By Kemo Cham
The experience in the fight against the 2014 Ebola outbreak makes a case for an Open Data system in Sierra Leone, a World Bank Consultant has told Politico.
Ms Jeanne Holm said effectiveness in containing the spread of the virus depended on availability of information on the number of cases which guided the nation on the goal of attaining zero cases before been declared epidemic-free.
“In the midst of the tragedy of Ebola, I think that people started to understand the power of data,” Holm said in an interview on Wednesday November 18. She said understanding that the country could measure the number of cases, that it could account for those throughout the country, and that the goal was to get to zero in 42 days, helped people understood what everyone was trying to do together as a nation.
Holm is a professor in Civic Innovation and Data Science at the University of California. She is on a World Bank mission to help Sierra Leone assess its readiness in terms of the open data initiative.
“I think it [Ebola] sets a tragic but important stage for people to then say now if I think next, say about education, what is it that we are trying to accomplish with those goals,” she said.
Open data is the idea of making data or information freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyrights, patents or other mechanisms of control.
Open data falls in line with the idea of the universal principle of the Rights to Access Information (RAI), otherwise referred to as Freedom of Information (FOI).
Sierra Leone in 2013 enacted its FOI law after over a decade of campaign and preparation, which brought into existence the Rights to Access Information Commission (RAIC).
The World Bank, through its Open Aid Partnership (OAP), has since then been helping the government through RAIC and the Ministry of Information and Communication to enhance its transparency initiatives through the development of an open data initiative. This led to the launching, in May this year, of the National Open Data Portal (NODP) which is currently managed by the RAIC.
Holm is in Sierra Leone in response to the government`s request from the Bank for support in carrying out an Open Data Readiness Assessment. Her assignment entails providing guidance on how to design, implement and manage an open data initiative and make recommendations on key strategic actions to ensure the sustainability of the Open Data Portal.
Open data is all about being able to look at how the government can use data, both internally and externally, and open that data for businesses, civil society, academic research and general citizens, to find out information about the government, she said.
She said the Bank takes open data as “really important” because they understood its power to transform lives. Having a data about school outcomes and fees makes it comfortable, and parents can manage their budget and are assured that their children are getting a better education, she said.
“When people and businesses get access to data, they can do their jobs better, and make better decisions.”
Holm said the great thing about Sierra Leone was that it already had policies in place, like the RAI, which were relevant to having a working open data system. Her concerns, however, are the inadequacy of power supply, access to internet, among others, which would limit the smooth operation of the system.
The University of California professor also cited the Secrecy Act as a prohibiting factor which has made it hard for government officials to divulge information to outsiders.
She said while the law was understandable, there was the need to differentiate between what information was to be kept in secretes and what should be available to citizens.
She said the space at the National Archive is so small that ministries and departments have been left to manage their own archives under difficult circumstances which they haven’t clearly been doing correctly.
“I think there is some logical thing that can be done to help,” she said.
This phase of the assessment ends on Friday November 20.
Politico Online 18/11/15
