Hackday
Results of the Open Aid Data Hackday
Around 150 participants joined the Open Aid Data Conference in Berlin. The event was full with discussions and exchange on how open data can be used to achieve more transparency in the developing aid sector. The first day was split into two workshops – an ‘Aidinfo Data Training’ and ‘Hackday,’ to explore potential data sets and applications to make developing aid more transparent.
In this post I would like to share my experiences from the Hackday as a co-organizer. There was an interesting mix of participants, from different backgrounds, who worked in teams on different issues greatly facilitated by Marek Tuszynski from Tactical Technology Collective. Here is a link summarizing the discussions, some available data sets, and these are the main questions we dealt with:
– What do we need to know about Open Data for aid transparency?
– What data is out there?
– Who benefits from developing aid? Organizations?
– How does an organization implement Open Data?
The last question was answered by one of the groups and put together in a document.
Other teams took a look at the kind of data offered in the German development aid sector. To begin with, the status of information is disappointing and proves the main purpose of the conference: Information is fragmented, almost no data is offered as open, and detailed data for financial spending is not available at all.
It is also impossible to find a list of organizations (NGOs, Government Institutions, etc.) funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Not to mention a list if disbursed funds for each project. That led to one outcome at the Hackday: To initiate a freedom of information act request to the BMZ.
Another team found out that not a single German developing organization offers project information in an open data format, so that it could be easier analyzed. Furthermore, it is very difficult to find out in which countries all these organizations have projects. It can only be found out by clicking through all the websites of hundreds of organizations funded by the BMZ. Imagine how long that takes and how non-transparent that is!
However one interesting database is offered by the OECD, which is called Creditor Reporting System and offers project information for over 50 years. Member countries such as Germany contribute their data about their funded activities under the umbrella of the Official Development Assistance (ODA). We took a look at the data and potential visualizations.
As an outcome of the Hackday, it became clear that we need to invest more time into data analysis to bring more transparency in the sector. Therefore, I will start developing a data catalogue to monitor German aid money better. More to come soon. (Christian Kreutz)
Earlier announcement
Join the Open Aid Data Hackday!
Help us find innovative solution for aid transparency and make development aid more effective.
Germany is one of the largest donors in development aid worldwide. Every year over 6 billion euros are spend alone by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to provide humanitarian relief and tackle poverty around the world. The Open Aid data conference will bring together practitioners from various organizations to discuss and exchange about new solutions and how technology, the Internet and particular open data can make aid more transparent – because not all of the money is spent effectively.
Prior to the conference, we will organize on the 28th of September a Hackday at the Böll-Foundation in Berlin to bring developers together to experiment on technical and data solutions to improve development aid. We are looking for programmers, designers, coders and others who want to learn more about the field of development aid and would like to share their wisdom. In the morning, we will introduce you to the theme and then brainstorm on possible approaches to make aid more transparent. During the rest of the day we want to work through a code sprint on a real solution. Be part of the event!
There are a range of activities around open aid data worldwide, such as the recent conference in Amsterdam or a Barcamp in Kathmandu for aid transparency. By the way, an interesting fact: The Kenyan government has offered an open data portal, while the German government is still debating on such a platform.
Open data and new bottom-up solutions for development aid are a rather new field but with some promising developments. Around data there is an initiative called IATI (International Aid Transparency Initiative), which propagates a common standard for data sets for financial and other project related data. So far in development cooperation, only a tiny fraction of financial data is openly available, which is, at the end of the day, the tax payers’ money. Watch this excellent movie from Publish What You Fund on why financial aid transparency is needed.
One driver of IATI is Aidinfo.org, a co-organizer of the conference and member of the IATI secretariat, who has done some pioneering work in the area. Check out the AidInfo Labs to see what is possible through such data sets. We are curious to hear your ideas and projects.
Another driver of open aid data is the World Bank, who will also present their work on the conference. The World Bank has not only opened up its data, but also made an app competition, where many great solutions have been developed, to use the data, for example games about development indicators, amazing visualizations and crowdsourcing approaches. The aim is to make development aid more effective. Initiatives, such as Ushahidi in Africa, demonstrate the potential of new forms of technology. Come join us at our Hackday to network with great people from the community.
You can apply here or contact Christian.Kreutz {at} okfn.org for further questions. The event is organized by the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany.