An Open Knowledge Foundation Site
logo Planet Open Knowledge

You are browsing the archive for Data for CSOs.

Data in December: Sharing Data Journalism Love in Tunisia

- January 11, 2016 in Big Data, Data Blog, Data Expeditions, Data for CSOs, Data Journalism, data science, data visualization, Open Data, School of Data, Tunisia

NRGI hosted the event #DataMuseTunisia in collaboration with Data Aurora and School of Data senior fellow Ali Rebaie on the 11th of December 2015 in beautiful Tunis where a group of CSO’s from different NGOs met in the Burge Du Lac Hotel to learn how to craft their datasets and share their stories through creative visuals. Bahia Halawi, one of the leading women data journalism practitioners in the MENA region and the co-founder at Data Aurora, led this workshop for 3 days. This event featured a group of professionals from different CSO’s. NRGI has been working closely with School of Data for the sake of driving economic development & transparency through data in the extractive industry. Earlier this year NRGI did similar events in Washington, Istanbul, United Kingdom, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and many others. The experience was very unique and the participants were very excited to use the open source tools and follow the data pipeline to end up with interactive stories. The first day started with an introduction to the world of data driven journalism and storytelling. Later on, participants checked out some of the most interesting stories worldwide before working with different layers of the data pipeline. The technical part challenged the participants to search for data related to their work and then scraping it using google spreadsheets, web extensions and scrapers to automate the data extraction phase. After that, each of the participants used google refine to filter and clean the data sets and  then remove redundancies ending up with useable data formats. The datasets were varied and some of them were placed on interactive maps through CartoDB while some of the participants used datawrapper to interactively visualize them in charts. The workshop also exposed participants to Tabula, empowering them with the ability of transforming documents from pdfs to excel. Delegates also discussed some of the challenges each of them faces at different locations in Tunisia. It was very interesting to see 12321620_1673319796270332_5440100026922548095_nparticipants share their ideas on how to approach different datasets and how to feed this into an official open data portal that can carry all these datasets together. One of the participants, Aymen Latrach, discussed the problems his team faces when it comes to data transparency about extractives in Tataouine. Other CSO’s like Manel Ben Achour who is a Project Coordinator at I WATCH Organization came already from a technical backgrounds and they were very happy to make use of new tools and techniques while working with their data. Most of the delegates didn’t come from technical backgrounds however and this was the real challenge. Some of the tools, even when they do not require any coding, mandate the knowledge about some technical terms or ideas. Thus, each phase in the data pipeline started with a theoretical explanatory session to familiarize delegates with the technical concepts that are to be covered. After that, Bahia had to demonstrate the steps and go around the delegates facing any problems to assist them in keeping up with the rest of the group. It was a little bit messy at the beginning but soon the participants got used to it and started trying out the tools on their own. In reality, trial and error is very crucial to developing the data journalism skills. These skills can never be attained without practice. 11232984_1673319209603724_5889072769128707064_n Another important finding, according to Bahia who discussed the importance of the learnt skills to the delegate’s community and workplace, is that each of them had his/her own vision about its use. The fact that the CSO’s had a very good work experience allowed them to have unique visions about the deployment of what they have learnt at their workplaces. This, along with the strong belief in the change open data portals can drive in their country are the only triggers to learning more tools and skills and bringing out better visualizations and stories that impact people around. The data journalism community 3 years ago was still at a very embryonic stage with few practitioners and data initiatives taking place in Africa and Asia. Today, with enthusiastic practitioners like Bahia Halawi and Ali Rebaie, and a community like School of Data spreading the love of data and the spirit of change it can make, the data journalism field has very promising expectations. The need for more initiatives and meet ups to develop the skills of CSOs in the extractive industries as well as other fields remains a priority for reaching out for true transparency in every single domain.  Thank you, You can connect with Bahia on Twitter @HalawiBahia. Flattr this!

