This chapter presents an overview of the current state of open government data in Brazil. The document provides an assessment of the availability, accessibility and government support for data re-use in Brazil, based on the OECD analytical and measurement instruments for digital government and open government data. The chapter also highlights the current challenges and the next steps Brazil could take to advance its open government data agenda.
Open Government Review of Brazil
Towards an Integrated Open Government Agenda
OECD Public Governance Reviews
9. Open Government Data in Brazil
Abstract
Introduction
Open government data is a tool to unlock collaboration within and across governments and with external actors from civil society, academia and the private sector. It not only enhances public sector transparency and accountability of decision-makers, but also empowers citizens and stakeholders to monitor public sector performance, audit government’s decisions and monitor policy developments, as observed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Open government data enables government as a platform and contributes to a data-driven public sector. By grasping the potential of public participation and engagement, open data supports co-creation of public services to respond to societal needs, thus having important implications on levels of trust in government and on people’s well-being.
Brazil has a longstanding commitment to the open government data movement. The country counts with a sound legal framework and key strategic plans to structure its OGD agenda (see Sub-pillar 1.1: Content of the open by default policy). Likewise, Brazil has specific governance mechanisms and initiatives that help leverage and monitor the implementation of open government data in the country (see Sub-pillar 1.3: Implementation and Sub-pillar 2.3: Implementation). As one of the eight founder countries of the Open Government Partnership, Brazil’s open government data agenda has been closely connected to transparency. These efforts reflect Brazil’s performance above the OECD and LAC averages, and among the top three leading countries in the LAC region, according to the OECD Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index (see The OECD Open, Useful Re-usable Government Data (OURdata) Index).
Yet, challenges remain to fully reap the value of open government data as a driver for user and data-driven services, well-informed population, trustworthy and fair society, innovation inside and outside the public sector, and economic growth (see Looking Ahead: Next Steps of the Open Data Agenda in Brazil).
Milestones of Open Government Data in Brazil
The country’s strong engagement in improving public sector transparency, social control, ethical conduct and integrity in the public sector has driven Brazil’s open government data agenda since the early 2000s.
As shown in Figure 9.1, Brazil’s commitment to public sector transparency, social participation, accountability and the prevention and fight against corruption dates back to the Fiscal Responsibility and Transparency Laws (Complementary Laws 101/2000 and 131/2009). These laws mandate all levels of government to publish essential budget documents in digital format, in a timely and standardised fashion (Government of Brazil, 2000[1]) (Government of Brazil, 2009[2]).
Later on, the 2010 decade saw Brazil entering a consolidation stage both in terms of public transparency and open government data. The Access to Information Law (Law 12,527/2011 and Decree 7,724/2012) was an important step in enabling citizens to exert their constitutional right of access to information and complying with international treaties and conventions (see Table 5.2 “International Treaties and Conventions Recognising the Right to Information Adhered by Brazil in Chapter 5). Besides specifying rules and procedures to ensure information requests are properly registered, processed and treated (qualified as “passive transparency” by the Decree 7,724/2012), the aforementioned instruments also set new duties to all public bodies and entities to proactively disclose information and data of general interest (“active transparency” or “proactive disclosure”) (Government of Brazil, 2011[3]) (Government of Brazil, 2012[4]). These provisions support public transparency as they define timely access to public information as a right, thus helping citizens to avoid cumbersome administrative procedures, cut down costs associated with handling and answering individual ATI requests, increase public sector efficiency, and ultimately, encourage better information management and data flows within and across public sector organisations.
When presenting the concept of active transparency, the ATI Law (2011) introduced the concept of open data for the first time in the Brazilian legal framework. Despite significant synergies between the access to information and open government data movements in increasing transparency, the open government data movement also considers the access, use and re-use of datasets as important enablers for more democratic, collaborative and innovative societies and economies.
Figure 9.1. Milestones of Open Government Data Policy in Brazil (2000 – 2022)
Source: Author’s elaboration.
In the same year of the ATI Law, Brazil published its first National Action Plan on Open Government (Decree from 15 September 2011, superseded by Decree 10,160/2019), foreseeing principles of transparency and access to information (Government of Brazil, 2011[5]) (Government of Brazil, 2019[6]). The first National Action Plan on Open Government also created the Inter-ministerial Committee on Open Government (CIGA), in charge of guiding the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Brazil National Action Plans on Open Government.
Since 2011, open data-related commitments have been systematically included in Brazil’s OGP Action Plans, showing Brazil’s endeavour to advance its open government data agenda. These efforts have translated into specific actions and initiatives at the national level.
In 2011, Brazil joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) as one of the eight founder countries of this international initiative. While open government data commitments in OGP Action Plans are not legally binding, Brazil’s adherence to the OGP has helped shape its open government data agenda, both at national and subnational levels (OGP, 2016[7]). For example, Brazil’s first OGP Action Plan emphasised open government data as a strong driver for transparency, integrity, social participation and citizen engagement (commitments 1.2 and 1.3) (OGP, 2012[8]).
To materialise the commitments of the first and second OGP Action Plans (2011 - 2013 and 2013 - 2016), the Brazilian government created the National Infrastructure on Open Data (INDA), setting up objectives, infrastructure, standards, procedures and mechanisms for dissemination and sharing of government data and information according to open data standards (Normative Instruction 4/2012) (OGP, 2015[9]) (Government of Brazil, 2012[10]). Successive OGP Action Plans have supported the sharing of open government data at a more sectorial level, as in the case of the Transparency and Ministry of Justice portals (OGP, 2015[9]). In its current OGP Action Plan, Brazil has committed to advance towards expanding the availability of environmental, agricultural and electoral data in open, re-usable and machine-readable formats (OGP, 2022[11]).
INDA defines standards, technologies and guidelines for dissemination and sharing of government data and information in open format at federal executive branch. This set of specifications are approved by the National Open Data Infrastructure Steering Committee (CGINDA). The Committee is a multistakeholder body, formed by twelve representatives from government entities, civil society and academia (Government of Brazil, 2021[12]).
Another example of initiative resulting from the first OGP Plan is the Brazilian Open Data Portal (dados.gov.br), launched in 2012. The portal provides a central access point to open government data. By January 2022, the Open Data Portal had a total of 10 940 datasets and 52 979 data resources. The launch of the portal has had an important role as a platform that promotes an open by default culture and engagement from all actors of society, fostering innovative, collaborative and knowledge sharing practices centred on easy access to and sharing of data. The Open Data Portal is also relevant to allow stakeholders to monitor government actions, improve government accountability and capacity to react to citizens’ demands.
Brazil’s commitments in the first and second OGP Plans to foster social participation and civic engagement led the government to put in place several initiatives to upskill public servants at national and subnational levels, students, and the civil society in opening, using and re-using government data. Examples of products from these commitments are INDA’s capacity building plan, training for institutional open data plans offered by the National School of Public Administration (ENAP) and the Information and Communication Technologies Secretariat (SETIC), and several national conferences on open data (OGP, 2012[8]) (OGP, 2015[9]).
As part of Brazil’s second commitment in its 4th OGP Plan (2018 – 2021) to foster the publication of data on the basis of societal demand and interests (OGP, 2018[13]), the country produced an Open Data Reference Model, a collaborative work aimed at promoting integration, training and awareness among civil society and the three branches of government based on the mapping of societal demands (OGP, 2021[14]). The document contains standards and best practices for enhancing consistency of open data disclosed on the web, considering the perspectives of both publishers and consumers.
The country counts with a national open data policy (Decree 8,777/2016) setting transparency and social control among the guiding principles of open government data at the federal Executive level (Government of Brazil, 2016[15]). In addition to the OGP and national open data policy, every two years the federal Executive publishes a comprehensive medium-term action plan on open government data (“Plano de Ação de Infraestrutura Nacional de Dados Abertos” - INDA), setting clear actions and objectives, concrete steps and deadlines for implementation. Those plans are approved by the INDA Steering Committee – CGINDA - and include broader actions to enhance the overall structure for open data in the federal Executive branch (CGU, 2021[16]).
Brazil’s National Digital Government Strategies (2016 – 2019 and 2020 – 2022), the 2016 Open Data Policy, and the 2021 Digital Government Law have further promoted open government data at the national level. These instruments have also contributed to connecting the OGD to Brazil’s digital government and digital economy agendas.
Within digital government strategic documents, open government data is a key asset to promote transparency and openness in government, allowing proactiveness in the sharing of data and information, and enabling the monitoring and participation of society in the various stages of the design and delivery of policies and services.
The release, use and re-use of government data were among the ten principles and nine strategic objectives of Brazil’s first National Digital Government Strategy - NDGS (2016 – 2019). The NDGS set transparency, integrity, innovation and scientific research as the main drivers for Brazil’s open government data policy at the federal level (Government of Brazil, 2015[17]). Objective OE.01 of the NDGS also acknowledged the availability of open government data as a driver for a data-driven public sector. According to the evaluation report of the Strategy, Brazil surpassed by 12.89% the expected objective of attaining 2 800 databases published in open format in the Brazilian Open Data Portal (Government of Brazil, 2019[18]).
To complement the National Digital Government Strategy (Government of Brazil, 2022[19]), the Open Data Policy (Decree 8,777/2016) defined objectives and reinforced the governance architecture of open government data in Brazil. The Open Data Policy has had an important role as a normative instrument to leverage the opening of databases of all public institutions at the federal Executive level. The document obliges every two years all public institutions at the federal level to run an inventory of their databases and develop action plans to progressively publish them in open format. Those are the so-called PDAs – “Planos de Dados Abertos” (Open Data Plans).
