Open Data Watch

Open Data Watch’s mission is to bring change to organizations that produce and manage official statistical data to increase their quality, availability, and use. Open Data Watch encourages and supports countries in increasing the quality, coverage, openness, and use of official statistical data. Their flagship product has been an annual assessment of the coverage, availability, and openness of official statistics in national databases. Going forward, they are extending their focus to find ways to assess the value and use of data. The organization will also continue to provide technical advice, engage in advocacy, and build connections between the mainstream official statistics community and those interested in using technological advances to improve data quality and timeliness. (Strategy: Evidence-Informed Policymaking)

This project will collect information on the barriers to using official statistics in policy decisions and provide tools to help national statistical offices (NSOs) and international organizations increase the use of data in government decision making. The work is led by Open Data Watch, which operates at the junction of open data and official statistics, in collaboration with AidData, which has expertise in collecting information on data use. The partners will survey government officials; analyze the extent to which existing data-sharing portals are used; develop tools to help NSOs monitor and increase data usage; and share their findings with NSOs and international agencies.

Open Data Watch supports countries to realize the full potential of their national statistical systems by providing open access to high-quality statistics. The organization measures the openness of statistics, monitors progress, and offers ways to achieve open data, including for low capacity countries. It is a key contributor to the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. During this period, Open Data Watch plans to develop guidelines and an interactive toolkit for governments to incorporate open data in their national statistical development strategies. It will also develop the Open Data Inventory, a publicly available assessment of the coverage and openness of official statistical systems.