Comments Off on Data in December: Sharing Data Journalism Love in Tunisia

Data+Drinks : a meetup to engage the open data community in the South of Nigeria

- July 20, 2015 in community, Data Blog, Data for CSOs, Data+Drinks, fellowship, Nigeria

Data is now available online, but what next? This is the throbbing question on the mind of open data stakeholders, both from the supply and demand side of it.

landing 2As the the fight for transparency and accountability in government keeps going with the help of open data, Nigerians are doing their share and innovating in that area. New initiatives around open data, open government, open education, open access… are appearing in Nigeria. But people are still used to the traditional ways of getting the  government to listen to the citizens : unions, town hall meetings, protests, etc. How do we connect with citizens, civil society organisations (CSOs), journalists, NGOs and entrepreneurs and get them to take advantage of the available data? Monitoring the way the government works, driving advocacy, improving their activities and in turn the economy are all potential benefits of making use of the data, but the message still need to be spread. Thankfully, as a 2015 School of Data fellow, I can tap into the great School of Data community of people working on improving data literacy. So what did we do? Simple : Our first step was to organize a data meetup. Called “Data + Drinks”, it was aimed at raising awareness, mapping new and existing open data initiatives and assessing the needs of the community. We invited individual citizens, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), journalists,  and entrepreneurs. They are interested in solving social problems in agriculture, education and other areas, using data in their advocacy and journalism.

‘Have you heard of open data? Come and let’s talk about it’

On the 27th of June, the day of the event the organisers were tense as it had started raining and this was our first awareness event with no prize or certificate (like our usual hackathons and trainings). This time it was merely an informal talk about open data and its benefits. Yet, the enthusiasm and participation were impressive, as 56 people braved the rain to attend. Among them, 23% were CSOs and NGOs, 48% entrepreneurs and students, 5% Government representative and 2% journalists. Members of the CSOs Members of the CSO

While 60% of them had heard of Open data, the 40% left had never heard of it. A few of them just walked into the event by pure curiosity: ‘what is this open data is about, is it a project or a tool?’

One of the participants, a well-known regional activist, wondered:
“Why all the investment in collection and releasing of data and how does it affect me as an individual or change all the fundamental issues we have in Nigeria?”
As an answer to that question and many others, we took them through the journey of what open data is and its benefits to their various activity using both international and local success stories.  

Mapping their interests and challenges

Participants documenting their interests and challenges.

Participants documenting their interests and challenges.

Of course stick-ons where involved! The participants documented their area of interest, their experience with data and the challenges they are facing working with it. They were generally more interested in how open data can help advocacy activities, improve the educational sector, help farmers and journalism. Many of them were unaware of the places where they could find the data they need, so data sourcing and collection was a major challenge. Another issue was working with data: analysing, visualizing and making use of it.

These findings helped us understand the community better and will help us design more focused trainings and engagements in the future.

Looking forward!

So far so good! Now that we had a successful first strike at breaking the ice, future open data hangouts promise to be better. We are going to address the challenges they shared with us. We grouped the participants following their areas of interest and will continue to share useful resources with them. A Data expedition will be organised in August and an open data party will follow in November. All these events are aimed at building a data literate community in Nigeria.  See more at #dataplusdrinks. Our appreciation goes to OD4D, School of data, Connected development, Sabi hub and all the participants for making this a reality! Meeting the participants
  • Chart made with Piktochart
Flattr this!

Comments Off on Data+Drinks : a meetup to engage the open data community in the South of Nigeria

‘Where has this been!?’ Open Data Day in Benin, Nigeria.

