-created plan with specific actions institutionalized through an official ordinance, and demonstrating clear evidence of ongoing execution in collaboration with civil society. Involved civil society organizations presented the government with a list of 15 priority databases for integration and improvement (Milestone 1). [7] Of these, 13 were managed by public institutions also involved in implementing the commitment. Civil society then identified primary obstacles they encountered as users (Milestone 2), which included incomplete and inconsistent data, lack of a common unifier, absence of municipal-level granularity, missing georeferencing, incomplete data dictionaries, limited data filters, long update time, and others. [8] These deficiencies prevented civil society from effectively monitoring strategic matters such as deforestation and land use. [9] An iterative dialogue then ensued to review and assess the feasibility of civil society recommendations (Milestone 3). [10] For IBAMA, a key concern was aligning civil society recommendations with institutional data improvement plans. [11] Both civil society and government agents understood that changing IT systems, many of which were established decades ago, would require time, resources, and alignment with institutional agendas and approved plans. [12]

The commitment successfully delivered a co-created action plan (Milestone 4), which has 33 action points ranked by impact, complexity, and priority with specific government and civil society actors identified as duty bearers and a timeframe for completion (Milestone 6). Discussions of technical standards for data integration (Milestone 5) were present, [13] with the action plan having been completed by the second quarter of 2024 due to political transitions. [14] Given the reviewed evidence for the previously described actions, the IRM considers the commitment as completed, with the final deliverable of an action plan fully accomplished. [15]

Despite the commitment being originally coded as unambitious in the Action Plan Review, [16] it saw moderate early results during implementation. Stakeholders highlighted a change of culture that led to an increased and ongoing collaboration. [17] The commitment started as reactive, with civil society organizations presenting their concerns and the government pointing out several limitations in addressing them, noting that existing tools and data policies already met many of the requests. [18] The moment of change was a 2-day event conducted in September 2022 with the participation of 30 attendees, evenly from civil society and the government. [19] This event allowed stakeholders to move to a more collaborative energy that recognized CSO issues and situated them within what was feasible for public institutions. The plan included actions to be developed by civil society or in consultation with them. Furthermore, the plan was officially institutionalized within IBAMA with an ordinance in March 2023. [20] According to one of IBAMA’s commitment coordinators, it was the first time that they engaged in being the lead organization in a process of direct engagement with civil society, and although there was an adjustment period, it has enriched the institution. [21] The IRM also confirmed that this collaboration was ongoing beyond the fifth action plan's time frame. [22] Several actions have been accomplished, such as improving data dictionaries, including database filters and municipal-level disaggregation, and, most relevant, publishing better georeferenced data on forestry environmental authorizations (AUTEX). [23]

Diverse enabling factors contributed to the success and impact of the commitment. First, IBAMA, as the commitment lead, was the institution responsible for managing many of the databases identified by CSOs, and they were receptive to the collaboration. [24] Second, all parties had clear expectations of what could be accomplished given the 1-year implementation timeframe of the fifth plan and the political context. [25] Third, IBAMA has been working and has launched an open data plan that looks at actions to improve its databases with specific budget lines. [26] This allowed them to include recommendations by CSOs in an ongoing and funded agenda. Finally, the participants of the commitment kept the work going beyond the national action plan's official conclusion. They focused on bringing the new authorities up to speed and getting them interested in the commitment, getting ordinance issued during the new administration. [27]

Looking ahead

Both civil society and the government confirmed continued collaboration to advance the commitment implementation and expressed interest in further enhancing environmental data. The IRM recognizes the importance of maintaining momentum and completing the agreed upon actions. Formalizing collaborations with civil society through mechanisms such as a data advisory council or similar formats is crucial to effecting more significant changes.