The Completion of the Legal and Regulatory Framework of Open Data at the National Level (TN0023)

The completion of the legal and regulatory framework of open data at the national level

3. Completion of the legal and regulatory framework of open data at the national level

Commitment Text:

The aim of this commitment is to make public data open by default, in formats that are usable and interoperable in order to improve Governance, citizen engagement, inclusive development and innovation.

Milestones:

• Adopting a license to organize the public data re-use,
• Developing a network of the persons in charge of open data in the various public departments and agencies,
• Defining a national open data Charter,
• Elaborating an inventory by a number of sectors of data that can be opened and which could be published on the web while specifying the frequency of their updates and the departmental targets for the publication.

Responsible institution: Presidency of the Government

Supporting institution(s):

As mentioned in the NAP: Parliament.

As assessed: World Bank, Article 19, ATCP, FSVC

Start date: June 2016        End date: March 2017

Context and Objectives

This commitment was carried forward from the previous action plan, where it saw limited completion. Originally the commitment included the elaboration of an open data portal only. The Tunisian government launched its first open data portal in 2012 with a limited number of datasets, including statistics on public administration activities, as well as listings of public offices. The commitment was modified for the second action plan to include more specifics, such as re-developing the open data portal to improve usability and data relevance. [17]

Moreover, in December 2016, the Tunisian government published its E-Government strategy, called Smart Gov 2020. Smart Gov implementation was planned for 2016 to 2020. The action plan includes the implementation of this commitment as a priority and was planned to be completed in early 2017. [18]

Tunisia is ranked 66 in the Open Data Index (ODI) with a weak score of 22 percent. The ODI indicates 0 percent score in multiple areas such as procurement, government spending and land ownership. Tunisia ranked 39 on the Open Data Barometer (ODB) [19] in 2015, with a score of 33.37, far from the average of the MENA region (19.31) or the Moroccan score (16.17). The implementation of the portal in 2014 increased the Tunisian score from 21 in 2013 to 33 in 2015, while the average score of the MENA region continued to decrease. According to the ODB, while Tunisia’s readiness is high, implementation and impact are low.

The objective of this commitment is to put in place procedures that would guarantee a continuous update of the open data resources from various government entities. The commitment aims to re-arrange the existing datasets on the portal.

The commitment contains specific milestones, with details of the targets and periodicity of data update. The commitment has a moderate potential impact. Tunisia has had a Presidential Decree on Open Data since 2011 but regulations and procedures are necessary to enforce it. This commitment identifies the steps needed to reinforce the existing framework. It is relevant to access to information as it entails making government data available in an open and re-usable format. Additionally, the commitment is relevant for technology and innovation as it specifies using digital best practices. Therefore, this commitment meets OGP values on access to information and technology and innovation for transparency and accountability.

Completion

This commitment completion is limited and is not on time. The E-Government Unit drafted procedures to obtain a license of data re-use and an open data charter. Besides the strong engagement of the E-Government Unit, there should be points of contact in charge of open data issues in the various public ministries and agencies.

The World Bank’s government unit in Tunisia provided technical assistance to help the E-Government Unit accomplish this commitment. During the interview, the World Bank project officer confirmed that funds would be available through 2019 to speed up completion.

Next Steps

This commitment should be carried forward in the next action plan. Given the support provided by the World Bank, the government should prioritize completing all the milestones.

The IRM researcher recommends the following:

• Narrow down the commitment scope and develop a pilot project for specific datasets that could be published and updated regularly. By narrowing the commitment to certain ministries this objective could be completed in important sectors like education, interior, defense and health. Certain ministries have already appointed personnel on open data but would require a data inventory.

• In the next action plan, the government could involve other stakeholders, such as the Authority of Access to Information, National Authority of Anti-Corruption, and the National Agency of Computer Security.

3. The completion of the legal and regulatory framework of Open data at the national level

Commitment Text:

The aim of this commitment is to make public data open by default, in formats that are usable and interoperable in order to improve Governance, citizen engagement, inclusive development and innovation.

Milestones:

• Adopting a license to organize the public data re-use,
• Developing a network of the persons in charge of Open data in the various public departments and agencies,
• Defining a national Open data Charter,
• Elaborating an inventory by a number of sectors of data that can be opened, and which could be published on the web while specifying the frequency of their updates and the departmental targets for the publication.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Civil Service, Governance and Fight against Corruption (e-Government unit).

Start date: June 2016 End date: March 2017

Editorial Note: This is an abbreviated version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text from the Tunisia National Action Plan, see here.

Commitment Aim:

This commitment is the continuation of Commitment 5 from the previous action plan. The objective of this commitment is to develop a series of measures that would improve the Open Data practices within the Tunisian Government.

The milestones would ensure the update of the Open data resources from various government entities and re-arrange the existing Open datasets on the government portal. ^[24] The commitment includes the preparation of a national open data charter and it would also provide a legal backbone to public data reuse by issuing a license that sets out how the data could be re-used.

Status

Midterm: Limited

This commitment had limited completion by the midterm assessment. During this phase, the issuing license for data reuse and the national charter of Open data were at a draft level. The implementation of two milestones including developing a network of the persons in charge of Open data and preparing the inventory of data did not start.

End of term: Substantial

The E-Government and Open Data Unit partnered with the World Bank and several NGOs for technical and financial help. The license of public data reuse and the assignment of a network of public officials responsible for Open data were completed by the end of term. [25] [26] Meanwhile, the OGP steering committee decided to amend the commitment to strengthen its legal aspect by creating a law on open data instead of the data charter in April 2018. [27] ^[28] The steering committee and the government argued that this would reinforce public institutions’ engagement in Open data practices. The E-Government and Open Data Unit organized two workshops, on 5 and 6 April 2018, to announce the beginning of the projects. [29] The unit also conducted several other workshops and a consultation day related to the open data decree project that aimed to discuss and identify the main chapters and articles that will be included in the text of the law. [30] The draft of the decree was prepared [31] and submitted to the head of the government. It was still waiting for approval and publication at the time of writing this report.

Concerning the inventory of the data that could be opened up, several steps were undertaken at central and local levels, but the inventory was not completed by the end of the action plan period. The government, with the support of the World Bank, selected five ministries and one public agency for a pilot on Open Data. The selection includes institutions such as Agriculture, local affairs and environment, industry, culture, transport and social security fund. These ministries expressed interest in being part of the pilot following a series of meetings between the World Bank and the Tunisian Government. A series of workshops and trainings were organized afterwards. [32]

Moreover, the Association Tunisienne des Controleurs Publics (ATCP), through its program Onshor, held 45 workshops in various municipalities to assess their readiness for opening their data, and developed a report. The IRM researcher could not obtain information as to the detailed content of the workshops.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Did not change

Changing the regulatory framework of the proposed measure from national open data Charter to the decree on open data strengthened the authority of the proposed measure. The steps taken by this commitment signal a positive direction for institutional adoption of open data practices. However, without the completion of the data inventory it is not possible to assess yet if the commitment resulted in more or better data being disclosed and open data practices have yet to be implemented.

Carried Forward?

This commitment was not carried forward to the next action plan.