Brazil’s Open Data Policy Monitoring

This innovation project aims at contributing to government transparency enhancement, creating better possibilities of public oversight over governmental activities (especially with the CGU´s Open Data Policy Monitoring Dashboard) and contributing to the monitoring and evaluation of public policies. It is a mechanism that provides transparency on the development of the Open Data Policy and gives society the opportunity of monitoring how governmental bodies are working towards the provision of public information. It allows for using data of several governmental areas for different purposes like application development, public oversight, studies, businesses, among others.

The CGU develops this project with the partnership of some public bodies like the Ministry of Economy. This public body is in charge of managing the Brazilian Open Data Portal, which is very important for the development of the Open Data Policy Monitoring Dashboard. The CGU, together with civil society organizations, monitors the open data plans in a way that only fewer agencies lack opening bases. Therefore, this partnership directly affects the development of the innovation.

Society is the main beneficiary of this action since the Open Data Policy and the Open Data Dashboard aims to release open data to be reused by them. In the preparation of the Open Data Plans, public agencies must use some mechanisms for social participation in order to listen to citizens before selecting which databases will be released in an open format. The adequacy between data supply and data demand is essential to achieve the outcomes expected by the Policy.

Comparing the numbers presented by the Open Data Dashboard in the period between the months of May 2017 and December 2019, there is was a huge increase in the number of databases published in the Brazilian Open Data Portal, with numbers ranging from 119 in May 2017 to 2598 in December 2019. Those results present the achievement of one of the Policy´s goals, which establishes that disclosure of open data is an essential measure to provide better possibilities of public oversight over governmental actions. Thus, the wide dissemination of public data is the first step to implement this Policy which seeks to consolidate the culture of public transparency in the country. Results of this project can be evidenced by the use of the data provided for studies, especially in health and environmental areas, app development for improving public services, etc.

Open data is still a recent issue in Brazil. Changing this mentality has been one of the main challenges faced by the CGU. An Open Data Policy has been established to enable this transformation with guidelines and obligations targeting all government bodies of the Federal Executive Branch. The first demand is the creation of an Open Data Plan (ODP) by each public body covered by the Policy to disclose their own open data scenario, strategies and a publishing data schedule.
Working together and directly with the ones involved on the Open Data Policy was the best way of being successful with the innovation. The CGU offers direct support to public bodies, so they got engaged with the Policy and felt part of it. Also, society has an important role in the success of the initiative because the main outcome expected is that citizens can monitor government actions towards the policy implementation as well as their effective use of information aiming to promote public oversight, etc.

It is important that all agents involved in the Open Data Policy understand the importance of providing transparency to what is being done by the government. Transparency using open data allows for public oversight creates new business opportunities and promotes a common engagement between government and its citizens. Besides a common sense of the importance of acting with transparency, it is crucial for the success of this innovative project to have appropriate infrastructure, qualified professionals, sustainable policies and a collaborative atmosphere.

This innovation has a great potential of replication to similar problems in government. The CGU´s monitoring work can be replicated to any issue that involves the compliance with laws by large groups of target public that may generate information and open data. As an example, the CGU is also implementing similar monitoring work to other issues such as to the Access to Information Act (LAI), to the Public Integrity Program and others.

The accomplishment of the main goals of the Open Data Policy goes far beyond to simply disclosing public data. It is essential that public bodies release the data required by the citizens, so it is going to be useful and able to transform society. For that purpose, Open Data National Infrastructure Steering Committee – INDA established in 2017 a regulation that obliges each public body covered by the Policy to consult society before selecting which datasets will be released in the context of their Open Data Plans. This was an important measure to strengthen the Open Data Policy and provide more effectiveness in order to deliver concrete benefits for citizens.

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