- May 15, 2015 in community, Data for CSOs, Events, fellowship, hackathon, Nigeria, Open Data

In the city of Benin, located in the Edo State of Nigeria, the 21st of February was a memorable day. At the occasion of the worldwide Open Data Day, the first ever open data hackathon of the city took place, alongside another event called Open Data party . This event, organised by SabiHub, was supported by Open Knowledge, the Ministry of Agriculture and Edo Open Data.  The event focused on the agriculture sector, looking at the challenges and engaging citizens to imagine data driven solutions using the available Agriculture datasets from the state’s open data portal. 50 participants were expected but over 90 participants joined us: Civil society organisations, NGOs, journalism Students, government officials and other open data enthusiasts. As we kickstarted the 6-hour long event, the place was buzzing with excitement. 6 facilitators guided the participants through an adventure about data around the world, wrangling and making sense of numbers. Participants welcomed the knowledge with frowns, questions, excitement, and ‘where has this been’s! ayotraining   Lunch and tea break were welcomed to calm the minds. We then introduced them to a list of challenges the agriculture sector was facing, and asked them to wrangle and create data-driven solutions with those challenges in mind. They broke out into groups and hacked for 3 hours. What was the outcome? Many ideas sprung up, from bridging the information gap between famers and the market, to easier location of agricultural facilities and more. A common challenge in the groups was the lack of data skills to solve the problems idendified! Read more at #ODDBenin15 groups Although Edo state is the first government in Nigeria to launch an open data portal since 2013, low data literacy among potential reusers is still a problem that keeps the initiative from reaching its full potential. The economic benefits of Open data has yet to be harnessed. The Edo State joined forces with organizations like BudgIT, Connected development in spreading the skills necessary to visualize government budget, track government spending and train civil society organisations and journalists while also evangelizing the use of data in schools. With a population of over 170 millions, more has to be done to reach out to CSOs, entrepreneurs, NGOs, journalists. This work will be done thanks to School of Data and other organizations who continuously support the campaign for data literacy, active citizen engagement, fact-driven stories and advocacy, job creation and a lot more. We are not where we want to be, but things have definitely improved in the past years. I’m optimistic that the 2015 School of Data fellowship will drive us steps ahead towards a more literate and informed society. Flattr this!

Comments Off on ‘Where has this been!?’ Open Data Day in Benin, Nigeria.

Second open data meet-up held in Skopje

- April 10, 2015 in community, Data for CSOs, Events, Macedonia, Meetup, News, opendata, School of Data - Macedonia, Skopje

School of Data – Macedonia organised the second Open Data Meet-up ever held in Skopje. The meet-up was held on 13th of March, and more than 30 open data enthusiasts met in the Cresha cafe, where they had the opportunity to discuss and share their views and experiences related to open data. The meeting lasted for more than three hours, during which wonderful ideas were shared between the participants. Among the attendees were representatives of the British Embassy in Macedonia, as well as the director of the Metamorphosis Foundation – Bardhyl Jashari. DSC_4358 The event started with a brief presentation by Dona Djambaska from School of Data – Macedonia (fellow from the School of Data program of Open Knowledge Foundation). She introduced the concept of open data, inspiring stories for the use of open data, and several tools for processing (open) data. Among the participants was Kostadin Mishev – member of the Regional Centre for Social Innovations which is part of the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering (FINKI) in Skopje, as well as part of the team on the same faculty, that works on sematic web and open data. He shared his experiences on developing many open data based mobile and web applications, as well as many tips and tricks on the process of working in the field. DSC_4376 DSC_4380 Another participant who shared his great experience during the meet-up, is Gorjan Jovanovski, developer of the My Air mobile (and web) application. The app publishes data on the air quality/pollution in different cities around Macedonia, as well as offers a wonderful way of visualising the same measurements. DSC_4386 flattr this!

Comments Off on Second open data meet-up held in Skopje

Jamming for Data – Open Data Day in the Philippines

- March 23, 2015 in community, Data for CSOs, Data Journalism

Some people spend Saturday afternoons going out with friends and watching a movie. Some spend it going to a park or working out. Some spend it in the house doing nothing. And some, spend Saturday afternoons wrangling government related data. It was a joy to see people find people like themselves, “Met people who understand the horrors of PDF data sets and merged cells. I’m not crazy yay!” tweeted one participant. It was an even bigger joy to see people excited over the possibilities of Open Data. Though the OGP has been around in the Philippines for 4 years, the principles and ideas behind it are still not common knowledge in civil society.
IMG_0003