The Federal Comptroller General (CGU) is responsible for implementing the Federal Open Data Policy together with the CGINDA (Decree 8,777/2016). In 2017, the CGU launched the Open Data Monitoring Panel to help enforce the duties from the Open Data Policy of opening government database (Decree 8,777/2016, Article 8) in more than two hundred public institutions at federal level (CGU, 2022[20]). The tool allows monitoring federal public institutions’ progress in disclosing their databases following open standards.
Brazil’s National Digital Government Strategy (2020 – 2022) and 2021 Digital Government Law broaden the understanding of open government data beyond the transparency agenda. These policy instruments reaffirmed the importance of the OGD agenda in the context of digital transformation in the public sector.
More recently, the Brazilian National Digital Government Strategy for 2020 – 2022 (Decree 10,332/2020) defined “Open and Transparent Government” as one of its six pillars (Government of Brazil, 2022[19]). Beyond transparency and integrity, as emphasised in the previous NDGS, the new strategy highlights open data as an important driver for government proactiveness and participation of society in the design and delivery of policies and services. Objectives 13.2 and 13.3 set as goals to expand the number of open databases to increase data availability and improve their quality.
The strategic approaches of open government data and digital government are also well articulated through Brazil’s Digital Government Law (14,129/2021). The Law is a milestone in setting directions for all levels of government and branches of power towards innovation, digital transformation and citizen participation (Government of Brazil, 2021[21]). Opening government data is among the guiding principles and has a crucial role in enabling government as a platform approach, the delivery of services and citizen participation, following the same approach of the 2020 - 2022 NDGS.
With the shift on the management and oversight of the open data policy at the federal Executive level from the Ministry of Economy to the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) in 2019, the Decree 9,903/2019 supported enhanced participation in the Open Data Policy and in the drafting of Open Data Plans.
Since 2019 CGU has been the leading entity, through INDA, in charge of Open Data Policy at the federal level, while the Ministry of Economy became competent to set standards and conduct INDA’s technological angle. These new competencies of CGU are in line with its mandate of engaging civil society and coordinating the implementation of the Open Government Partnership in Brazil.
Despite all the efforts and achievements to date, Brazil still faces some challenges that need to be addressed in the years to come to advance and deliver value from its open government data agenda. These challenges and opportunities are explored in the following sections.
The OECD Digital Government Policy Framework and the OECD Digital Government Index
The OECD Digital Government Policy Framework (DGPF) is a policy instrument developed to help governments identify key determinants for effective design and implementation of strategic approaches to transition towards higher levels of digital maturity of their public sectors. This analytical work builds on the provisions of the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies (OECD, 2014[22]) and supports the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the Secretariat across countries and individual projects. The DGPF embeds open government data within the Open by Default dimension (see Box 9.1), one out of the six dimensions that integrate the Framework (OECD, 2020[23]) (see Figure 9.2).
Box 9.1. The Six Dimensions of the OECD Digital Government Policy Framework
The OECD Digital Government Policy Framework is a policy instrument developed to help governments identify key determinants for effective design and implementation of strategic approaches to transition towards higher levels of digital maturity of their public sectors. This analytical work builds on the provisions of the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies and supports the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the Secretariat across countries and individual projects. The Framework is composed by six dimensions:
Digital by Design – refers to the capacity to govern and leverage digital technologies to rethink and re-engineer public processes, simplify procedures, and create new channels of communication and engagement with public stakeholders.
Data-Driven Public Sector – refers to the capacity to values data as a strategic asset and establish the governance, access, sharing and re-use mechanisms for improved decision-making and service delivery.
Government as a Platform – refers to the capacity to deploy a wide range of platforms, standards and services to help teams focus on user needs in public service design and delivery.
Open by Default – refers to the capacity to make government data and policy-making processes (including algorithms) available to the public, within the limits of existing legislation and in balance with national and public interest.
User-Driven – refers to the capacity to accord a central role to people’s needs and convenience in the shaping of processes, services and policies and to adopt inclusive mechanisms that enable this to happen.
Proactiveness – refers to the capacity to anticipate people’s needs and respond to them rapidly, avoiding cumbersome data and service delivery processes.
Figure 9.2. The OECD Digital Government Policy Framework
Source: OECD (2020[23]), “The OECD Digital Government Policy Framework: Six dimensions of a Digital Government”, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/f64fed2a-en.
To monitor and support the implementation of the 2014 OECD Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies (OECD, 2014[22]), the OECD developed the Digital Government Index (DGI) based on the six dimensions of the DGPF – Digital by Design, Data-Driven Public Sector, Government as a Platform, Open by Default, User-Driven and Proactiveness. The DGI helps countries understand their advances in the path towards digital government by assessing governments’ adoption of strategic approaches in the use of digital technologies and data as an integrated part of their modernisation strategies, to produce public value.
Brazil’s overall composite score in the DGI (0.51) places the country in top 3 among the other 5 LAC countries included in the Index (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Uruguay). However, the country ranks 15th among 29 OECD countries (see Figure 9.3).
Figure 9.3. The OECD Digital Government Index 2019: Composite Results
Note: Data are not available for Australia, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States of America.
Source: OECD (2020[24]), Digital Government Index, https://doi.org/10.1787/4de9f5bb-en.
Among the six dimensions measured by the DGI, Open by Default assesses the extent to which data, information, systems and processes are open unless there is a compelling reason – national and/or public interest – for them not to be. From this perspective, this dimension relies on pre-existent government proactive transparency and openness arrangements that, when applied to the digital government and data sphere, lay the foundations for opening up government data, source code and algorithms. The availability of government-wide guidelines on the digital release of government data, policy design and decisions in a timely and comprehensible manner, medium-term action plan on open government data, and formal requirements whereby government data should be “open by default” are among the specific topics covered in this dimension.
Results of the DGI 2019 show that Brazil’s highest scores are attained in Open by Default. In this dimension, the country performed slightly below the OECD average (0.64) with a score of 0.61, ranking 13th among 29 OECD countries and 3rd compared to other Latin American countries (as shown in Figure 9.4, further detailed in Table 9.1). These results reflect how Brazil’s policies and formal requirements to promote open government data – such as Brazil’s Digital Government Strategy and Open Data Policy – have laid the foundation to build an open by default culture in the public sector.
Table 9.1. OECD Digital Government Index 2019 – Snapshot of results from Brazil
Note: Data are not available for Australia, Costa Rica, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. A total of 29 OECD countries and 6 Latin American countries participated in the OECD 2019 Digital Government Index.
Source: OECD (2019), Digital Government Index, https://doi.org/10.1787/4de9f5bb-en.
Figure 9.4. The OECD Digital Government Index 2019: Open by Default Dimension
Note: Data are not available for Australia, Costa Rica, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.
Source: OECD (2019), Digital Government Index, https://doi.org/10.1787/4de9f5bb-en.
The OECD Open, Useful Re-usable Government Data (OURdata) Index
The OECD Secretariat developed the Open, Useful Re-usable Government Data (OURdata) Index to continuously monitor the availability, accessibility and support for data re-use. The analytical framework of the OURdata Index (Figure 9.5) promotes proactive, timely, meaningful release, use and re-use of government data, and ensures stakeholder engagement to seize opportunities from digital tools and open government data for value creation. It is structured in three pillars and nine sub-pillars, as shown in Figure 9.5:
Pillar 1 “Data availability” measures the extent to which governments have adopted and implemented formal requirements to promote open government data at the central/federal level. This pillar also assesses how users are involved early on in the policy process as means to inform data publication and identify policy needs. Pillar 1 also explores the scope of datasets available on central open data portals.
Pillar 2 “Data accessibility” measures the availability of formal requirements aiming at promoting the unrestricted access to understandable data (e.g. open license, metadata), the role of the ecosystem and the portal in ensuring data quality (e.g. feedback mechanisms), and the actual implementation of data accessibility requirements once these data are published.
Pillar 3 “Government support for data re-use” measures the extent to which governments play a proactive role in promoting the re-use of government data inside and outside government. This includes defining and implementing value co-creation initiatives and partnerships, capacity building exercises, and governments’ efforts to monitor and evaluate policy impact.
Figure 9.5. Analytical framework of the Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index
Source: Lafortune, G. and B. Ubaldi (2018), “OECD 2017 OURdata Index: Methodology and results”, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/2807d3c8-en.
Compared to LAC countries, Brazil’s overall results illustrate the country’s commitment to the open data agenda in the past years, and results from the availability of sound institutional, policy, legal and regulatory frameworks supporting strong governance for open government data in the country.
The Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index benchmarks the design and implementation of open government data policies at the national level across OECD member and partner countries. It ranges from 0 to 1, 0 being the lowest score and 1 the highest. As shown in Figure 9.6, the OURdata Index is structured around three pillars (Data availability, Data accessibility, and Government support to the re-use), all with an equal weight of 0.33 (Lafortune and Ubaldi, 2018[25]).
Figure 9.6. Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index, 2019
Note: For OECD countries, data is not available for Hungary, Iceland, Turkey and the United States. Countries of which data are part of the LAC average: Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Source: For OECD countries, except Costa Rica, data was collected through the OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018. Data for Costa Rica and the 12 non-OECD LAC countries was collected from the IDB-OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018; OECD (2020), “Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index: 2019”, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/45f6de2d-en; OECD (2020[26]), Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2020, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/13130fbb-en.
Brazil’s composite score (0.63) in the OURdata Index is above the OECD (0.60) and LAC (0.43) averages, and among the top three leading countries in the LAC region (Table 9.2). At a more granular level, across the three pillars from the analytical framework of the OURdata Index, Brazil shows significant results in Pillar 1 on Data Availability (0.23) and Pillar 2 on Data Accessibility (0.26), notably by engaging with stakeholders for data release (Sub-pillar 1.2), and by developing formal requirements that contribute to the increase of production and sharing of high-quality data (Sub-pillar 2.1).
