In the 2015 Open Data Barometer (ODB) rankings released this week, Botswana fell 23 places down the rankings from position 55 in 2013 to 78.
Open data refers to data that is proactively published, and made available without charge, in readable file formats and without restrictions on use. Eighty-six countries were ranked in the Open Data Barometer on how readily their governments make data available, including information on government budgets and spending, public sector contracts, company ownership, health services and education.
The World Wide Web Foundation sponsors the ODB.
As this year’s Barometer covers 86 countries (compared with the 77 countries covered in 2013), a change in rank position may result from new countries entering the assessment, and from substantial changes to that country’s score.
Nine new countries were introduced in the 2014 survey.
According to the survey, Botswana scored poorly in two of the three categories used in measuring openness leading to the country’s overall score falling from 16.08 out of a 100 in 2013 to 8.39 last year.
The categories included, readiness, implementation and impact. On readiness, which identifies how far a country has in place the political, social and economic foundations for realising the potential benefits of open data, Botswana score improved from 12.16 in 2013 to 26.
The implementation category which identifies the extent to which government has published a range of key datasets to support innovation, accountability and more improved social was largely responsible for Botswana’s tumble as the score fell from 21.57 out of a 100 in 2013 to seven in 2014. The score for emerging impacts category, which identifies the extent to which open data has been seen to lead to positive political, social and environment, and economic change, was stagnant at zero in both years.
From the 86 surveyed countries, 22 of them were African states, with 16 of them including countries such as Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda and Namibia, regarded as more open than Botswana. Only five African countries including Mali, Ethiopia, Cameroon, and Sierra Leone were ranked below Botswana.
According to the OBD, Africa’s top five open countries were South Africa, ranked at position 41, Tunisia (45) Rwanda (46), Ghana ((46) and Kenya (49).
The United Kingdom topped the rankings for the second consecutive year, followed by the United States, Sweden, France and New Zealand.
“In our digital age, opening up raw government data to everyone, free of charge, is a great way to put power in the hands of citizens,” said Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and founder of the Web Foundation.
“Yet this research indicates that governments continue to shy away from publishing the very data that can be used to enhance accountability and trust,” he said.
The foundation is dedicated to the improvement and availability of the Web. However, the Web Foundation says Botswana is tipped to be among the countries to perform better next year as it has embarked on an open data assessment study. “Countries to watch in the coming year include Botswana, where an open data readiness assessment was recently undertaken, although it currently lacks a Right to Information,” reads the report.
Last year, the Botswana Innovation Hub, in conjunction with the e-Government Unit, announced that it would conduct a diagnostic study to assess the capability of the country’s public and private sectors to implement an open data programme.
The study is to be conducted in partnership with the World Bank to help policy makers and citizens understand and exploit the benefits of open data.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Brian Benza
Quelle/Source: Mmegi Online, 23.01.2015
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