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Global Data Barometer Handbook

You are viewing the Global Data Barometer Research Handbook (2021).

Introduction

Data is a source of power. It can be exploited for private gain and used to limit freedom, and it can be deployed as a public good—a resource for tackling social challenges, enabling collaboration, driving innovation, and improving accountability.

The Global Data Barometer aims to fill critical knowledge gaps on how the use of data is evolving across different sectors, regions, and countries around the world. The Barometer's design thus investigates how the policies and practices of governing, releasing, and using data for the public good are unfolding across the globe.

Building on the Open Data Barometer, which has been used to drive policymaking, advocacy, and academic research around the world, the Global Data Barometer asks the question: To what extent are countries managing data for the public good?

To answer this question, the Barometer incorporates both quantitative and qualitative assessments, drawing on primary data collected through an expert survey implemented by a network of global partners and researchers, as well as data from existing secondary sources and a complementary government survey.

Primary data collection is structured around a selection of country-wide indicators which seek to measure progress in terms of data governance, capability, availability, and use and impact. In addition, specific thematic indicators focus on the state of data for public good in relation to specific sectors or areas of public policy. This combined breadth and depth approach is designed to:

• Review and assess the overall environment for data for the public good in each country studied;
• Explore whether assessments of the overall environment reflect existing data practices in particular thematic sectors;
• Ensure that the collection of indicator data supports reuse in companion products developed by project partners and maximizes the potential reuse value of the data collected within the broader research and policy community.

This handbook contains the primary indicators included in our expert survey. Prospective indicators drawing from secondary data sources will be released later in 2021. The handbook is a living document, to be updated as the pilot edition moves forward in its study of data for the public good.

2021 Pilot Edition

For the 2021 pilot edition we are combining three approaches to understand data practices and policies around the world:

• We are investigating core data governance and data capabilities;
• We are doing a deep dive into a larger data ecosystem with well-established data practices: the intersection of money, property, and power;
• We are exploring two areas of urgent global concern where changed data practices are increasingly called for: climate action and health and COVID-19.

The 2021 pilot edition of the Global Data Barometer also explores several research innovations that depart from its predecessor study:

• An expanded scope that moves beyond the limited open data focus of past indicators to examine data for the public good more broadly;
• New indicator designs and research guidance;
• New partnership models for developing and using thematic indicator data;
• New approaches to fieldwork through a network of regional hubs in order to benefit from localized expertise.

Design Principles

The Barometer’s structure, components, and weighting respond to a specific set of design principles.

Flexibility for government structure

While some countries set policy nationally, many countries operate within federal systems that mean that aspects of data policy, capability, availability, and use are shaped by sub-national governments. Indicators have been designed to accommodate this reality. In federal systems, researchers are able to provide a detailed assessment for a single sub-national context and indicate whether this is representative or not of other sub-national contexts.

Universality

The highest scores in the Barometer are achieved when governance, capability, availability, and use can be shown to be universal—when everyone in the country is covered by, or protected by, governance rules; when everyone has access to capabilities or the development of capabilities; when everyone has access to meaningful data; and when data use has impact for the public good across the country.

Bright spots design

The Barometer has adopted a bright spots design approach with the intention of collecting data on leading examples of good practice, even if the practice is not yet universal within a country.

The Barometer Structure

The overall structure of the Barometer was developed following a participatory design workshop, which identified four pillars or core components, a range of potential themes, and a number of cross-cutting issues. The following description offers a snapshot of how the study’s structure addresses all of these; you can read more about the Barometer’s structure and process in the methodology section of the handbook.

Pillars

The Barometer is organized around four pillars or core areas of assessment: governance, capability, availability, and use and impact.

Themes

The 2021 pilot edition examines seven themes:

• Climate action;
• Company information—developed with Open Ownership;
• Health and COVID-19—developed with input from the Open Data Charter;
• Land—developed with the Land Portal;
• Political integrity—developed with Transparency International and the Open Government Partnership;
• Public finance -developed with the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency;
• Public procurement—developed with the Open Contracting Partnership.

These themes allow us to examine data for public good in significantly different kinds of data ecosystems and to speak to a range of government functions and sustainable development goals, while benefiting, as well, from the deep expertise of partners.

Modules

Modules, divided into core modules and thematic modules, implement the Barometer’s pillars and themes and structure the survey for presentation to researchers, reviewers, and users of GDB data. Modules vary in scope and size; weights applied during index calculations will balance their influence on the overall Barometer score.

Core modules correspond to data governance and capability, two of the Barometer’s pillars. These standalone modules contain indicators designed to provide a country-wide assessment of two of the most critical issue areas for developing an effective data ecosystem. Additional indicators on governance and capability in the thematic modules complement these core modules. The other two pillars of the Barometer, availability and use and impact, are assessed through the thematic modules.

Thematic modules investigate the interaction of governance, capability, availability, and use in specific domains or public policy areas.

Five thematic modules examine data for the public good related to money, property, and power; these five are organized around:

• Company information;
• Land;
• Political integrity;
• Public finance;
• Public procurement.

While each of these themes has its own data particularities, they intersect with regard to anti-corruption, integrity, and accountability. In these thematic modules we ask a mixture of questions related to the four pillars of the Barometer.

Our other two thematic modules, climate action and health & COVID-19, are areas that are globally urgent, but often lack open and locally relevant data. Consequently, for these we have designed our indicators to focus on the pillar of availability.

