Today I attended a meeting organized at the Ford Foundation offices by the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. The major part of the conversation was to consider the recommendations made by the Friends of the Chair of the UN Statistics Commission on Non-Traditional Data. How do we get Citizen Generated Data to be trusted…
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Working with citizens in Kenya, using data to identify their development needs and priorities, we have had the opportunity to learn many things. One of the biggest observations that we have had is that many citizens are woefully invisible in the spaces where decisions are reached on public activities that should better their lives. Many…
Read articleFour cities across the world are preparing to launch the “GovCombinator.” Jean-Louis Sarbib (left), Dennis Whittle (middle) and Nathaniel Heller (right) are promoting a new process for solving city-level problems. They call it “GovCombinator.” (Christopher Swope) WASHINGTON, United States—On the fifth floor of a glassy office building here, just a few blocks from the White…
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We are happy to unveil Badili (Swahili for Change), which is an on-line resource to share stories and experiences, initiatives, content, and generally track progress on the data revolution in Africa. This initiative, driven in partnership with Development Initiatives – Africa Hub, Hivos East Africa and the Association of Freelance Journalists, is a contribution to the growing momentum…
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The following post is by Beatrice Martini, capacity builder and event curator, and a co-facilitator of T/AI’s Follow the Money Workshop last month in Berlin. Cross-posted from beatricemartini.it. When we talk about financial transparency,numbers and data are understandably what first comes to mind. But are the platforms and portalscollecting all that, the real starting point of our…
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Every day in the week leading up to the Academy Awards, February 17th to 21st, ONE and Accountability Lab will unveil a category for our Honesty Oscars 2015, an award that honors not Hollywood films, but the creative work of activists and organizations that fight global corruption. Vote for your favorites, and we’ll announce the…
Read articleOur founder, Al Kags is happy to publish Players or Spectators – Observations on CSO Participation in the Open Government Partnership, a culmination of a study that he conducted while interning at OpentheGovernment.org in August and September this year. “The experience that I gained at OpenTheGovernment.org under the guidance of Patrice McDermott and her colleagues…
Read articleKenya is one of the 65 participating countries of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multilateral initiative that seeks to make governments more open, accountable and responsive to citizens. Overseen by representatives from governments and civil society organisations, the multi-stakeholder effort aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness…
Read articleIn their paper The Benefits of a Big Tent: Opening Up Government in Developing Countries, J Goldstein and J Weinstein argue for a “big tent”; one term under which open data and open government communities can pursue a common goal. I believe the term is fitting for the post-2015 processes and the unprecedented opportunity they present stakeholders…
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This is cross-posted from Al Kags’ personal blog, alkags.me. I have just started the six-week academic sessions of the Washington Fellowship at the Arizona State University. During this time, I shall spend my time learning and considering many aspects of civic leadership and most of all, I shall be considering an essential question, which is the…
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