Despite positive performance in Pillars 1 and 2, results below OECD average for Pillar 3 show Brazil can further improve in Government Support for Data Re-Use (0.14) by promoting greater data re-use and communicating with the data ecosystem (Sub-pillar 3.1), raising awareness and promoting greater data re-use (Sub-pillar 3.2). The next sub-sections present a detailed analysis of Brazil’s results for each of these pillars.
Table 9.2. OECD Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index 2019 – Snapshot of Results from Brazil
Note: For OECD countries, data is not available for Hungary, Iceland, Turkey and the United States. Countries of which data are part of the LAC average: Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Source: For OECD countries, except Costa Rica, data was collected through the OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018. Data for Costa Rica and the 12 non-OECD LAC countries was collected from the IDB-OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018; OECD (2020), “Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index: 2019”, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/45f6de2d-en; OECD (2020), Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2020, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/13130fbb-en.
Pillar 1: Data Availability
Overall results of Pillar 1 from the OECD 2019 OURdata Index show Brazil’s higher performance in Sub-pillars 1.2 and 1.3 compared to the average of OECD and LAC countries, except for Sub-pillar 1.1, which Brazil scores slightly below the OECD average (0.22).
Data Availability (Pillar 1) measures the adoption and implementation of formal requirements to promote open government data at the central/federal level (Sub-pillar 1.1), stakeholder engagement as means to inform data publication and identify policy needs (Sub-pillar 1.2), and the scope of datasets available on central open data portals (Sub-pillar 1.3) (Figure 9.7).
Figure 9.7. Pillar 1: Data Availability, 2019
Note: For OECD countries, data is not available for Hungary, Iceland, Turkey and the United States. Countries of which data are part of the LAC average: Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Source: For OECD countries, except Costa Rica, data was collected through the OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018. Data for Costa Rica and the 12 non-OECD LAC countries was collected from the IDB-OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018; OECD (2020), “Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index: 2019”, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/45f6de2d-en; OECD (2020), Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2020, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/13130fbb-en.
Sub-pillar 1.1: Content of the open by default policy
In terms of Sub-pillar 1.1 – Content of the open by default policy –, Brazil has overarching requirements applied to all public sector organisations for government data to be “open by default”, unless a legitimate justification is provided (ATI Law and Decree 7,724/2012). Likewise, Law 14,129/2021 (art. 29) explicitly states that data for active transparency shall be published in open formats. Yet, while acknowledging the open by default principle in formal instruments is an important step towards data availability, formal requirements do not necessarily result in actual implementation.
Evidence suggests that Brazil can further advance in implementing open data requirements (e.g. the provision of timely and machine-readable data) as part of performance indicators for all public sector organisations.
Key (open) performance indicators (KPIs) on open data practices might help expedite the transition from policy promises into practice, increasing public sector organisations’ compliance with formal requirements. Whereas efforts such as CGU’s Open Data Monitoring Panel (launched in 2017) can help monitor policy progress, linking open data efforts to KPIs in the public sector enables formal accountability mechanisms in the public sector to advance the availability of open data. Such an approach would benefit, in particular, the publication of open data by those public sector organisations that hold high-value data for society and economy but are not necessarily identified as key actors for open data publication in the context of Brazil’s ATI and OGD legal and policy instruments. This can also complement the monitoring of actions defined in the medium-term action plan on open government data (“Plano de Ação de Infraestrutura Nacional de Dados Abertos” - INDA) (CGU, 2021[16]).
Results for Sub-pillar 1.1 suggest that main challenges remain in having mechanisms in place to ensure that open government data initiatives comply with formal requirements on security, privacy and confidentiality to maximise benefits of open data while managing risks.
Acknowledging the challenges and social pressure for implementing trustworthy data governance and safeguarding the legitimate interests of individuals and businesses, Sub-pillar 1.1 of the OURdata Index gives a special focus on formal requirements and compliance with privacy, security and confidentiality regulations. Particularly in the case of open government data, risk-averse behaviour towards data openness may jeopardise open data policies and decrease the number of good practices to advance in the implementation of open data agenda. Securing the right balance between openness by default and the implementation of measures aiming to ensure and assess the alignment of open data policies with relevant regulation is crucial to maintaining public trust.
Results for Sub-pillar 1.1. and evidence collected throughout this review suggest that building trust around privacy, security, confidentiality and intellectual property could be a priority as part of the Brazilian open government data agenda (see Supporting an Ethical Open Government Data Agenda). For example, despite frequent incidents of personal data breaches, since 2015, no assessment has been undertaken for the whole federal government to ensure that government data publicly available respect national privacy legislation/standards on security, privacy, and confidentiality. Likewise, there has not been any assessment at the federal level to evaluate the implementation of relevant legislation on open government data regarding these matters. Without monitoring and/or evaluation mechanisms in place, such requirements might not result in actual implementation, entailing risks on privacy and trust. Efforts such as the actions included in the INDA’s Action Plan can be further tapped for this purpose. Box 9.2 provides an example of a mechanism to protect privacy and personal data when opening up government data.
Recent advancements in personal data protection in Brazil, such as the Constitutional Amendment PEC 17/2019 and Personal Data Protection Law 13,709/2018, should be complementary to the open government data agenda so that the adoption of new legal frameworks on privacy and data protection are not an excuse to restrict access to open data and information of public interest (Government of Brazil, 2018[27]) (Government of Brazil, 2019[28]). Providing training to public officials in charge of opening up government data in the areas of privacy and data protection would also contribute to increasing synergies and managing risks.
Box 9.2. Austria: Internal privacy assessments for open data
Where there is a risk that people might have their privacy impacted, as the case of opening up government data, assessment helps to ensure people are protected and any potential impacts are addressed. In Austria, for example, each publishing federal authority conducts an internal assessment to ensure that data published as open data do not damage privacy, security, confidentiality or intellectual property (OECD, 2020[29]). Despite the implementation of these assessments, they are not available online or shared with the public.
Austria is among the few OECD countries that conduct assessments to evaluate if public sector organisations are only publishing data that do not damage privacy rights. Despite all OECD countries having formal requirements that prevent the publication of sensitive and private data, in line with the provisions of instruments such as national data protection laws and FOI acts, there still remains a challenge in ensuring that open data initiatives in practice always do comply with these rules.
Source: OECD (2020), “Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index: 2019”, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/45f6de2d-en.
Sub-pillar 1.2: Stakeholder engagement for data release
The overall nature of the data published reflects, or should reflect, the value it aims to achieve. The engagement of stakeholders is strategic to inform data release, prioritising the publication of data based on users’ needs, and with a specific purpose. The “publish with a purpose” approach challenges the conception of data publication as the outcome, underpinned by reactive transparency (OECD, 2020[29]). Early engagement of stakeholders helps inform and prioritise data publication, later reverberating in the increase of re-use and value co-creation, explored in Pillar 3 of the Analytical Framework of the Open-Useful Re-usable Government Data.
Brazil’s score above OECD average (0.25) on Stakeholder Engagement for Data Release (Sub-pillar 1.2) results from its efforts to bring the data ecosystem at the core of the data release process. Among Brazil’s efforts, the country counts with the Resolution 3/2017 (article 1, §1) enacted by CGINDA, obliging all federal public sector organisations to regularly conduct consultations with users to identify databases of upmost interest and consider them as part of the priorities for their open data plans (PDAs - “Plano de Dados Abertos”) (Government of Brazil, 2017[30]).
Evidence collected through the IDB-OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018 shows that since 2017 the data ecosystem – including private sector organisations, citizens, civil society, journalists, academia and civil servants – has been often1 consulted to inform PDAs. For instance, CGU’s 2021 – 2023 Open Data Plan was informed by the results of a public consultation conducted with civil society organisations in 2020 (Government of Brazil, 2020[31]). The consultation helped the CGU identify civil society needs and prioritise the release of new databases in dados.gov.br (CGU, 2020[32]). More recently, the inclusion of specific actions in the 2021 - 2022 INDA’s Action Plan aiming at identifying data demand among external actors (“Action 1: Promote the opening of high-value databases” and “Action 4: Conduct research on the opening and re-use of government data”) shows Brazil’s efforts in following a demand-driven approach to data publication.
As part of the commitment to Actions 1 and 4 of 2021 - 2022 INDA’s Action Plan, the CGU has recently organised a consultation to help identifying private sector’s needs on open government data (Government of Brazil, 2021[33]). Beyond discussing the release of high value datasets, the consultation also focused in identifying challenges for data re-use, quality standards and the impact of open government data for private actors. Other two consultations are expected to take place with civil society and public officials by October 2022 according to the 2021 - 2022 INDA’s Action Plan (CGU, 2021[16]).
Yet, despite ongoing efforts by the CGU to follow a demand-driven data publication, challenges remain to ensure that public bodies – as data owners – follow practices and implement these efforts.
To support effective consultations and make the most of stakeholder engagement in the process of data release across the public sector, Brazil counts with guidelines on how to conduct consultations with data users applied to all public sector organisations at the federal level. Likewise, formal requirements obliging public sector organisations to maintain data catalogues and provide certain documents when conducting consultations (Decree 8,777/2016 article 5, §2) favour informed feedback from stakeholders on open data plans. For instance, lists of data holdings/data inventories have allowed stakeholders to better understand what type of government data resources exists, what data are already open and, therefore, to contribute with meaningful and valuable feedback on data availability (OECD, 2020[29]).
