Description:

Introduction

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in Open Data, leading to the implementation of many initiatives and platforms to publish open datasets and build capacity around data use and help improve decision and policy making across the different sectors in the region. The open data movement in the area of access to public and other information is a relatively new but very significant in the East African Region States namely (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan)

Description of the content

Open Data is data which is made accessible and available in a standardized machine-readable format and under a license that allows it to be re-used and re-shared. Open data policies should be able to provide frameworks for opening up access to government data and provide governance mechanisms. Policies from governments should always highlight the requirements for the successful implementation of open data for all people including Women and Persons with disabilities. These policies must aim at making all public sector data open by default with exception to personal identifiable information and data with security or commercial or intellectual property rights or environmental restrictions. Open data is known to be digital data that is made available with the technical and legal characteristics necessary for it to be freely used, re-shared reused, and redistributed by anyone, anytime, and anywhere. This therefore means Women and Persons with disabilities must have ICT tools and Infrastructure to be able to access the Open Data on Government platforms. However, there is a growing concern that some Women and Persons with disabilities are being left behind in accessing information on Open Data. This is because, despite the recent expansion in the usage of ICT in the region, a large section of Women and persons with disabilities face digital exclusion due to lack of access and affordability of the requisite ICT tools and equipment, yet the major goal for Open Data is to increase Women’s and Person’s With Disabilities participation in policy making processes across all sectors. For example Uganda has laws which guarantee access to information by the people and disclosure of the same by government. A good example is the Access to Information Act (ATIA) 2005 which manifests a step forward for government’s willingness to provide useful public information. However, accessing information does not guarantee open data. In principle, open data should be complete through making it publicly available and not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations, Primary where data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms, timely by making it available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data. The Ministry of ICT in Uganda has been developing an Open Data Policy and the first draft was out in May 2017. The Uganda Open Data portal does exit however more work needs to be done to ensure people understand the datasets and they can interpret them. For Kenya, According to the Centre for public impact Foundation Report released in 2010, a new Kenyan constitution was codified. this included access to information obligations, which required the Government to publish and publicize any important information affecting the country. The citizens’ rights to information are set out in Article 35, Access to information. “35.(1) Every citizen has the right of access to (a) information held by the State; and (b) information held by another person and required for the exercise or protection of any right or fundamental freedom (3) The State shall publish and publicize any important information affecting the nation, the report said, the Kenya Open Data initiative has made Government datasets available to the public in easy reusable formats with data from the different Categories across all sectors of the economy. However it doesn’t clearly indicate on how Women and People who are differently enabled will be able to access and interpret the Open Data. For Tanzania, The Tanzanian open data portal describes its purpose as making data publicly available, a wide range of actors being brought into the policy making process and debate, bringing valuable new ideas and new thinking to policy making, and stronger public participation in monitoring and citizen feedback. In Tanzania, an Open Data movement was initiated through the dLab project in order to realize the benefits of open data. So Tanzania has got a Basic Statistics Portal that provides Open Data in a machine-readable format to be used and re-used by anybody. The data produced is prioritized for Education, Water and Health sectors only. The methodology should work upon having all the East African Countries develop frameworks that will improve policy formulation, coordination and implementation of the Open Data initiative while enabling access and inclusion for Women and Persons with Disabilities in the East African Region. Conclusion

Across the region, all the East African countries have Open Data policies that allow for access and share of information, however these policies don’t further explain how Women and Persons with Disabilities will be able to access this Open Data and how it can be interpreted. Intended Agenda of the Session The session panelists will talk about different areas of this topic, after each panelist speaking the floor would be open to the participants to ensure that we get comments, additional information and policy issues or strategies to ensure that Women and Persons with disabilities access open data and can meaningfully use it. The content of discussions will be; the current state of open data in the East African States, The policies and regulations that exists and the gaps, The reality of how Women and Persons with disabilities access open data and the challenges they face. This session will be conducted in a round table discussions to ensure that its participatory and enhance substantive policy discussions.