The value of working together as an open data community

With the near completion of the first local elections in two decades and the gearing up for provincial elections in late November, this is an exciting time for Nepal. However, while the federal structure is now taking shape, Nepal continues to face many pressing development challenges related to poverty, transparency, accountability, economic development, inequality and social inclusion. To address these challenges, the use of evidence — reliable, accessible data and information — to inform decision-making, monitor progress and evaluate development outcomes will be key. Despite progress, challenges with regard to the production, sharing and use of high-quality data for sustainable development remain.

Nepal’s dynamic community of data enthusiasts has played an important role in this progress and in encouraging the growing interest from government and civil society in open data. However, even with these advancements, the “open data” agenda in Nepal is still relatively new and niche. There is potential to increase the number of these groups, and enhance and support the work of the actors within the open data ecosystem. It has been increasingly recognized by the open data movement internationally that making data open is not enough. For open data to lead to greater transparency, accountability and innovation it needs to be used and shared by a functional and inclusive ecosystem of data suppliers, intermediaries and users operating within an enabling environment for (open) data as evidence-for-development.

There is growing consensus among Nepal’s open data actors that there is now an opportunity to advance their collaboration as an open data community and build this inclusive data ecosystem and enabling environment together. This advancement will allow for the work of these groups to have a greater impact, reach a greater number of people, have higher chances of sustainability and lead to real gains in evidence-based development in Nepal. The growing recognition to advance collaborative efforts amongst the open data players in Nepal, along with the exciting recent developments in open data in Nepal, presents an opportune moment for Open Nepal to be revitalized as an inclusive open data community of practice and knowledge hub — run by the community for the community.

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