We called, they answered: From magazine feature writers, to animators, and expert programmers who do data projects for fun -the event was a good mix of diverse personalities from different sectors as well (private sector, NGOs, government).IMG_0057

In celebration of the International Open Data Day  last February 21, we at Bantay.ph, together with our partner SEATTI, Open Knowledge Foundation, School of Data and Philippine Cyberpress conducted the very first citizen-led “Data Jam.” It was attended by people who were all interested in using their skills to find stories within a given data set and ultimately shed light on the problem of government accountability. During the Data Jam, we opened up our organization’s primary dataset for the first time. The data set contains findings from our citizen monitoring work on red tape in Metro Manila’s local government units. Actual survey questions and answers of on-site reports can be found in CSV format. It is the same data set used for the city scorecards published online through our website’s Red Tape Index. Users of the website can download the raw survey data of Bantay.ph and visualize it however they want. If, for example, a citizen wants to know more about how transparent processes are in different LGU’s, they can look through  the raw dataset and find answers. Moreover, if government offices themselves want to know how they are performing given a different set of indicators, they can use the dataset to help them identify their lapses. This is a trend we hope to start with other NGOs and CSOs. There are so many valuable datasets in the development sector and if we start opening them up, we give the general public a clearer picture of our reality. This gives us a good baseline if we want to improve and change failing systems. We cannot rely on government data alone. We’re also proud to announce that Bantay.ph now has an added feedback feature in the website that allows citizens of Metro Manila to write a review and rate their experience in a given city hall. The 2014-2015 data set of the Contact Center ng Bayan (the national government feedback mechanism under the Civil Service Commission) was also used in the Data Jam. For the first time, a government office opened up their dataset to the public. Participants were able to get an idea of how responsive different government offices were to complaints and grievances, what the most common complaints were in terms of government services, and the most popular mode of feedback. Government offices like the Civil Service Commission spend a lot of time processing and releasing this kind of data. The people behind the feedback mechanism are the same people who answer the hotline, encode, analyze, and visualize the data. Moreover, government still relies on mainstream media to pick up the data findings before it reaches the general public. Through the event, participants realized that by simply opening up the data set, government can outsource the analysis and visualization part to the citizenry.
Sentiments Visualized: Mich Rama of Dakila (a local NGO) and one of the Data Jam participants, used the online tool Infogr.am to instantly create a word cloud and pie chart.

Sentiments Visualized: Mich Rama of Dakila (a local NGO) and one of the Data Jam participants, used the online tool Infogr.am to instantly create a word cloud and pie chart.1

  I find that the whole event was a good way to reflect on your my organization’s internal process. We all have our blind spots, and by keeping things transparent, we get people to collaborate on solutions for the common good. This Data Jam also helped me see how we can improve our organization’s data collection processes and thus has given me a better insight on how to proceed strategically. When we open up datasets, we get to increase participation and engagement. Citizens are the end users of government service, they shouldn’t be left out of the conversation. We are, after all, the biggest stakeholders of this country. During the event, data became the common language for everyone. Opinions were formed based on hard evidence instead of emotions and political agendas. In a span of 4 hours, people of different backgrounds were able to work together and help create a culture of transparency and accountability. IMG_0086 Bantay.ph is a civil society organization that uses technology to mobilize citizens to demand good governance. They want to help citizens get good government service and they do this primarily through awareness campaigns and performance monitoring of the different LGUs in Metro Manila. Currently, they have covered 9 out of 17 cities but target  to finish all of them by this year. flattr this!