Despite formal requirements obliging all public sector organisations to systematically publish online the results of consultations (Resolution 3/2017, article 4, IV, issued by CGINDA), evidence shows that Brazil could advance at the implementation level to ensure these results are released online.
With governments worldwide encountering timid levels of trust (OECD, 2021[34]), stakeholder engagement to inform open data policies and reporting back on the results of the consultations should be perceived as an opportunity to have informed discussions on openness by default, increase legitimacy and public ownership over the open data agenda, and foster public sector accountability in terms of commitments for data publication.
Sub-pillar 1.3: Implementation
At implementation level of data availability, Sub-pillar 1.3 underlines the availability of high-value datasets on the central open data portal. Brazil scores higher (0.23) compared to OECD (0.18) and LAC (0.10) averages on Sub-pillar 1.3. This results from technical tools that enable the availability of open data from different platforms and sources, and a range of high-value datasets published at the federal open government data portal.
Dados.gov.br works as a federated catalogue that facilitates the discoverability, access to and use of open data published by public sector organisations. By November 2021, the portal counted with a total of 10,624 datasets from 206 public sector organisations at different levels and across the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches. Following a data federation approach, the portal helps to standardise government data across different levels, reduce data siloes, and secure a certain level of quality in line with central standards.
Despite formal requirements obliging all public sector organisations at the federal Executive level to develop and publish online their PDAs every two years (Law 12,527/2011 and Resolution 3/2017), the CGU’s Open Data Monitoring Panel shows that over half of these entities (approximately 58%) do not have a PDA (CGU, 2022[20]). Since these plans are guiding documents to promote the opening of data for each public sector organisation, the absence of PDAs for the majority of entities undermines the implementation of the open government data agenda in Brazil, such as the increase in the availability of high-value datasets at dados.gov.br.
In this respect, the Brazilian government could consider equipping the leading entity in charge of Open Data Policy at the federal level – CGU – with enforcement mechanisms and financial levers (e.g. budget allocation) to help public sector organisations advance in adopting and publishing their PDAs.
The portal dados.gov.br contains high-value open datasets that can be beneficial for both the economy and society. This list comprises postcodes, geospatial data (e.g. national and local maps), earth observation and environment (e.g. satellite images, meteorological data), mobility data, and business registers (company registers, company ownership), among other types of data. In terms of good governance, the availability of certain datasets on the central portal (e.g. public servants’ salaries, declaration of interest and call for tender) is a first step to tackle corruption, clientelism and policy capture in government. The availability of such datasets as open data improves public transparency and integrity, allows social control over public expenses and holds decision makers accountable (see Box 9.3).
Efforts to improve data availability on dados.gov.br are key to increasing the critical mass of data, but those should not be disconnected from mechanisms that help ensure data quality and accessibility. Likewise, to fully realise the benefits of open data policies, the Brazilian government could expand its efforts on stakeholder engagement for data re-use, as explored in Pillars 2 and 3.
Box 9.3. Reaping the Benefits of Data Availability in Brazil
Using Open Data to Transform Education
QEdu is a portal developed in partnership with Lemann Foundation and Meritt that provides data visualisation on the quality of education in Brazilian public and private schools (QEdu, 2022[35]). The portal shows, for example, the performance and profile of students on math and Portuguese, enrollment for each school stage, dropout and failure rates, school infrastructure, age distortions in relation to grades. Users can search and compare data across schools, cities or states. The portal also allows anyone to filter and download data in open format, and visualisation is generated from the Brazilian open government databases, such as data from the National Secondary Education Examination (Enem) and the National Institute of Studies and Research (INEP).
The portal is a showcase that demonstrates the importance of availability of open data and the benefits of third sector, government and academia working together to produce products that help improve and inform the design and monitoring of sectoral policies.
Tackling Corruption in Brazilian Senate and Federal Chamber of Deputies
The project “Serenata de Amor” uses technologies based on artificial intelligence to analyse and identify suspicions expenses from federal deputies and senators reimbursed by the Quota for the Exercise of Parliamentary Activity (“Cota para o Exercício da Atividade Parlamentar” - CEAP). The project uses open data available in the Brazilian central portal data.gov.br (Serenata de Amor, 2021[36]).
Besides helping identify suspicions expenses, serenata.ai displays information following user-friendly approach. This encourages the population to get informed, monitor and question their representatives on the use of public money. Serenata de Amor illustrates the importance of the availability of certain datasets (e.g. public servants salaries, declaration of interest, call for tenders, lobbying registers, assets declaration, charity registers) as a first step in helping tackling corruption and policy capture in government, improving transparency and holding decision makers accountable.
Source: QEdu (2022), QEdu: Home Page, https://novo.qedu.org.br/; Serenata de Amor (2021), Operação Serenata de Amor: Home Page, https://serenata.ai/.
Pillar 2: Data Accessibility
Overall results of Pillar 2 from the OECD 2019 OURdata Index show Brazil’s higher performance in Sub-pillars 2.1 and 2.3 compared to the average of OECD and LAC countries. While Brazil’s results in Pillar 2 remain above average, Brazil’s performance in Sub-pillar 2.2 shows a significant drop in stakeholder engagement (0.17).
Pillar 2 on Data Accessibility measures the availability of formal requirements aiming at promoting unrestricted access to understandable data (Sub-pillar 2.1), the role of the data ecosystem and data portals in ensuring data quality (Sub-pillar 2.2), as well as the implementation of accessibility and quality requirements once data are published (Sub-pillar 2.3) (Figure 9.8).
Figure 9.8. Pillar 2: Data Accessibility, 2019
Note: For OECD countries, data is not available for Hungary, Iceland, Turkey and the United States. Countries of which data are part of the LAC average: Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Source: For OECD countries, except Costa Rica, data was collected through the OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018. Data for Costa Rica and the 12 non-OECD LAC countries was collected from the IDB-OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018; OECD (2020), “Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index: 2019”, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/45f6de2d-en; OECD (2020), Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2020, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/13130fbb-en.
Sub-Pillar 2.1: Content of the access to data policy
Evidence shows Brazil has robust policy tools and mechanisms to promote unrestricted access to quality data (Sub-pillar 2.1).
Brazil’s Open Data Policy (Decree 8,777/2016) sets transparency, social control and free use of data among the guiding principles of open government data at the federal Executive level. These overarching principles underpin formal requirements applied to all public sector organisations to provide government data with open license and free of charge (Resolution 2/2017 issued by CGINDA) (Government of Brazil, 2017[37]).
Likewise, evidence shows that the Brazilian legal framework is well-equipped with formal requirements obliging all public sector organisations to provide open data in re-usable and machine-readable formats, with associated metadata, and in a timely and disaggregated manner when government data is published and shared (Access to Information Law and Open Data Policy).
Having such requirements in place help to ensure data remain up to date and relevant for users, in formats that allow re-use and extract value to the fullest extent, contributing to the maturity of the open data agenda in Brazil.
Sub-pillar 2.2: Stakeholder engagement
In Brazil, the level of stakeholder engagement for greater data quality and completeness (Sub-pillar 2.2) is still uneven.
Despite some progress towards making dados.gov.br more user-driven, the level of stakeholder engagement for data quality, completeness and integrity remains low relative to the level of policy content and implementation for data accessibility. Engaging with key actors from the ecosystem such as watchdogs and fact-checkers is crucial to increasing trust in government and data itself.
Likewise, despite some available core functions that allow users to communicate with the government on the central OGD portal dados.gov.br (e.g. feedback and user request sections), the portal lacks dynamic spaces (such as forums for discussion) where users can connect and share ideas among themselves (see Box 9.4). Such aspects respond not only to unidirectional communication, but also contribute to building a community of practice around open government data.
In the process of redesigning dados.gov.br (Government of Brazil, 2021[38]), Brazil could sustain its efforts to transform its open government data portal into a thriving tool for data communities, collaboration and data crowd-sourcing.
Box 9.4. Enabling Access and Engagement in Open Data
France: The Central Open Data Portal data.gouv.fr
Being an early adopter of OGD policies, France has one of the most developed central open data portals among OECD countries – the data.gouv.fr. The French portal is one of the most relevant examples of a portal that, managed by the central government, stands as a platform for user collaboration, community building and data crowdsourcing.
Instead of limiting itself to an open government data portal, data.gouv.fr follows a comprehensive approach by enabling data producers to register as data providers and upload their own datasets in open, accessible and re-usable formats, contributing to data re-use cases (OECD, 2018[39]). The French portal also allows users to add datasets categorised as being of “public interest” with virtual stamps that separate these data from “certified” datasets published by public sector entities (Government of France, 2022[40]).
To better engage users, increase collaboration and promote greater public value creation, data.gouv.fr offers to the data community the possibility to have discussions, follow other users, receive notifications and allow several users to publish datasets within a single organisation account. The success of the French central open data portal is reflected in its score for Data Accessibility in the OURdata Index (Figure 9.6) and has inspired other countries to follow a similar approach, such as Portugal (dados.gov.pt) (OECD, 2020[29]).
Finland: Using Data as a Platform – Ecosystem Engagement and Collaboration
Avoindata.fi is Finland’s national portal for open data, developed by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. The portal is developed in close cooperation with users using agile software development methods when implementing new features or improvements (Government of Finland, 2022[41]).
Anyone can upload open data datasets to avoindata.fi. Most of these datasets are published by different government agencies, municipalities, and other public administration organisations. Companies, associations, and private individuals can also publish open data on avoindata.fi. Publishers are responsible for their datasets, making sure their data is up to date and correct. Service administrators are responsible for removing inappropriate content, updating the user guide and developing the service. The portal allows users to provide feedback through a contact form. Users can browse and download datasets as well as subscribe to dataset updates from avoindata.fi. Registration is only required for users who want to add or manage datasets to the portal, and become a member of an organisation.
