Open data platforms: a tool to revolutionise governance | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional

"Having returned from speaking at a conference hosted by the World Bank president Jim Yong Kim on the issue of constituency feedback, I have re-learnt an important lesson: that citizens always know better than the government or the market what works for them. So why don't state officials and policymakers take us, the citizens, into their confidence? Can we begin to see citizens as the greatest ally for good governance? And if so, how do we pursue a partnership between government and citizens? Part of the answer lies in open data. According to the latest open budget index survey, South Africa ranks second out of 100 countries for the transparency and accountability of its budget processes. Statistics SA has the most comprehensive data sets in Africa. Imagine if we could take the education budget at R230bn (£16.6bn) for 2013/2014 and break that down into the budget per school. Parents, students, teachers would be empowered to demand to see the accounts of expenditure. If salaries have been set aside for 20 teachers but only 15 are actually there, then the school governing board and community would be the government's biggest allies in rooting out corruption. If textbooks are not delivered, toilets not built when money is set aside, then immediate feedback can be given to the authorities. We would be decentralising governance and ensuring that parents have the tools to demand action in the constitutional right of their children to quality education. On a trip to Kenya recently, I spoke at the launch of the Code4Kenya initiative backed by government, the African Media Initiative, media companies, NGOs and the ICT sector as one of the first sustained attempts in Africa focused on making open data relevant to and used by citizens. Using exam and school location data, the NGO Twaweza has developed an education application 'Find My School' that citizens can use to check relative performance of primary schools in the country. A fascinating portal provides parents with information on how individual schools in Kenya perform in national examinations. Quality education, accountability, teacher performance and accountability are visibly transformed in the interests of the students and the country. Africa is the fastest growing mobile market in the world, with over 600 million users. Using the pervasive mobile technology platform, we could avoid costly software applications and improve the performance of education ...  The transformative power of mobile technology in Kenya is well known. It is estimated that over 30% of the Kenyan GDP is circulating on the back of mobile platforms like M-pesa, putting effective financial services into the hands of the previously unbanked. Over 17 million customers can deposit, withdraw and transfer money, pay bills, buy airtime from a network of agents that includes airtime resellers and retail outlets.  Another example from Uganda is U-report, a free SMS service launched in 2011 with the support of Unicef, which gives young Ugandans a voice on issues they care about. The system has over 145,000 active U-reporters, and is growing through partnership with the government, NGOs, youth organisations, faith-based organisations and private companies ... There are lessons also to be learnt from the west. The New York City mayor's office, using the platform allourideas.org, created an ideas marketplace, PlaNYC, with 25 ideas (eg: open schoolyards across the city – to know how public wanted the city to look and feel by 2030. New Yorkers responded by casting about 25,000 votes and uploading more than 400 new ideas ...  In discussion with Christopher Finch, a senior social development specialist with the World Bank in Kenya, I learnt the following lessons ..."