Comments Off on Jamming for Data – Open Data Day in the Philippines

Two-day data training in Macedonia

- January 5, 2015 in Data for CSOs, Skillhare

At the end of November (26th-28th), in Dojran – a city in Macedonia, we held a two-day training with Milena. Tailored to the needs of the 24 participants from different CSOs, we tried to cover as much as possible of the topics we narrowed down using the form we composed for determining their skills and needs. 15744717149_815962dc69_z 15904939606_5c95d53b46_z We started the training with the basic introduction to what data is and where to find it, and the first day we mostly focused on working with spreadsheets, formulas and pivot tables. The next day we shared some thoughts and skills on data visualization, worked with different online data visualization and mapping tools and talked about creating beautiful timelines. Anyhow, the agenda for the training is here for everyone to check, use and adapt. 15308502654_ccc0d72c23_z During the two days we tried to be as flexible as possible and adapt to the real time needs of the participants, and to engage everyone in a more interactive way of learning through practical exercises and teamwork. Here you can see some more photos from the training. flattr this!

Comments Off on Two-day data training in Macedonia

Data 101 Knowledge Sharing with Publish What You Pay Indonesia

- December 5, 2014 in Data for CSOs, Events

Starting in August the School of Data Fellow for Indonesia, Yuandra Ismiraldi working together with Publish What You Pay Indonesia organized a weekly / bi-weekly event of knowledge sharing regarding data skills. This knowledge sharing event is free and open for all, so people can just come and learn various skills about working with data.   Data PipelineThe skills shared are mainly the detailed and technical version of the data pipeline concept of the School of Data:
  • Finding & getting data: Google advanced search, use of data portals, using Tabula to get data from PDFs
  • Cleaning data: data cleaning principles, using Open Refine to clean up messy data
  • Analyzing data: Excel, Tableau
  • Visualizing data: visualization principles, Infogr.am, Piktochart, etc
  • And a lot of other data related stuff: spatial data, examples of advocacy using data
  The event is more focused on discussions around each topic. The School of Data Fellow first gives a short presentation about the topic and continues with technical hands sessions or with a discussion based on a case study, depending on the topic. With these kinds of knowledge sharing, hopefully that CSOs such as PWYP Indonesia will have a more hands on experience on working with data. PWYP Indonesia Extractive Industries Infographic Right now the knowledge sharing has been done about 10 times, with some encouraging results. PWYP Indonesia began to use data more thoroughly as the underlying base for some of their advocacy program and have created some infographics in order to better communicate their data better. Hopefully, knowledge sharing like this can continue and better support CSOs in using data for their advocacy uses. flattr this!

Comments Off on Data 101 Knowledge Sharing with Publish What You Pay Indonesia

Open Data Club – Talking about data with CSOs in Indonesia

- December 3, 2014 in community, Data for CSOs, Events

Back in September, the School of Data conducted a training for CSOs working with election data in cooperation with Perludem and supported by The Asia Foundation. The training was the kick off of an initiative aiming to create a community of Indonesian CSOs that are interested in working with data to strengthen their advocacy strategy. This is how the Open Data Club was born in the end of October.
Meetup of Open Data Club of CSOs in Jakarta

Meetup of Open Data Club of CSOs in Jakarta

The Open Data Club membership was open for all CSO interested in working with data. Right now the meetings are concentrated in Jakarta but as the community gaining more momentum it will try to do the meetup in other cities as well. Need to be noted that this is might the first data-related community of CSOs, so this is a great start for data awareness for CSO in Indonesia. Right now there are more than 10 organizations took part in the meetups, including some goverments and funders. The first meetup, initiated by Perludem, had quite a mixed group, ranging from CSOs, goverment, and other data focused movements. However the focus is still on how to use data for advocacy, a theme that CSOs are very interested in. There was a lot of talking about how CSOs can get data, manage and analyse it and finally use it to for storytelling and evidence based campaigning in the form of infographics or interactive apps. One important point that also has been raised is how CSOs can collaborate and potentially combine their data and push more for knowledge sharing and collective advocacy. The Open Data Club became a weekly meetup in which the participating CSOs take turns in hosting the event. This means that they all visit the offices of all participants CSOs and get to know each other a little better. One more interesting thing is that the CSOs are starting to bond and create action plans (called bubbles) of things they want to achieve through the meetups. By doing this, hopefully after several meetups there will something concrete that the Open Data Club can create and build together. The Open Data Club marks something quite important for CSO in Indonesia. It shows that interest and awareness on working with data is gaining ground in Indonesia and the CSOs are starting to collaborate and work together for the greater good. Let’s hope this great community can create great things in the future! flattr this!