Source: OECD (2018), Open Government Data Report: Enhancing Policy Maturity for Sustainable Impact, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264305847-en; France (2022), Data.gouv.fr: Home Page, https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/; OECD (2020), “Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index: 2019”, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/45f6de2d-en; Finland (2022), Avoindata.fi, https://www.avoindata.fi/.
Sub-pillar 2.3: Implementation
At the implementation level, evidence suggests that Brazil has taken steps to reduce barriers to access good quality open government data. Score attained in Sub-pillar 2.3 (0.28) reflects these efforts.
The availability of the central open data portal – dados.gov.br – since 2012, and the continuous efforts invested by the CGU to keep the portal functional across different levels of government and branches of power help users have access to, keep track of progress and deliver value from open government data. These long-term efforts sustained across political terms should not be taken for granted. They have been key to support sound implementation and the realisation of open government data. In this respect, evidence from the 2019 edition of the OURdata Index shows that the change of policy priorities and political support can have a negative impact on the open government data agenda of a country. A comparison of results from the 2017 and 2019 editions of the OURdata Index shows a significant drop both in terms of scoring and ranking of former Open Government Data leading countries. These results stress the importance of solid governance frameworks and ensuring that changes in political administration, institutional governance and political support do not put open data initiatives at risk (OECD, 2020[29]).
Also, securing access to open government data shared in open and non-proprietary formats, free of charge and without required registration is foundational to a sound open data policy and to democratise the value of open data by removing access barriers.
Evidence collected through the IDB-OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018 suggests that there is room for increasing the proportion of disaggregated data and data available in machine-readable and non-proprietary formats (e.g. CSV and JSON) in the portal.
Formal requirements in policy documents are important but not sufficient to ensure data accessibility so that datasets are actually useful and re-usable. Open government data is not solely about disclosing government information for transparency purposes, but to proactively share government data in formats that are easy and open to re-use by both humans and machines towards greater re-use, value and integration.
Although the overall level of implementation in terms of accessibility is encouraging and greatly due to the enhancement of data available on Brazil’s one-stop shop portal dados.gov.br, improving the quality of datasets can help in the analysis of data, identification of bias, and allow its re-use by humans and machines to value creation, such as informing the design and delivery of policies and services (see Supporting an Ethical Open Government Data Agenda and Enabling User and Data-Driven Services).
Pillar 3: Government Support for Data Re-Use
Overall results of Pillar 3 from the OECD 2019 OURdata Index show Brazil scores below the OECD average. Despite Brazil’s outstanding performance in Sub-pillar 3.3 compared to the average of OECD and LAC countries, low scores in Sub-pillars 3.1 (0.09) and 3.2 (0.07) suggest the urgent need to foster data promotion initiatives and data literacy programmes in government.
Government Support for Data Re-Use (Pillar 3) measures governments’ proactivity in promoting the re-use of government data inside and outside the public sector. This includes implementing co-creation initiatives and partnerships, capacity building, and governments’ efforts to monitor and evaluate policy impact (Lafortune and Ubaldi, 2018[25]) (Figure 9.9).
Figure 9.9. Pillar 3: Government Support for Data Re-Use, 2019
Note: For OECD countries, data is not available for Hungary, Iceland, Turkey and the United States. Countries of which data are part of the LAC average: Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Source: For OECD countries, except Costa Rica, data was collected through the OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018. Data for Costa Rica and the 12 non-OECD LAC countries was collected from the IDB-OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018; OECD (2020), “Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index: 2019”, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/45f6de2d-en; OECD (2020), Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2020, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/13130fbb-en.
Sub-pillar 3.1: Data promotion initiatives and partnerships
Brazil’s score in Sub-pillar 3.1 (0.09) suggests there is large room for improving the promotion of open government data re-use among external users.
Despite the existence of formal requirements applied to all public sector organisations to raise awareness among civil society and businesses, Brazil could further advance in promoting initiatives to expand the re-use of open government data outside the public sector.
The government could further support initiatives from civil society and businesses (e.g. govtech start-ups) to identify and co-develop solutions to public policy challenges, and establish partnerships with businesses and the civil society to support data re-use.
Brazil could continue drawing on recent initiatives, such as ENAP “challenges” to tackle the pandemic (Government of Brazil, 2022[42]) and CGU datathons on public education system (CGU, 2019[43]), to further advance on open government data re-use among external users. The Open Data for Development Awards, financed by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), or the Hackaton Rede+ promoted by an Information Technology Federal Company, SERPRO, are other showcase examples to foster collaboration, research and innovation between civil society and the public sector (Government of Brazil, 2021[44]).
While there has been an increase since 2018 in participation from representatives of the federal government on specific events to inspire and support data re-use among businesses and the civil society (e.g. to understand users’ needs, to promote re-use and co-creation, to present opportunities/benefits of open government datasets to civil society), the challenge remains in ensuring that collaboration with the open data ecosystem becomes the rule, not the exception.
Sub-pillar 3.2: Data literacy programmes in government
Despite the relevance of capacity building and skills programmes for open data within the public administration, data literacy initiatives were scarce according to data from the IDB-OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018. Improvements in recent years show Brazil is moving in the right direction.
The absence of formal and practical mechanisms (e.g. information sessions, focus groups, mailing) to raise awareness and support data-re-use by public officials, and the lack of training until 2018 explain Brazil’s lowest score (0.07) in Sub-pillar 3.2, below OECD (0.22) and LAC (0.13) averages in the 2019 edition of the OECD OURdata Index. Since then, however, data literacy programmes targeted to public officials have been increasingly prioritised for Brazil’s open data agenda as an essential mechanism to help the public sector reap the benefits of open government data. For instance, the CGU and the National School of Public Administration (“Escola Nacional de Administração Pública” – ENAP) have been mobilising resources to offer a couple of free online courses on data governance (ENAP, 2022[45]), development of PDAs (ENAP, 2022[46]) and open data for social control (Government of Brazil, 2021[47]).
Despite these efforts, the majority of trainings rely on one-off virtual meetings and webinars, for example, on awareness of open government data (CGU, 2019[48]), development of PDAs (Government of Brazil, 2021[49]), and good practices for data accessibility and re-use (Government of Brazil, 2021[50]). Training programmes for open data should not only focus on securing a good understanding of open government data, but also on improving public servants’ awareness of how open data – including those provided by actors outside the public sector – can be used to improve daily operations, inform the design of policies and the delivery of services.
Besides formal training programmes, other mechanisms such as performance incentives, data skills catalogues and guidelines, laboratories for innovation and an open culture within public sector organisations allowing sharing of expertise and exchange public servants are examples of effective tools that can help accelerate the use of open data, and data in general, inside the public sector, to create public value. In this respect, the recent publication of Guidelines for the Release of Open Data (“Modelo de Referência para Publicação de Dados Abertos”) is a showcase of a reference document to promote awareness and standardisation of practices for the release of open data by civil society and the public sector (FGV, 2020[51]). The Guidelines is a result of Brazil’s effort to implement Commitment 2 of its 4th OGP Plan (OGP, 2018[13]).
Sub-pillar 3.3: Monitoring impact
In contrast to scores in Sub-pillars 3.1 and 3.2, results from the OECD 2019 OURdata Index show Brazil’s significant efforts to monitor and evaluate the impact of open government data (Sub-pillar 3.3).
Brazil has made efforts to display the re-use of data through academic papers, press and blog articles. Varying online initiatives is important to show that re-use of open data is not limited to people that are skilled in programming or advanced data analysis. Displaying a variety of examples can help inspire a wider range of potential users to re-use government data, including journalists, students, researchers and social media influencers (OECD, 2020[29]).
Brazil has also been taking steps to measure the impact of open government data on public sector performance through CGU’s Open Data Monitoring Panel (“Painel de Monitoramento de Dados Abertos”) (CGU, 2022[20]). Monitoring mechanisms provide tangible evidence of the positive impacts of data re-use on the public sector (e.g. increased efficiency, reduced costs, improved overall levels of transparency and accountability), and incentivises greater re-use and engagement in improving open data initiatives. In the long-term, measuring the impact of open government data on public sector performance can contribute to building a data-driven public sector and strengthening the overall management and governance of data.
However, data from the IDB-OECD Open Government Data Survey 2018 also shows that further support is needed to promote research on the social and economic impact of open data. Quantifying their social and economic benefits can help assess efficiency gains and saving costs in several areas (e.g. environment, healthcare, public safety, public transport) and further leverage the open government data agenda (see Box 9.5).
Box 9.5. Spain: Yearly “infomediary” reports published by the National Observatory of Telecommunications and Information Society (ONTSI)
In Spain, the National Observatory of Telecommunications and Information Society (“Observatorio Nacional de Tecnología y Sociedad” – ONTSI) has the purpose of producing reports, indicators and setting advisory recommendations to inform the public sector, businnesses and society on technology development and its impact on economy, employment, public services and well-being.
The ONTSI publishes a yearly assessment of the “infomediary” sector of the economy, understood as businesses that exist because of data. Besides providing up-to-date information on the characteristics of the sector (e.g. volume, activities, services and products), the report also assesses present opportunities and barriers on the use of data, and the impact of this sector to the economy and society. The annual report from 2020 identified that the business volume from information and data reuse activities reached 718 million euros in 2018, 11,1% more than in 2017. The study also points to the evolution on the number of clients, suggesting an increase in the “infomediary” sector (ONTSI, 2020[52]).
