Open Data (MO0004)

Increasing the publication and reuse of open data
From August 2018 to August 2020
Lead implementing agency
Ministry of Administration Reform and Civil Service (MRAFP)
Commitment description
What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
The new Law on the Right to Access to Information No. 31-13 specifies the need for a proactive publication of data. Even though Morocco set up an open data platform, already in place in 2011, ‘data.gov.ma’, usage of this platform remains very limited in terms of: - The number of member institutions that share data with the public - The quantity of data published and accessible to the general public - The reuse of this data by the various actors
What is the commitment?
This commitment consists of: Creating a national data strategy Creating governance for open data to coordinate the policy of openness and the sharing and reuse of public data to include all stakeholders, including the private sector and civil society. Implanting an organisation within the ministerial departments, public institutions, and territorial authorities that enables the selection, collection, categorisation, and validation of data to be provided to the public or published according to the laws in force. Developing a manual setting rules for collecting, processing, disseminating, and updating open data. Training data officers within government departments and public institutions on rules for collecting, processing, disseminating, and updating open data. Communicating and raising public’s awareness (government departments, citizens, companies, researchers, tourists, investors, civil society, etc.) about the benefits of openness, sharing, and reuse of data. The impact of this commitment will be assessed on the basis of the following indicators: - Number of institutions participating in the Open Data Strategy (to be increased by 100%: from 16 to 32 institutions) - Number of data sets published on the platform data.gov.ma (to be increased by 100%: from 136 to 300 data sets) - Number of data reuse initiatives: 20 initiatives
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?
Creating an Open Data governance system and promoting the publication and reuse of open data will directly support the more proactive publication of data, as stated in the Law on the Right to Access to Information.
Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values?
A better Open Data Policy leads to: - greater transparency through proactive publication, as stated in the Law on the Right to Access to Information - greater accountability through an easier factual assessment of the government department’s performance - citizen participation in promoting a culture of reusing public data and requesting information.
Additional information
Related commitments: Commitment 1 Commitment 2 Commitment 5 Commitment 6
Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable
Benchmarking data strategies
October 2018 December 2018
Assessing the status of data in Morocco
December 2018 April 2019
Developing the strategy rules of procedures of public data
May 2019 October 2019
Creating a governance devoted to open data
November 2019 January 2020
Preparing the procedures manual for collecting, processing, disseminating, and updating open data
November 2019 January 2020
Training government departments on publishing open/proactive data
February 2020 March 2020
Communicating and raising awareness about the benefits of open data
January 2020 June 2020
Contact point details
Name of contact point (project manager)
Ms Samia CHAKRI
Position/department
Director of Information Systems, Ministry of Administration Reform and Civil Service
Email and telephone
NA
Other actors involved
State actors involved
Ministry of Industry, Trade, Investment, and Digital Economy (MICIEN) Ministry of Relations with Parliament and Civil Society High Commission for Planning Other ministerial departments and public institutions
NGOs, private sector, international organisations, and working groups
Civil society organisations interested in transparency Civil society organisations interested in promoting digitalisation Universities and research centres International organisations for the promotion of Open Data

Commitment 4: Increase Publication and Reuse of Open Data

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

“This commitment consists of:

• Creating a national data strategy
• Creating governance for open data to coordinate the policy of openness and the sharing and reuse of public data to include all stakeholders, including the private sector and civil society.
• Implanting an organization within the ministerial departments, public institutions, and territorial authorities that enables the selection, collection, categorization, and validation of data to be provided to the public or published according to the laws in force.
• Developing a manual setting rules for collecting, processing, disseminating, and updating open data.
• Training data officers within government departments and public institutions on rules for collecting, processing, disseminating, and updating open data.
• Communicating and raising public’s awareness (government departments, citizens, companies, researchers, tourists, investors, civil society, etc.) about the benefits of openness, sharing, and reuse of data.

The impact of this commitment will be assessed on the basis of the following indicators:

            - Number of institutions participating in the Open Data Strategy (to be increased by 100%: from 16 to 32 institutions)

            - Number of data sets published on the platform data.gov.ma (to be increased by     100%: from 136 to 300 data sets)

            - Number of data reuse initiatives: 20 initiatives.”

Milestones:

• Benchmarking data strategies.
• Assessing the status of data in Morocco.
• Developing the strategy rules of procedures of public data.
• Creating governance devoted to open data.
• Preparing the procedures manual for collecting, processing, disseminating, and updating open data.
• Training government departments on publishing open/proactive data.
• Communicating and raising awareness about the benefits of open data."

Start Date: August 2018

End Date: August 2020

Editorial Note: the commitment description provided above is an abridged version of the commitment text, please see the full action plan here: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/morocco-action-plan-2018-2020/

Context and objectives

The commitment aims to promote the proactive publication of data across government ministries and levels on the national portal data.gov.ma. This commitment joins Commitments 1, 2, and 3 in this action plan in furthering the governments' access to information reforms.