Comments Off on Open Data Club – Talking about data with CSOs in Indonesia

National Training on Working With Data For Extractive Industries in Indonesia

- November 7, 2014 in Data for CSOs, Events

Capacity Building Workshop for Publish What You Pay Indonesia Following on from the Capacity Building workshop held in September 2014 with Publish What You Pay Indonesia (PWYP Indonesia) and supported by South East Asia Technology & Transparency Initiative (SEATTI) – HIVOS, at the beginning of October, I helped lead a a two day national training regarding extractive industries data for CSO in Indonesia, with the same audience. Done in parallel with the national work meeting of the PWYP Indonesia coalition of CSOs, the training was focused on raising awareness of data usage and giving the basics on how to work with data for CSOs in the extractive industries sector in Indonesia. The two day training attracted 20+ participants from various CSO that joined in the PWYP Indonesia coalition and by the end of training we hoped they would have their own data project to continue working on.

The First Day

The first day was dedicated to learning the basics, and the theory! In the beginning, the participants are being given the rough theory and basic stuff on how to work with data & data usage, that is based primarily on the School of Data’s data pipeline. The concept of data work in the pipeline (asking a question, finding data, getting data, cleaning data, analyzing data, and visualizing data) also became the building blocks of the training. After the participant got a heavy dose of the basic stuff regarding how to work with data, then we went straight into the technical how-to’s, and got their hands dirty. We talked about how to finding data using Google’s advanced search, using the newly launched Indonesian Data Portal data.id, how to create their own forms using Google Docs, and how to get data from PDF using tools like Tabula. After they got their hands full of finding & getting data, then we went to the next step of cleaning data by showing them what we mean by ‘messy data’, and exactly what kind of clean data that they want to achieve in order for the data to be usable, and re-usable by others. As a session bonus in the end to close the first day, the participants were given a sample demonstration on how they can easily analyze their social media data using Wolfram Alpha. It was really a lot of stuff to chew on the first day, because it was so full of the basics, but the participants felt excited, and a silver lining that can be taken from this session is that actually a lot of the data pipeline concept has already been done by the CSO in their everyday work; the only difference, however, is that they weren’t (yet!) understanding it in terms of the big picture. To understand their work flow better, looking at it through the ‘data pipeline’ framework really helped.

The Second Day

On to the second day! The second day was done in parallel with the PWYP’s national seminar, and the data training track was put after the keynote and panel discussion regarding transparency in the extractive industries area. Even though the data training session was optional, and scheduled for the afternoon, this did not hinder the energy of the participants of the data training. The session was just packed as the first day’s session! The materials for the second day focused more on the actual implementation of the theory of the data pipeline that we went through on Day 1. The participants were introduced to the concept of data visualization and the tools that they can use for visualization, then using these tools and everything that was covered on Day 1, they were encouraged to try and create a data project plan using the pipeline as a template. As always with visualization, the participants were very interested and active in this session. Inevitably, we had a couple of minor glitches regarding internet connectivity, and it came up that some of the visualisation tools that we recommended actually needed an internet connection, but nevertheless the the session turned out nicely offline. After the “Creating your own data project” session facilitated by the PWYP Indonesia team, there was much discussion – which even continued after the time for the training has ended. Such incredible energy for data training!

Recap

Overall, there was a lot of interest in the technique of how actually to work with data, and how the usage of data can help the CSO groups to improve their advocacy work. This was great to see – because once you start to learn that data can help you, you will be hooked to learn more and more about data and how to work with them :) flattr this!

