Responsive Government

Launching a movement for transparent, inclusive and accountable data governance: Introducing the #RestoreDataRights Declaration

Open Data, Responsive Government, Restore Data RightsNovember 10, 2020

The #RestoreDataRights movement comprises seven partners across Africa; Paradigm Initiative (Nigeria), Africa Digital Rights Hub (Ghana), Tom Moultrie (Professor of Demography, University of Cape Town) (South Africa), Media Rights Agenda (Nigeria), CIPESA (Uganda), Open Institute (Kenya) and Amnesty International (Kenya). It sprang from discussions on how data used as part of the COVID-19 response should…

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A Restore Data Rights Initiative for Africa

Accountability, Open Data, Restore Data RightsOctober 16, 2020

The Restore Data Rights initiative was born out of necessity; we realised that personal digital rights were being exploited with the COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst. We presently comprise of six partners across Africa; Paradigm Initiative (Nigeria), Africa Digital Rights Hub (Ghana), Tom Moultrie (Professor of Demography, University of Cape Town) (South Africa), Media Rights…

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Being corrupt is usually the cheaper option, so what should we do?

Accountability, Active Citizens, Open DataOctober 14, 2020

Imagine you are driving from one city to another in your country and a policeman stops you for speeding. The correct process that should be followed is that the policeman would have to take you to the police station and you would have to pay a cash bail of USD 50 and get an appointment…

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CensusKe: a new platform for exploring Kenya’s 2019 Census Data

Open Data, Open Governance, Open Institute, Open Lab, Responsive GovernmentMarch 6, 2020

We are excited to release Census.ke, a new platform for all of the census 2019 data currently released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the principal agency of the Kenya Government for collecting, analysing and disseminating statistical data, and the custodian of official statistical information. The Bureau is also responsible for the coordination of…

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Submissions on the Data Protection Civil Registration Regulations (2020) in Kenya

Accountability, Announcements, Open Governance, Responsive Government, Think PieceMarch 5, 2020

The Ministry of ICT issued an invitation to members of the public to comment on the data protection regulations on civil registrations through the press. We submitted our comments, which you can read in detail here. We essentially raised five points of concern with the regulations: issues around the operation of consent under the Regulations,…

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Building Trust in Citizen Generated Data – what we have learnt

Global Partnership, Open Governance, Open Institute, Think PieceMarch 3, 2020

Today I attended a meeting organized at the Ford Foundation offices by the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. The major part of the conversation was to consider the recommendations made by the Friends of the Chair of the UN Statistics Commission on Non-Traditional Data. How do we get Citizen Generated Data to be trusted…

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Ending 2019: What we know now

Active Citizens, Conversations & Communities, Open Institute, Open Lab, Responsive GovernmentDecember 29, 2019

As the year 2019 comes to a close, we are in a reflective state. This year was for us so transitory, that we intentionally deferred our strategic planning for the next few years. We needed to use it to simply understand what was in flux and that needed time. So we took the year to…

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Kenya’s first sub-national Data Desk is a big deal for us.

Conversations & Communities, Global Goals For Local Impact, Open County, Responsive GovernmentOctober 16, 2019

We at the Open Institute are very excited as just this week we witnessed the launch of Kenya’s first sub-national data desk in Elgeyo Marakwet County (EMC), famously known as the home of Champions. The launch day was a big deal for my co-founder, Jay Bhalla and myself in particular. A data desk is essentially…

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Kenya’s First County Data Desk Launched

Active Citizens, Responsive Government, UncategorizedOctober 15, 2019

Elgeyo Marakwet County is the first devolved unit in Kenya to establish a Data Desk, which is a government function that will collect, compile, analyze and disseminate the county’s data and in a bid to have devolved governments be more responsive to the needs of its citizens. H.E. Eng. Alex Tolgos, Governor of Elgeyo Marakwet,…

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Setting up Data Desks in Counties: Why we care about this.

Open County, Responsive GovernmentJuly 31, 2019

Since 2013, we have been working together with counties and the World Bank in Kenya to develop systems to be transparent and engage citizens. The Open County Initiative provides a framework through which county-level engagement between county government, private sector and civil society is initiated and sustained. The programme also promotes an environment where citizens…

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Responsive Government

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