Open Data (CI0024)

Increase Côte d'Ivoire government open data impact (open data)
September 2018 - 30 June 2020
Main implementing agency/
actor
Government Centre for Information and Communication
Commitment description
What is the public interest
issue to be addressed by this
commitment?
In the 2016-2018 Action Plan , commitment 9 : "Create and
operationalize a Côte d'Ivoire open data portal" has been
implemented through publication of the portal
https://data.gouv.ci
However there are :
- not enough public structures to contribute to feeding ;
- limited numbers of data records in reusable formats;
- a limited reutilization of available data.
What is the commitment?
CICG will work together with government structures in order
to expedite publication of open government data.
Alternatively, it will continue populations awareness raising in
order to spur them into consulting the platform more
http://www.gouv.ci in order to increase the level of available data
reutilization..
This includes the following elements:
- The contributing structures are informed and sensitized
on the project ;
- The focal points are trained to manage the system;
- Open data are published in more increased and
systematic manner;
- The civil society knows the project and plays fully its role
of re- users and contributors;
- The platform is operating, popularized, and known to all;
- Best contributors are rewarded as well as best
reutilization;
How will the commitment
contribute to solve the
The implementation of this commitment will help to : public problem? - have more open data on the platform;
- have better trained focal points to manage the system;
- improve the reutilization level and citizen participation ;
- reward best contributors and re-users through tests or
hackthon.
Why is this commitment
relevant to OGP values?
This commitment is in line with access to public information,
citizen participation, transparency and Information and
Communications Technologies promoting.
Additional information
the open data platform is available at the address
https://data.gouv.ci
Important activity having a
verifiable deliverable Start date End date
Improve existing open data
platform September 2018 August 2019
raise awareness, train and
mobilize public structures
and Civil Society
January 2019 June 2020
Promote open data platform January 2019 June 2020
Induce production of tools
and services from open data
(re-utilizations) to impact
Côte d'Ivoire
July 2019 June 2020
Contact information
Name of responsible person
from the implementing
agency
Karim SALAWU
Title, Ministry Responsible for Côte d'Ivoire Open Data initiative
Email and Phone
- k.salawu@cicg.gouv.ci;
- 09018344 /01124712
Other
stakeholders
involved
State actors
involved
- Whole government;
- CAIDP (Independent Administrative Authority).
CSOs, private
sector,
multilaterals,
- Ovillage (Social innovation and collective community
intelligence); working
groups
- Côte d'Ivoire Developers Organizations;
- Côte d'Ivoire Bloggers Organizations;
- All Côte d'Ivoire OGP CSOs;
- Journalist organizations;
- Côte d'Ivoire Statisticians' organizations;
- Geographers and cartographers organizations;
- Etc.

9. Increase Côte d'Ivoire government open data impact (open data)

Commitment description as it appears in the action plan:

"CICG will work together with government structures in order to expedite publication of open government data. Alternatively, it will continue populations awareness raising in order to spur them into consulting the platform more in order to increase the level of available data reutilization."

Milestones:

1. Improve existing open data platform
2. Raise awareness, train and mobilize public structures and Civil Society
3. Promote open data platform
4. Induce production of tools and services from open data (re-utilizations) to impact Côte d'Ivoire"

Editorial note: For the full text of this commitment, see Côte d'Ivoire’s action plan 2018-2020: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Cote-Divoire_Action-Plan_2018-2020_EN.pdf.

Lead implementing agency/actor: Government Centre for Information and Communication (CICG)

Start Date: September 2018

End Date: June 2020

Context and design

In 2015, the Governmental Information and Communication Center (CICG) launched the “Open Data Côte d’Ivoire” project to encourage public bodies to disseminate public documents and data in a structured way. In the previous action plan (commitment 9), the government developed and launched the first open data portal in the country (https://data.gouv.ci). [125] However, available data in the portal remained limited. The government acknowledged that not all public institutions were publishing information. [126] From a civil society perspective, the previous commitment also did not live up to its promises. Civil society organizations were not involved in the process of implementing training activities. Moreover, the platform had reportedly inherent limitations, such as the requirement to create a user account and there was a lack of consistent regulation on open data to enforce and enable the implementation of this commitment. [127] Finally, data formats did not comply with open data standards, thus limiting the use of available data by civil society organizations and citizens. [128]

The overall objective of this commitment is to address the abovementioned shortcomings, by accelerating the publication of open government data in a more widely and systematic way, as well as increasing the level of reusable data. To achieve these objectives, commitment milestones include improvement of the platform, awareness-raising activities and training civil society.

The commitment is verifiable. However, some of the milestones lack specific details on implementation, such as more information on trainings and awareness-raising activities, the promotion of the platform, as well as the types of enforcement mechanisms that will be used to make government agencies comply with data provision. The commitment is relevant to OGP values of access to information, civic participation and technology and innovation for transparency and accountability. As written, new information would be collected and made available to the public on the existing online platform and civil society organizations would take part in awareness-raising activities on data use by the citizens.

Based on the information available at the time, the IRM considered this commitment to hold a minor potential impact in terms of open data. The activities have limited ambition as they seek to improve an existing website and raise awareness. This commitment does not address the scope or quality of the data provided on the website, nor does it aim to increase agencies' compliance, introduce legal requirements, or promote a uniform approach to publishing data. A more ambitious commitment could also involve civil society to assess and improve the platform and the data it contains.

Completion

The completion level of the commitment is limited. CICG addressed the website's technical problems, but awareness-raising and training activities were limited until June 2020. Nevertheless, CICG carried out several workshops for public officials and data technicians of several ministries and institutions (two with the support of PAGOF) and one workshop for civil society representatives. Training was also provided to the Ministry in charge of Petroleum and Renewable Energies, after which it published around 50 new data sets on the open data platform. [129]

Administrative barriers continue to hinder open data reforms in Côte d’Ivoire. Government ministries particularly highlighted the need for (i) data validation processes (ii) instructions from the Prime Minister to promote compliance (iii) identification of open data focal points within each ministry (iv) an official letter to technical teams on data publication and (v) the integration of the platform within ministry websites to better highlight the datasets published by each department.

Next Steps

The IRM recommends that future open data commitments seek to engage civil society throughout implementation, which includes the following:

• Partnering with civil society to develop an Open Data Act to unify and mandate open data compliance across government
• Involving civil society to establish priorities of data to be published.
• Working with civil society to develop accessibility features on the platform and mechanisms that update data regularly. [130]
• Clearly stating the specific role of civil society in the implementation and monitoring of open data and in training and awareness activities.