As mentioned earlier above, financial value is often the easiest way of defining the value of a tangible asset. In the case of data, the financial benefit of open data has often been cited as an important stimulus to economic growth by creating new industries and business models, thus, helping to make the case to move forward with the open government data agenda.
Source: ONTSI (2020), Del sector infomediario a la economía del dato: caracterización del sector infomediario, http://dx.doi.org/10.30923/SecInfEcoDat-2020.
Looking Ahead: Next Steps of the Open Data Agenda in Brazil
Despite all the advancements in open government data in Brazil, the country needs to consider additional steps to achieve higher levels of government transparency and trustworthiness, better design and delivery of policies and services, collaboration with actors outside the public sector and innovation. As part of the main priorities, the Brazilian government is encouraged to give a special focus in five areas: data ethics, misinformation and dis-information, service design and delivery, application programming interfaces (APIs), and data donorship.
Supporting an Ethical Open Government Data Agenda
Democracy, legitimacy, fairness, inclusion, transparency and openness are cross-cutting values for the ethical use of data. Government’s decisions and actions that derive from the access to, and sharing and use of data should limit to a maximum harms to individuals, collectivities and society. In this light, open data use should not lead to or perpetuate discrimination. Instead, it should promote inclusion, respect for diversity, and ensure that individuals and collectivities are equally treated and benefit from the outcomes that open data aims to deliver.
To achieve this, the Brazilian government could engage in efforts towards the ethical management of data throughout the data value cycle from its generation to its publication. Connecting open government data initiatives to broader data governance and data management efforts in the public sector would help to ensure that open data aligns to efforts aiming at the mitigation of biases affecting the generation or collection of data by public sector organisations (see Sub-pillar 1.1: Content of the open by default policy).
Publishing disaggregated data may help uncover bias and monitor social injustices and policy challenges hidden in data (OECD, 2020[29]).
Exploring soft policy instruments (e.g. ethical frameworks, good practice principles, guidelines, public communication campaigns) can complement formal legal and regulatory arrangements as means to influence behaviour, promote self-regulation, and build a value-based culture that favours openness and respect to citizens’ rights.
The OECD Good Practice Principles for Data Ethics in the Public Sector (OECD, 2021[53]) is an example of a soft policy instrument containing principles and values-based common actions that aims to support the ethical and trustworthy use of data in digital government projects, products, and services (see Enabling User and Data-Driven Services). In this respect, when making available open government data, the Good Practice Principles advocates for practices towards open, disaggregated and granular data following applicable privacy, security and ownership requirements. As part of additional efforts to advance in data ethics, the Brazilian government could take two initial steps in line with the Good Practice Principles for Data Ethics in the Public Sector.
Firstly, engaging in social dialogue with key actors inside and outside the public sector (e.g. autochthonous communities, women, LGBTQIA+ groups) to identify gaps in representation and inclusiveness of datasets. These measures aim to encompass actors who might feel data do not represent their respective communities or are currently pushing for further representation and governmental actions for inclusion. From this perspective, it is also important to assess (e.g. through retroactive data audits) if current data generation practices reflect the realities of all communities’ realities (see Box 9.6).
At the same time, the granularity and disaggregation of open data in itself is needed to shed further light in often hidden social disparities and inequalities (e.g. the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on autochthonous groups, or domestic violence against African descendant women). Implementing these efforts can also positively impact understanding different groups across society and help governments design policies and services that address their needs. Coordination between the CGU and relevant bodies within the public sector will play a key role in this regard.
Secondly, informing and training data subjects and their representatives, in particular those from vulnerable, underrepresented, or marginalised groups about their rights and the ethical implications of data access and sharing. Traditionally, capacity building exercises with external actors usually target communities of practice and focus on building technical skills for data re-use. While these efforts are important to fostering digital transformation and public value (see Pillar 3: Government Support for Data Re-Use), the Brazilian government could also consider mobilising resources to improve non-expert audiences’ capacity to contest certain uses of data and exert their rights. This could be implemented by allocating resources for the organisation of conferences, seminars, workshops and inclusive public communication campaigns to raise general population’s awareness of their rights and the ethical implications of data. Another window of opportunity is to bring the topic of data ethics as part of schools and universities curricula.
Box 9.6. Ethical open data practices: Publishing open, disaggregated and granular data
Mexico: Opening Disaggregated Geographical and Statistical Information
The Mexican National System of Statistical and Geographical Information (“Sistema Nacional de Información Estadística y Geográfica”) collects and discloses statistics and geographical data on territory, resources, population and economy with a great thematic diversity within these topics. The data can be consulted and downloaded in re-usable, machine-readable and non-proprietary formats, free of charge, and available in different levels of disaggregation.
For example, the 2020 Census of Population and Housing discloses information on gender, religion, migration, disabilities, dialects and ethnicity, among other information of the Mexican population (INEGI, 2020[54]). Geographical disaggregation enables the identification of population groups and their needs (e.g. in terms of housing, education, health, potable water, electricity, drainage services), helping policy makers design effective policies and closely monitor their results. Disaggregated data on Afro-descendants and autochthonous people brought important societal advancements in Mexico. For example, it offered interesting data on the movement for the recognition of Afro-descendants as autochthonous people and has helped define more concrete public policies (Mexican Daily Post, 2021[55]).
The Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography (“Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía” - INEGI) is the autonomous public body responsible for the National System of Statistical and Geographical Information (INEGI, 2022[56]). In addition to publishing open disaggregated and granular data, INEGI holds conferences, seminars and workshops for different types of audiences with varying fields of expertise to promote the understanding and use of statistical and geographical information in society. The Institute carries out numerous public consultations to know users’ current information requirements and counts with a microdata laboratory, offering users, particularly academic and the public sector, more granular information, while ensuring confidentiality and data privacy.
Canada: Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics
COVID-19 had unprecedented impacts on citizens, and particularly on the most vulnerable populations. To understand these impacts, Statistics Canada has enhanced crowdsourcing survey instruments to collect disaggregated data on vulnerable populations – including immigrants, autochthonous people, elderly, people with disabilities, and visible minority groups – when there are sufficient responses from Canadians to do so (Statistics Canada, 2021[57]). These data have been used to inform key insights and new findings targeted at different population groups.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, existing sources with disaggregated data have been used in new and innovative ways to explore gender equality. These include, for example, an analysis of diversity on boards of directors and of business ownership by gender in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2017[58]). Statistics Canada website also contains a number of articles and infographics, including four products highlighting new disaggregated data on Black communities in Canada, published to address key policy needs, and to raise awareness about issues related to gender, diversity and inclusion (Statistics Canada, 2020[59]).
Source: INEGI (2020), 2020 Census of Population and Housing, https://en.www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2020/#Microdata; Mexican Daily Post (2021), “More than 190,000 Oaxacans are recognized as Afro-Mexicans, reports Inegi”, https://mexicodailypost.com/2021/02/21/more-than-190000-oaxacans-are-recognized-as-afro-mexicans-reports-inegi/; INEGI (2022), National Institute of Statistics and Geography, https://en.www.inegi.org.mx/; Statistics Canada (2021), Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics, https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/topics-start/gender_diversity_and_inclusion; Statistics Canada (2017), The Daily — Representation of Women on Boards of Directors, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200128/dq200128b-eng.htm; Statistics Canada (2020), The Daily — A Socioeconomic Portrait of Canada’s Black Population, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200225/dq200225b-eng.htm.
Opening Up Data to Tackle Dis- and Misinformation
The access to and sharing of trusted data sources is crucial to help individuals navigate information overload (Lima, de Medeiros Lopes and Brito, 2020[60]), and channel them to reliable sources of information and facts. In Brazil, public opinion is increasingly shaped online. The country is a major social media power. Approximately 140 million of the country’s 212 million citizens are regular social media users. Nearly two-thirds of the population is on Facebook and around one-third of Brazilians use Instagram. Brazil is also among the top five countries by user count on Twitter and Youtube (openDemocracy, 2020[61]). Election campaigns have been increasingly relying on social media and most political candidates are active users across multiple platforms.
The spread of misinformation powered by user profiling and mass communication channels, and the absence of mechanisms to counter dis- and misinformation threatens citizens’ capacity to engage in informed and balanced debates on matters of public interest (see Chapter 5 on Civic Space), such as in the context of elections (The Guardian, 2018[62]) or the COVID-19 pandemic (Financial Times, 2020[63]). This can undermine citizens’ capacity to make well-informed decisions, contribute to social fracture, and jeopardise democracy.
Open government data can be a tool to counter dis- and misinformation. Opening up data helps governments to fill in data vacuums, contributes to informed discussions and decisions, and allow fact checking (Matasick, Alfonsi and Bellantoni, 2020[64]). However, merely increasing data availability does not solve dis- and misinformation in society (see Sub-pillar 1.3: Implementation).
As part of the measures to encounter dis- and misinformation, the Brazilian government could connect the publication of open government data to public communication efforts – targeted, cluster-based and through different platforms. This would contribute to reliable information reaching the overall population through targeted approaches and channels of communication. Box 9.7 provides two examples that illustrate how Ireland and Colombia have benefited from open data to counter dis- and misinformation in early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The quality of data plays a key role in determining trust in government. Previous OECD studies in the area of digital government have shown that challenges related to the integrity and trustworthiness of data published by public authorities can undermine confidence in government and drive citizens to look for alternative sources of information (OECD, 2022[65]). To avoid similar issues, the Brazilian government could also consider increasing the number of partnerships with journalists, civil society organisations and academics test open data and information released by the public sector. Supporting capacity building exercises and co-creation initiatives can leverage stakeholders’ capability to identify gaps of open data and create mechanisms to assess data trustworthiness and accuracy.
