Improving Internal Procedures for Open Data Publication (XK0004)

What is the problem addressed by this commitment?

The Republic of Kosovo is committed to the principles of open and accountable governance and within its efforts to increase transparency, to improve the quality of public services and to increase the effective management of public resources, on 13.05.2016 it approved the Charter for Opening of Data in the Republic of Kosovo. With this decision, the Government of Kosovo obliged the Ministry of Public Administration to coordinate and implement the necessary activities derived from the principles of the Charter. The approval of the Open Data Charter is in accordance with the initiative of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), where the Republic of Kosovo intends to join and an indicator of the commitment of the Government of Kosovo for transparent, accountable and responsible governance. The documents and data produced by public institutions constitute a large and very important collection of information that will help the economy. The opening of data, in principle with Directive 2013/37/EU of the European Parliament and Council on the reuse of public sector information, would enable increasing the value of this information and data for all users and society in general.

What is the commitment?

Transparency - Open data supports public oversight of governments and helps reduce corruption by enabling greater transparency. Open data also encourages greater citizen participation in government and governance matters. Improving public services - Open data provides citizens with the first-hand - raw materials that they need to push their government to get engaged, and contribute to improving public services. For example, citizens can use open data to contribute to public planning, or provide feedback and answers to ministries, regarding service quality. Innovation and economic value - Public data, and its reuse, are key resources for social innovation and economic growth. Open data offers new opportunities for cooperation between governments and citizens and for the evaluation of public services, giving citizens access to data related to these services. Businesses and entrepreneurs are using open data to better understand potential markets and build new data-driven products. Efficiency - Open data makes it easier and less expensive for Government ministries to discover and access their data or data from other ministries, which reduces acquisition cost, redundancy and overhead. Open data can empower citizens to notify governments about existing gaps in public data to provide more accurate information.

How does the commitment contribute to solving the identified problem?

Having internal procedures that ensure a fully accessible database on the Open Data Portal will encourage relevant ministries/departments to upload and share their public database.

Why is it important to commit to the values of OGP?

This commitment will contribute to the transparency of the institution's work, as well as facilitate the work process of those who share the focus on relevant data (governmental or non-governmental authorities). The legal framework that provides access to public data should also consider the publication of the database as machineprocessable/readable format and also be complete in terms of information details.

Description of expected results

1. To use the revolution of technology and data to push forward the national vision and development priorities of Kosovo through the existing institutions and structures; 2. The Open Data Charter and this action plan become a complementary part of existing national and local strategies and policies for increasing transparency and accountability.

Achievements | Indicators | Activity bearer | Starting date | End date

1. Establishment of the National Strategic Council for monitoring and directing the implementation of the Open Data Charter in the Republic of Kosovo. | Number of the published database All public institutions and civil society | 01/01/2024 | 31/03/2024

2. The establishment of the inter-institutional working group for the implementation of the Open Data Charter in the Republic of Kosovo | Preparation of data inventory | • Heads of archives in the ministries • Heads of IT sectors in government institutions • Representative of the Directorate for the protection of personal data •Representative of municipalities • Kosovo AntiCorruption Agency • Office for Good Governance • NGO | 01/01/2024 | 31/08/2024

3. Setting the deadline for ministries/departments to publish relevant data Number of institutions proactively publishing databases All public institutions 01/01/202 4 31/12/2024