Results, Outcomes & Impacts
1/Concrete results, outcomes & impacts include :
- Existence of the National OD portal in two languages and data sets are published in Arabic and French and publication of about 1200 datasets through it by 37 public providers (ministers,...),
- From September 2016 to May 2019, around 27000 users have made use of the national portal (20500 users and 25000 sessions for the arabic version, 6000 users and 7000 sessions for the french version),
- Development of 7 sectoral Open Data portals,
- Establishment of an assessment grid used for the monitoring and evaluation of OD portals,
- Development of a public data inventory project with 6 ministries
- Organisation of Hackathons aiming to use public datasets (Onshor Hack, Mapathon Hackthon,)
2/The next measures include :
- Organizing training sessions
- Adoption of the Open public Data Decree,
- Complete the implementation of the public data inventory project.
Challenges and Failures
- Need to raise public awareness on the existing data structures at the initial stages of the project to promote a larger involvement of the public. The initiative faced challenges as there was a general lack of knowledge about the OD concepts and standards in the country. To resolve this issue, several workshops and informational sessions have been organized to build knowledge and capacity around open data and to promote the use of the National OD portal. Given the weak capacity of the administration in some cases, civil society contributed to the arrangement of forums and workshops.
- Lack of financial and human resources dedicated to manage this project, given the absence of a budget allocation in the State budget to ensure this component. Currently, the international cooperation is being used to set up some activities related to OD (training, awareness-raising workshops, drafting a communication plan on OpenGov and Open Data)
Conditions for Success
The leadership, guidance and high-level political commitment have been key success factors of this innovation. The involvement of civil society in this approach has also been an important enabling condition for the initiative's success. Moreover, the existence of a legal framework on access to information (Organic Law Number 22 of 2016) and the acknowledgments of the right to access information in the constitution form the enabling conditions to support the National OD portal.
Replication
Several open data portals (7) at the sectoral level have been developed as of 2018, for sectors on cultural affairs, transport, agriculture, municipalities and local affairs. The creation of an open data ecosystem in Tunisia will enable the establishment of a new economy based on data reuse and innovation. It will also allow public entities to harness the power of new technologies through the development of new services and applications.
Lessons Learned
The success of the Tunisian experience is due to the adoption of a practical approach of "learning by doing". Indeed, the national OD portal was the second version of a simple website developed in 2012. The first step was the coverage of the technical aspects of OD. Afterwards, Government reflections were focused on covering the technical, institutional and organizations aspects related to the open data field. In this context, several projects have been launched to enhance the Open Data ecosystem, for example the establishment of sectoral OD portals, the drafting of legal framework of OD, the elaboration of a national Open Data action plan. In addition, the involvement of the civil society in this approach contributed to the success of the project. As a result, the publication of data sets in the national portal takes into account the users' demand (CSOs and citizens).
Leave a Reply