Box 9.7. Developing Responses to Dis- and Misinformation
Ireland: The COVID-19 Health Surveillance Monitor Dashboard
The earlier stages of the COVID-19 pandemic were marked by a rapid spread of dis- and mis-information. On top of a health crisis, governments were challenged by a massive wave of false and misleading information. To encounter this issue, the Irish Government paired up with all-Island Research Observatory and Maynooth University to release a user-friendly platform with maps, graphs and a dashboard presenting relevant figures and evidence to monitor and communicate the spread of the COVID-19 virus across the country, based on number of cases and georeferenced data. Users could also find official statistics on confirmed cases per county, the age profile of confirmed cases as well as how many people have been hospitalised (Government of Ireland, 2020[66]). Having a centralised platform where people could easily access official data and understand complex information helped Ireland reduce risks of people casting evidence and facts into doubt.
The Irish COVID-19 Health Surveillance Monitor dashboard was retired on the 4th March 2022 and no longer accessible. National statistics, information and data relating to COVID-19 were transferred to the Covid-19 Data Hub (covid-19.geohive.ie/). Statistics profiles and results are now updated in a daily-fashion from Monday to Friday, based on new confirmed COVID-19 cases from PCR exams and registered positive antigen results. Data on total notified COVID-19 related deaths and deaths newly notified in the previous week are updated once a week (Government of Ireland, 2020[67]).
Colombia: Datos.gov.co
Another example of initiative in place to tackle dis- and mis-information is the use of open data platforms as hubs to serve society with official data and inform citizens. Colombia’s main open data platform – Datos.gov.co – provides several tools (e.g. guidelines, tutorials, news feed) to encourage access and re-use of official data. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, Colombia used Datos.gov.co not only to share data but also health related news.
Guidelines, tutorials and trainings help users navigate through the portal and make a better use of open data (Government of Colombia, 2022[68]). These tools also enhance data literacy and empower people to have a better understanding and accountability over the data they access and share. The centralisation of data and information, and the availability of certain tools, as the ones mentioned above, help promote a cultural change towards a more well-informed population and minimises the risk of infodemics in the long-run.
Source: Ireland (2020), COVID-19 Health Surveillance Monitor, https://geohive.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/29dc1fec79164c179d18d8e53df82e96; Ireland (2020), Ireland’s COVID-19 Data Hub, https://covid-19.geohive.ie/; Colombia (2022), Datos.gov.co, https://www.datos.gov.co/stories/s/smn2-7atz#curso-virtual-de-datos-abiertos.
Enabling User and Data-Driven Services
Brazil has an untapped opportunity to advance in the re-use of open government data to design user-driven services. While much of the efforts on open government data to date have focused on making large quantities of government data available (e.g. increasing the number of datasets in dados.gov.br), challenges remain to translate open government data into a strategic asset for improved service delivery and addressing people’s needs in their daily lives.
Brazil, however, is not an exception. Evidence from the OECD/GovLab report on the use of open data shows that governments’ efforts during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic largely focused on publishing open data of general public interest (e.g. emergency expenditure, number of cases). Little was done to make use of open data as a tool to develop services to tackle the pandemic at health, social and economic levels (GOV LAB and OECD, 2021[69]). In the case of Latin American countries, such a trend could be a natural outcome of open government data movement largely propelled by transparency and anti-corruption agendas at early stages (OECD, 2014[70]) (OECD, 2018[39]). Box 9.8 provides the example of Korea, who managed to make the most of open data, to address emergency needs of their population, as part of their early responses to COVID-19 pandemic.
As the OURdata Index suggests (see Pillar 3: Government Support for Data Re-Use), there is a large room for Brazil to advance in promoting data literacy programmes within the public sector and supporting data initiatives and partnerships with stakeholders. These activities can particularly focus on open data and the development of data-driven public services. They can also greatly benefit from the coordination between the open data and digital government agendas, in line with the 2020 – 2022 National Digital Government Strategy – user-centred, data-driven and open government, among other pillars – (Government of Brazil, 2022[19]), and the Digital Government Law (Government of Brazil, 2021[21]). Box 9.8shows the strategic approach the US government has been undertaking to maximise the use of open government data to foster a data-driven public sector.
Training programs for open data should not only focus on securing public servants’ good understanding of what open government data is about and how to publish it for the purpose of public transparency, but also on improving awareness of how data can be re-used to improve the delivery of services. Likewise, by engaging in partnerships and supporting an active participation of actors such as the Govtech ecosystem in the process of designing services, the government not only contributes to further re-use of open data but also unlocks a culture of value creation, innovation and economic growth.
Box 9.8. Open Data Re-Use to Foster Service-Oriented Efforts
Korea: Addressing Mask Shortage in the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The case of Korea shows the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors, academia and civil society to help address people’s most pressing needs through the release and re-use of open data. In the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Korean government released on a daily basis mask inventory data in the open data portal Data.go.kr (Government of Korea, 2022[71]). Developers were encouraged to re-use these data to design mobile applications and web services informing pharmacies and number of masks available to purchase.
Korea’s answer to address mask shortage is a showcase of how governments can contribute to the further re-use of open data and help unlock a culture of value creation. In this particular example, the availability of open data and collaboration across different sectors contributed to addressing people’s needs in a timely-manner, and to increase levels of satisfaction with mask inventory services (Kim, 2020[72]).
United States: Maximising the Use of Open Government Data in the Public Sector
In the United States, the Open, Public Electronic and Necessary Government Data Act of 2018 (“OPEN Government Data Act” - 760/H.R. 1770) makes the chief data officers of all federal agencies responsible for ensuring that the use of data is maximised within their organisation (Government of United States, 2017[73]). Also, the United States’ 2021 Federal Data Strategy Action Plan foresees the analysis of gaps on data skills in the public sector, training and mentoring programs to upskill public officials with capacities on data-driven and evidence-building activities. According to the Acton Plan, by the end of 2022, agencies should have a solid foundation throughout their workforce, including a minimum level of data literacy among all staff and a sufficient accumulation of data skills to allow effective performance of all aspects of the data lifecycle (Government of United States, 2021[74]).
The combination of these two instruments, along with enhanced incentives and guidelines, are good examples of effective tools that can accelerate the use of open data, and data in general, in the public sector, to create public value.
Source: Korea (2022), Data.go.kr: Face Mask, https://www.data.go.kr/index.do; Kim, H. (2020), “Lesson Learned from the Power of Open Data: Resolving the Mask Shortage Problem Caused by COVID-19 in South Korea”, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13010278; United States (2017), H.R.1770 - OPEN Government Data Act, https://www.congress.gov/; United States (2021), Federal Data Strategy: 2021 Action Plan, https://strategy.data.gov/2021/action-plan/.
Fostering Open Data Integration: Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
APIs are important to allow real-time integration into the data value chain of key actors. They contribute to market competition (e.g. by decreasing information asymmetries), increased benefits to consumers (e.g. by enabling informed decisions), enable services and businesses innovation, and foster ecosystem development and co-creation (European Commission, 2021[75]).
Real-time access to datasets through APIs enables the re-use of open government data outside the public sector and are essential to support the business case for the long-term continuity of open data policies. Yet, setting up infrastructure, processing and updating data, and other operational activities are among the expected costs of having in place functioning APIs. For example, recent studies indicate that, on average, an API set up can cost up to 50,000 euros, based on data from European countries (European Commission, 2018[76]).
In light of these costs, some countries might face challenges to ensure that open government data is released with the needed APIs thus leading them to explore alternatives, such as fee-based or premium business models. Under these alternative approaches, open government data is usually free for accessing and downloading, but more advanced tools for data integration are charged. These alternative models restrict data use to resourced companies and individuals, hinder the democratic nature of the open government data movement, and prevent some groups from realising the benefits of open government data.
Despite the set up and maintenance that APIs require, a recent study suggests that API-related costs are substantially lower than the potential economic value of data reuse (European Commission, 2018[76]). In addition, when assessing certain datasets, the study concluded that making datasets available through APIs and for free can increase the number of data-set re-use over a hundred times. Box 9.9 provides some examples that illustrate the impacts of APIs on data re-use and its potential economic value.
Finding the right balance to accommodate infrastructure and operational costs of APIs without compromising advancements in recent years of the open data agenda can be challenging.
Economic benefits of real-time access to datasets through APIs often accrue in different departments from where costs are born, and government budgeting is often not set up to reconcile them (Open Ownership, 2021[77]). Therefore, before imposing charges for API services, the Brazilian government may want to consider reconcile API costs against revenues through, for example, internal budget processes and clear interdepartmental agreements. These agreements should be long-term and transcend annual budgeting.
Box 9.9. Enabling the Re-Use of Open Government Data through Application Programming Interfaces
Denmark: Accessing Addresses, Road Names, and Zip Code Data through “Danmarks Adressers” Web API
“Danmarks Adressers” Web API (DAWA) displays data and functionality regarding Denmark's addresses. A wide range of relevant data points are included, such as location in the form of coordinates, connection to the municipality, parish, court and police district. DAWA enables address functionalities, such as address entry, search and local address database (DAWA, 2022[78]). The target audience is developers seeking to integrate address functionalities in their systems. The API is available in open source.
The Danish government “basic data policy” program (“Grunddataprogrammet”) helped fund the project, and is among the main reasons for AWA’s success. To maintain the API lifecycle management and ensure its quality, annual budget is secured to the project. An API study funded by the European Commission suggests that annual budget dedicated to the maintenance of the API is secured by the economic benefits the application brings (European Commission, 2018[79]). For example, the study points that business case savings are EUR 33.5 million per year and that DAWA stimulates new uses of address data and functionality. Initial development cost was EUR 270 000 and operational cost of EUR 135 000 per year, including costs with AWS suite. Analysis of the benefits indicates that DAWA enables a sizable return on investment (European Commission, 2018[79]). Benefits comprise significant efficiency savings in public service delivery, and help citizens and businesses to remain informed, saving their time and money.