Morocco became the first African country to launch an open data portal in 2011. [34] The portal was launched by the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment, and the Digital Economy and redesigned in 2014. This project intended to bring citizens and businesses closer to the administration through an easy-to-use data portal. ^[35] Despite these efforts, Morocco's ranking in the Open Data Barometer Index has declined from 40^th in 2013 to 79^th in 2016. ^[36]

Several factors have contributed to the limited development of the portal. First, internal administrative restructuring caused a temporary halt to the portal’s development. ^[37] Second, ministries were asked to voluntarily upload data as there was no legal requirement to do so yet. Ministries were hesitant to upload data in the absence of a legal framework. Consequently, the portal contains limited and outdated information. ^[38] Finally, the administration paused the portal's further development until Morocco formally joined OGP, as OGP membership would help to frame the country's open data plan. ^[39]

The Digital Development Agency manages the open data portal and coordinates the Open Data Project, which involves many agencies across the government. In 2020, the Digital Development Agency carried out an open data study in partnership with the World Bank and other government institutions. The study resulted in a report with an action plan of short-, medium-, and long-term open data goals. At the time of writing, the Agency was in the process of implementing the plan in partnership with other agencies. [40]

As a result of this commitment, “the website data.gov.ma will be professionalized to include clear processes, data collection, statistics, and categorization of data, privacy issues and national security will be dealt with as well.” The portal will provide downloadable data in Excel sheets. Previously, data was often published through PDFs as officials fear data may be edited and falsified. ^[41] The portal will also contain data from municipal and local governments. The High Commission for Planning will support implementation of the commitment.

This commitment carries a moderate potential to increase citizen access to and use of government-held data. If fully implemented as written, the commitment will result in the proactive publication of government data in one accessible location and on the websites of individual government institutions. Public access to downloadable, comprehensive, and recent data would be a significant departure from the status quo. Youness Benmoumen, president of TAFRA, notes that greater open data would be a notable achievement. He states that the public would particularly benefit from greater open data from the High Commission for Planning and Ministry of Interior and that such data would facilitate CSOs' work, such as policy research. ^[42] This commitment is verifiable and relevant to the OGP values of access to information and use of new technology and innovation for accountability and transparency.

Next steps:

In carrying forward open data reforms, the IRM recommends that implementors consider the following:

Governance

• Open data governance within the administration should have a clear structure with clearly designated mandates.
• The government should collaborate with civil society to ensure published data is relevant and useable and that the platform is user-friendly. The portal itself could contain a feedback page or survey.
• The Digital Development Agency should work, under the supervision of the Open Data Committee, with local governments, especially rural collectivities, to support open data publication at subnational levels.
• The Digital Development Agency, under the supervision of the Open Data Committee, should incentivize ministries to publish data frequently and comprehensively. The ministry could highlight open data champions as well as publish a list of ministries not in compliance with proactive publication requirements.
• Where possible, collect and publish detailed data, disaggregated by sex and geographic area, as well as across time and levels of government.
• Future iterations of this commitment could seek to address public officials' questions and concerns about publishing open data to build a culture of transparency.

Data

• Where possible, collect and publish detailed data disaggregated by gender and geography as well as across time and levels of governments.
• Aim to produce and publish data that is interoperable between levels of government, across government agencies, and with international open data repositories.

4. Increase Publication and Reuse of Open Data

Substantial:

This commitment aimed to promote the proactive publication of data across government ministries and levels on the national portal data.gov.ma. [41] The milestones focused on establishing the baseline for data policies and published data in Morocco, putting in place a comprehensive data strategy and governance framework for open data, producing a manual on open data, training public servants, and raising awareness about open data.

The government’s analysis efforts resulted in a report that includes a draft action plan on open data, comprising recommendations on improving open data governance. [42] The government is working to establish a working group to update the open data legal framework. [43] The government also established a steering committee on open data [44] to better coordinate open data governance. Two procedure manuals intended respectively for open data managers and data managers were drawn up in late 2020, and were validated by the open data steering committee. [45]

In December 2020, the Digital Development Agency, in partnership with the World Bank, carried out two online trainings for around 250 officials and civil servants from different administrations, public bodies and public companies, [46] as well as other awareness-raising events for 160 civil servants and officials. [47] In 2020, the Open Data Inventory (ODIN) noted Morocco’s progress in open data efforts, ranking it 41^st globally. [48] The government did not meet its objective of a twofold increase in both the open data publishing institutions and the open data sets on the portal data.gov.ma. These indicators remain at their initial levels from 2018: 16 participating administrations and 136 published data sets. [49] Both ODIN [50] and the 2020 World Bank report on data governance in Morocco [51] note that Morocco is still lacking a comprehensive open data governance and policy/legal framework. The World Bank report further lists challenges flowing from the restrictions on data re-use provided in Article 6 of the 2018 Access to Information Law (No. 31-13), which risk deterring, rather than encouraging, the use and reuse of public sector data. [52] As this commitment did not directly increase the amount of open data published, it was not evaluated in depth for early open government results. Commitment 22 in Morocco’s second OGP action plan continues this reform.