Comments Off on National Training on Working With Data For Extractive Industries in Indonesia

Breaking the Knowledge Barrier: The #OpenData Party in Northern Nigeria

- October 1, 2014 in #OpenData Party, Budget Data, Budget Tracking, community, Data Expeditions, Data for CSOs, Events, Follow the Money, Geocoding, Mapping, Nigeria, spreadsheets, Storytelling, visualisation, Zamfara

If the only news you have been watching or listening to about Northern Nigeria is of the Boko Haram violence in that region of Nigeria, then you need to know that other news exist, like the non-government organizations and media, that are interested in using the state and federal government budget data in monitoring service delivery, and making sure funds promised by government reach the community it was meant for. This time around, the #OpenData party moved from the Nigeria Capital – Abuja to Gusau, Zamfara and was held at the Zamfara Zakat and Endowment Board Hall between Thursday, 25 and Friday, 26, 2014. With 40 participant all set for this budget data expedition, participants included the state Budget Monitoring Group (A coalition of NGOs in Zamfara) coordinated by the DFID (Development for International Development) State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI),other international NGOs such as Society for Family Health (SFH), Save the Children, amongst others.
IMAG1553

Group picture of participants at the #OpenData Party in Zamfara

But how do you teach data and its use in a less-technology savvy region? We had to de-mystify teaching data to this community, by engaging in traditional visualization and scraping – which means the use of paper artworks in visualizing the data we already made available on the Education Budget Tracker. “I never believed we could visualize the education budget data of the federal government as easy as what was on the wall” exclaimed Ahmed Ibrahim of SAVI
IMAG1516

Visualization of the Education Budget for Federal Schools in Zamfara

As budgets have become a holy grail especially with state government in Nigeria, of most importance to the participants on the first day, was how to find budget data, and processes involved in tracking if services were really delivered, as promised in the budget. Finding the budget data of the state has been a little bit hectic, but with much advocacy, the government has been able to release dataset on the education and health sector. So what have been the challenges of the NGOs in tracking or using this data, as they have been engaged in budget tracking for a while now?
Challenges of Budget Tracking Highlighted by participants

Challenges of Budget Tracking Highlighted by participants

“Well, it is important to note that getting the government to release the data took us some time and rigorous advocacy, added to the fact that we ourselves needed training on analysis, and telling stories out of the budget data” explained Joels Terks Abaver of the Christian Association of Non Indigenes. During one of the break out session, access to budget information and training on how to use this budget data became a prominent challenge in the resolution of the several groups. The second day took participants through the data pipelines, while running an expedition on the available education and health sector budget data that was presented on the first day. Alas! We found out a big challenge on this budget data – it was not location specific! How does one track a budget data that does not answer the question of where? When involved in budget tracking, it is important to have a description data that states where exactly the funds will go. An example is Construction of Borehole water pump in Kaura Namoda LGA Primary School, or we include the budget of Kaura Namoda LGA Primary School as a subtitle in the budget document.
Taking participants through the data pipelines and how it relates to the Monitoring and Evaluation System

Taking participants through the data pipelines and how it relates to the Monitoring and Evaluation System

In communities like this, it is important to note that soft skills are needed to be taught – , like having 80% of the participants not knowing why excel spreadsheets are been used for budget data; like 70% of participants not knowing there is a Google spreadsheet that works like Microsoft Excel; like all participants not even knowing where to get the Nigeria Budget data and not knowing what Open Data means. Well moving through the school of data through the Open Data Party in this part of the world, as changed that notion.”It was an interesting and educative 2-day event taking us through the budget cycle and how budget data relates to tracking” Babangida Ummar, the Chairman of the Budget Working Group said. Going forward, this group of NGO and journalist has decided to join trusted sources that will be monitoring service delivery of four education institutions in the state, using the Education Budget Tracker. It was an exciting 2-day as we now hope to have a monthly engagement with this working group, as a renewed effort in ensuring service delivery in the education sector. Wondering where the next data party will happen? We are going to the South – South of Nigeria in the month of October – Calabar to be precise, and on the last day of the month, we will be rocking Abuja! flattr this!

Comments Off on Breaking the Knowledge Barrier: The #OpenData Party in Northern Nigeria