Sweden: Partnering for Real-Time and Free of Charge Public Transport Data
In Sweden, since 2011 a joint public open data initiative, Trafiklab, offers a wide range of APIs and real-time data, for example, on ticket prices, timetables and system status. The initiative is formed by public transportation companies (Samtrafiken, Stockholm Public Transit, Östgötatrafiken), public transport administration (Trafikverket) and research bodies (RISE Viktoria). Several other collaborations take place through Trafiklab with various actors both within and outside the public transport sector (Trafiklab, 2022[80]).
The initiative aims to foster open data-based innovation and entrepreneurship in the transportation sector. Public transportation data is free of charge and provided via an open API. The creation of the national data-sets costs approximately one million euro per year. The Trafiklab itself has an annual costs of around EUR 400 000. Thanks to this platform important projects in the transportation field were created, such as Citymapper, a top list popular navigation app; STHLM Traveling, a trip planner for walking, biking and public transport in for Stockholm, Skånetrafiken and Västrafik; and Skjutsgruppen, an application that offers travellers seats in private buses, boats, cars, air balloons and public transport in Sweden.
Source: DAWA (2022), Danmark Adressers Web API, https://dawadocs.dataforsyningen.dk/; European Commission (2018), Digital Government Benchmark API study, https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/2018-10/330046042jrc_digitalgovernmentbenchmark_finalreport_api_7.0.pdf; Trafiklab (2022), Trafiklab: About Us, https://www.trafiklab.se/.
Creating Value for the Public Good: Data Partnership and Donorship
Data partnership and donorship are a key enablers of innovation and growth for the public and private sectors. The non-rivalrous nature of data, combined with technological innovations such as the availability of big data analysis and artificial intelligence applications maximise the value of data. Usually data sourced from academia, NGOs and, notably, the private sector can only be shared under special conditions (e.g. due to privacy, personal data, intellectual property and other confidentiality reasons). Successful and sustainable data sharing partnerships must be legally compliant, technically feasible, socially acceptable, financially and commercially viable, and mitigate risk effectively. Initiatives from major technology companies such as Facebook Data for Good (Meta, 2022[81]), Uber Movement (Uber, 2019[82]), and Google Dataset Search (Google, 2022[83]) show the growing role of the private sector in enabling data access, sharing and discoverability. The COVID-19 pandemic also underpinned the importance of timely and free (open) data flows from different sources to help governments and societies to tackle global emergencies. To become more cost-efficient, promote collaborative insight generation and provide services effectively (see Enabling User and Data-Driven Services), the Brazilian public sector can benefit greatly from partnering with other sectors.
Usually data sourced from academia, NGOs and, notably, the private sector can only be shared under special conditions (e.g. privacy, personal data, intellectual property and other confidentiality reasons). Successful and sustainable data-sharing partnerships must be legally compliant, technically feasible, socially acceptable, financially and commercially viable, and mitigate risk effectively. To become more cost-efficient, promote collaborative insight generation and provide services effectively (see Enabling User and Data-Driven Services), the Brazilian public sector can benefit greatly from partnering with other sectors. As part of its future open government data agenda, Brazil could consider advancing in partnerships with actors from outside the public sector that hold datasets of public interest not available as open data. These efforts could be channelled to specific policy areas.
Drawing upon the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brazilian government could engage stakeholders to identify strategic datasets of public interest and explore partnerships. In light of the urgent need to address “infodemic”2 (WHO, 2020[84]), encompassing data donorship and partnership as part of the open data agenda can help not only expand the volume of datasets available for public good but also contribute to better policymaking and delivery of services in contexts that require resilience, rapid responses from government, and streamlined data access and sharing.
Brazil could also consider creating sandboxes for pilot collaborations to help assess the potential value of projects, test partnerships for specific societal needs, and improve the practicalities for data sharing between public, private and civil society organisations. In addition to that, it is recommended that the Brazilian government conduct research to obtain further empirical evidence on the benefits of data partnership and donorship for the public interest. Box 9.10 provides some examples of such initiatives.
Together with private and civil society organisations, the Brazilian government could also support a network of data stewards as the guardians of data and as a community of practice. Involving the public in the debate of data held by private actors (e.g. through data literacy programmes and public communication campaigns) would also help create a societal demand for further partnerships. Other mechanisms that can help data partnership and donorship gain traction with actors outside the public sector are creating incentives for these partnerships to happen (e.g. through public recognition of private companies and civil society organisations) and promoting awareness of their societal benefits.
Trust is a major precondition for data partnership and donorship (Richter Peter Slowinski et al., 2019[85]). In light of frequent data breaches (Reference here 4.3.4 Protecting privacy and ensuring data protection and cybersecurity), it might be of Brazilian government’s interest to enhance security and invest in privacy-preserving technologies to ensure that citizens and private actors do not have their personal and property rights threatened.
Box 9.10. Enabling Innovation and Growth through Data Partnership
Netherlands: Partnering with the Private Sector to Improve National Statistics Services
The Centre for Big Data Statistics (CBS), a Dutch statistics organisation, uses big data from a variety of organisations in their projects. CBS combines a large repository of government data on communities and individuals with data from several private companies (CBS, 2022[86]). The aim is to spark opportunities for synergies between the public and private sectors, observe, measure and describe developments in society, creating high-quality visualisations and community data for people (CBS, 2016[87]).
The availability of data to the national statistics agencies increases the quality and scope of their official statistics, reduce the cost of producing them, and make situation-analysis and citizen behaviour analysis more insightful. This enables public officials to better understand people’s needs and design services that better fit for their demands.
United States: Unlocking Solutions for Chronic Respiratory Diseases through Data Partnership
Propeller Health, a private company that develops solutions for chronic respiratory diseases, and the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered to share data on chronic respiratory diseases and environmental conditions.
The company developed a smart asthma management with “environmental intelligence”. The solution is a GPS-enabled tracker that monitors inhaler usage by asthmatics. The information is ported to a central database and used to identify trends for individuals, groups, and the overall population. By merging usage data with CDC information about environmental triggers of asthma (e.g. pollen count in the Northeast of the US or volcanic fog in Hawaii), Propeller Health helps physicians develop personalised treatment plans and spot prevention opportunities. This reflects in less emergency visits and better health conditions to people suffering from chronic respiratory diseases. The data partnership also benefited the public sector. Data shared by Propeller Health supported CDC to identify trends for environmental triggers of asthma (CDC, 2022[88]).
Source: CBS (2022), About Us: CBS, https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/about-us/organisation; CBS (2016), CBS, Google and Dataprovider develop new method to measure internet economy, https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/about-us/innovation/nieuwsberichten/recente-berichten/cbs-google-and-dataprovider-develop-new-method-to-measure-internet-economy; CDC (2022), National Center for Health Statistics: FastStats - Asthma, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/asthma.htm.
Key Recommendations
Connect open government data efforts to formal performance monitoring and indicators in the public sector, considering milestones, goals and timeframes defined in the INDA and the Open Data Monitoring Panel.
Run assessments and training exercises to support the publication of open government data while respecting the legitimate interests of stakeholders in line with available legislation, rules and guidelines on privacy, data protection, business confidentiality and intellectual property.
Sustain efforts to ensure that public bodies follow practices and implement initiatives towards a demand-driven data publication. Publishing the results of open data consultations in the central open data portal would also contribute to increase accountability in terms of commitments for data publication.
Explore the use of enforcement mechanisms and financial levers such as budget allocation processes to promote the publication of PDAs.
Sustain efforts to transform dados.gov.br into a thriving tool for data communities, collaboration and data crowd-sourcing.
Strengthen stakeholder engagement for enhanced data quality and completeness, by collecting feedback from current data users on the quality and relevance of the data shared in the portal. This would also imply sustaining efforts to ensure that data shared in dados.gov.br meet open data requirements in terms of machine-readability, licensing, and value for stakeholders.
Define and/or support partnerships for the access to and sharing of open data by private sector actors (data donorship), and crowdsourcing open data from other actors in dados.gov.br.
Run assessments and consultations to understand the main barriers to the re-use of open government data among civil society organisations and businesses, and support research on the social and economic impacts of open government data.
Sustain co-creation with businesses and civil society organisations to support data re-use and promote the co-creation of public services, including with actors from the Govtech ecosystem. The close collaboration between the CGU and other actors, such as the Secretariat of Digital Government at the Ministry of Economy, will be key to further connect the open government and digital government agendas in the Country.
Advance and sustain sound initiatives (e.g. formal training programmes, performance incentives, catalogues, guidelines, laboratory for innovation) to foster public servants’ expertise and data re-use within the public sector.
Publish disaggregated and granular open data, specifically in relation to vulnerable, marginalised and population groups at risk. This would also require connecting OGD initiatives to broader data governance and management efforts in the public sector to mitigate biases affecting the generation or collection of representative and inclusive data by public sector organisations.
Engage in social dialogue with key actors inside and outside the public sector (e.g. autochthonous communities, women, LGBTQIA+ groups) to identify gaps in representation and inclusiveness of datasets.
Connect the publication of open government data to public communication efforts in order to channel information recipients to trusted data sources, including the open data portal, and consider increasing the number of partnerships with journalists, civil society organisations and academics to test the trustworthiness of open data and information released by the public sector.
As feasible, provide tools such as APIs to promote real-time integration of open government data in value chains, including those from private sector actors.
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