Capability: Sub-national¶
To what extent do city, regional, and local governments have the capability to effectively manage data?
Definitions and Identification
This indicator examines strategies, initiatives, or activities that demonstrate that sub-national and local governments have the capability to effectively manage data. Data capabilities can involve both open government data, as well as other kinds of data and data flows.
This indicator investigates local governments' capability to manage data by looking for the existence—at a sub-national scale—of a wide range of initiatives, policies, frameworks, and activities that other indicators investigate at a national level: open data initiatives and policies; government data management guides and rules; data-sharing frameworks; local support for data reuse; and data trainings for public servants.
With regard to data sharing, this indicator focuses on open government data, crowdsourced data, academic data, B2G (business to government), B2B (business to business), G2B (government to business).
To explore the landscape of the local data environment, scan and identify selected data capabilities in main cities, provinces, states, or regions. When there is evidence of local capabilities, in response to the first sub-question of the indicator ("To what extent do city, regional, and local governments have the capability to effectively manage data?") note if these tend to be limited or ad-hoc capabilities, or whether they show sustained, institutionalized capabilities in local environments. Then, in response to the final sub-question ("How widespread are local capabilities to effectively manage data?") note how widespread these are. To review definitions of concepts, please reread indicators on related national capabilities.
Starting points
- Sources
- The OGP Local ****initiative can guide you to local data strategies.
- Qualitative data from the Open Data Barometer may provide details of sub-national capabilities prior to 2017 generally, and prior to 2019 for Latin America and the Caribbean; look for sheets with primary data on ODB context and impact and filter by question ID "ODB.2015.C8."
- Search:
- Local e-government portals;
- Local open data portals;
- Mentions to sub-national governments on national data strategies.
- Consult:
- Data experts;
- Local government civil servants;
- Local data communities;
- Data policy makers;
- Chief information officers (CIO) of local companies.
What to look for?
Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:
- Is there evidence of city, regional ,and local governments having the capacity to collect, manage, share, and open data?
- Does the evidence show isolated capabilities? Or does the evidence demonstrate comprehensive institutionalized capacities at sub-national levels?
- Does the evidence of local open data capacities encompass:
- Local open data policies and laws;
- Local open data portals;
- Dedicated open data local agencies;
- Training programs for local civil servants on open data issues;
- Strategies and actions to proactively support open data data reuse, such as challenges for data reuse, hackathons, dissemination efforts, working groups, funding schemes, partnerships with different stakeholders: private sector, academy, media, etc.
- Does the evidence of local shared data capacities encompass:
- Shared data local policies and laws, including contract guidance;
- Data sharing tools;
- Dedicated agencies or institutions to guide and promote data sharing;
- Dedicated programs to encourage data sharing;
- Strategies and actions to proactively support shared data reuse, such as challenges for data reuse, hackathons, dissemination efforts, working groups, funding schemes, partnerships with different stakeholders: private sector, academy, media, etc.
- Does the evidence on data-sharing capacities involve various data flows? For example, open government data, crowdsourced data, data for scientific research, B2G (business to government), B2B (business to business).
National and sub-national considerations
This indicator is focused on sub-national and local capabilities. For the final sub-question of this indicator ("How widespread are local capacities to effectively manage data?") you will have to assess if the examples found apply to only a few local governments or if they represent capacities that can be found throughout the whole country.
Show/hide supporting questions
Existence
- To what extent do city, regional, and local governments have the capability to effectively manage data?
- There is no evidence of capability to effectively manage data.
- There is evidence of limited or ad-hoc capability to effectively manage data.
Supporting questions: Please provide URLs of this evidence and briefly explain your answer.
- There is evidence of sustained and institutionalized capability to manage data.
Supporting questions: Please provide URLs of this evidence and briefly explain your answer.
Elements
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Kinds of capacities:
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There is evidence of local governments having open data initiatives. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if local open data initiatives tend to lack some key elements, or if they are in place, but they are not as widespread as the other local data management capabilities assessed in this indicator.
Supporting questions (conditional)
If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence and a brief explanation that support your answer.
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There is evidence of local governments having current open data policies in place. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if local open data policies tend to lack some key elements, or if they are in place, but they are not as widespread as the other local data management capabilities assessed in this indicator.
Supporting questions (conditional)
If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence and a brief explanation that support your answer.
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There is evidence of local governments having rules and or guidance in place to provide a comprehensive framework for data sharing. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if local sharing data laws, policies, regulations and guidance tend to lack some key elements, or if they are in place, but they are not as widespread as the other local data management capabilities assessed in this indicator.
Supporting questions (conditional)
If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence and a brief explanation that support your answer.
If Partially or Yes: Please indicate what kinds of data flows these local frameworks involve.
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There is evidence of local governments having rules and or guidance in place for consistent data management and publication. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if local data management regulations, guidance and frameworks tend to lack some key elements, or if they are in place, but they are not as widespread as the other local data management capabilities assessed in this indicator.
Supporting questions (conditional)
If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence and a brief explanation that support your answer.
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There is evidence of local governments providing training to civil servants on data literacy and skills. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if local training programs lack some key elements, or if they are in place, but they are not as widespread as the other local data management capabilities assessed in this indicator.
Supporting questions (conditional)
If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence and a brief explanation that support your answer.
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There is evidence of local governments providing support for data reuse. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if local government support for data reuse lacks some key elements, or if they are in place but are not as widespread as the other local data management capabilities assessed in this indicator.
Supporting questions (conditional)
If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence and a brief explanation that support your answer.
If Partially or Yes: Please indicate what kinds of data sources and types local governments support for reuse.
Extent
- How widespread are local capacities to effectively manage data?
- No cities or regions show capacity to effectively manage data.
- The examples given are exceptions: the majority of cities and regions do not have the capacity to effectively manage data.
Supporting questions: Please provide URLs of this evidence and briefly explain your answer.
- The examples given represent common practice: many cities or regions have comparable capacity to effectively manage data.
Supporting questions: Please provide URLs of this evidence and briefly explain your answer.
Sub-national and city governments are often responsible for delivering critical services to members of the public. In their research on sub-national open data initiatives in developing countries, Canares and Shekhar (2015) emphasize the capacities and resources needed by local-level governments to carry on successful open data strategies. More broadly, sub-national and local capabilities are necessary for local governments to build data strategies that respond to the needs and challenges of their communities.
The fifth principle of the Open Data Charter recognizes the crucial role governments play in supporting public engagement with open data (Open Data Charter 2021); this includes providing local open data, as well as combining it with national-level data. Similarly, the Open Government Partnership (OGP), highlights the importance of open local data for open governments, particularly through its OGP Local initiative, which invites participants to "learn how to use open government values such as transparency, accountability, responsiveness, and inclusion to better meet the needs of the citizens they serve."
This indicator extends these focuses on sub-national capabilities regarding open data to other kinds of data and data flows as well. This indicator also provides continuity with ODB.2013.C.CITY which asked, "To what extent are city, regional, and local governments running their own open data initiatives?"