Cross-cutting Issues

The Barometer’s indicators are also designed to provide insight into a number of cross-cutting concerns: equity and inclusion, COVID-19, emerging AI practices, open data, and data as a critical tool to advance development and meet SDGs. These cross-cutting concerns are reflected variously in the choice of indicators, the sub-questions that indicators contain, and the wording and scoring of indicators. The following sections describe specific ways the Barometer addresses equity and inclusion, COVID-19, emerging AI practices.

Equity and Inclusion

For the pilot edition of the Barometer, we are testing a variety of methods for investigating equity and inclusion in data policies and practices, drawing on both dedicated indicators and sub-questions used across modules.

One group of indicators and sub-questions examines equity and inclusion issues tied directly to generating and publishing data: Core governance indicators ask researchers to assess countries’ provisions for requiring comprehensive language coverage and compatibility with assistive technologies. A parallel sub-question in all of the thematic availability indicators asks researchers to assess the languages in which datasets are, in practice, available. We plan to also complete an automated assessment of related websites' conformance with WCAG 2.1 (or WCAG 2.2. depending on release date), drawing on the URLs researchers provide as answers throughout the survey.

In the thematic modules our approach is shaped by the particular theme. For example:

• The land module includes a dedicated use indicator that investigates how land data influences policies with regard to equitable and inclusive land tenure and use;
• The public procurement module includes a sub-question that asks whether public procurement data analytics are being used to improve access to procurement opportunities for marginalized groups;
• The climate action module includes a sub-question that asks whether available climate vulnerability data includes information on poverty, gender, and marginalized populations;
• The health & COVID-19 module includes sub-questions that ask about whether COVID-19 vaccination data is broken down by age, sex and/or gender, disability status, membership in a marginalized population, residency in a long term care facility, and incarceration status.

Note: The above represent a sample of relevant indicators and sub-questions in the pilot edition, not the entirety.

We have designed our indicators and sub-questions with several practical challenges in mind. First, while sex and gender are increasingly recognized as spectrums not dependent on each other, some organizations and cultures use sex and gender interchangeably. Consequently, in many cases, sex data is listed under the heading of gender, obscuring or blurring gender data. Our relevant sub-questions thus ask about “sex and/or gender” and we ask researchers to note when they find both. This clarification will give us a better idea of the state of good practice in the field. This is imperfect and frustrating and something we hope to improve in the future.

Second, while marginalization occurs around the world, the specifics of marginalization vary within each country. Consequently, at the beginning of the survey we ask researchers to identify patterns of marginalization in their country; then, for sub-questions that ask about marginalized populations, we ask them to cross-check against this list.

We aim to expand our approach in future editions.

COVID-19

In the health & COVID-19 thematic module, the Barometer assesses COVID-19–related datasets directly, using both primary indicators and others built from secondary data sources. In many countries, the coronavirus pandemic has also affected data policies and practices more broadly, whether through the establishment of new data cooperatives or the suspension of particular data governance provisions. Consequently, to investigate COVID-19 as a cross-cutting concern, we also draw on data collected via sub-questions in other modules to identify regulations that have changed in light of COVID-19, and impacts of COVID-19 on the availability and use of certain datasets.

Artificial Intelligence

The pilot edition of the Barometer examines emerging AI practices through a mixture of primary indicators and others built from secondary data sources. Sub-questions in governance indicators assess how/if governance frameworks are addressing artificial intelligence; sub-questions in use indicators track algorithmic uses of datasets. We are also exploring secondary data sources, both to complement these approaches and to track relevant capacities to deploy AI for the public good in conjunction with the Barometer’s core capability module.

Methodology

Overview

This overview is intended both for researchers and reviewers involved in generating and validating the Barometer's survey data, as well as those seeking to understand the overall approach of the Barometer and the data that the study produces.

As the Global Data Barometer investigates data policies and practices across the data spectrum, particularly those that can be influenced by government action, before moving forward into the modules and indicators, it is important to be familiar with foundation concepts behind the Barometer: the Data Spectrum, the Open Data Barometer (ODB) and the Open Data Charter Principles.

Structure & Process

The Barometer is a multi-dimensional index, comprised of components and subcomponents; these components and subcomponents are in turn built from composite indicators that combine primary and secondary data. The goal is to develop an overall comparative assessment of the extent to which countries (or regions) govern and use data for the public good. Consequently, the Barometer breaks down the concept of data for the public good into various individual components and sub-components, each assessed separately. Results are then aggregated into an overall score.

The Global Data Barometer is based around four pillars or foundational areas of assessment: governance, capability, availability, and use and impact.

• Governance is concerned with whether there are rules, processes, and institutions in place both to make data available for the public good and to safeguard that data against misuse. Governance indicators generally look at the country’s legal and policy frameworks that support data ecosystems.
• Capability is concerned with whether the country has the means, connectivity, skills, and institutional capacity to create, share, and use data for the public good. The majority of capability indicators will be drawn from secondary data, but additional capability questions are included in the survey.
• Availability is the largest section of the primary survey and explores whether certain categories of data are available, shared, and of adequate quality to allow reuse for the public good.
• Use and impact is concerned with finding evidence of particular uses of data and their impact in the country.

Structurally, the study is organized into core and thematic modules. Core modules assess the overarching country context, while thematic modules look at the interaction of governance, capability, availability, and use in specific domains, such as political integrity, climate action, and land. Modules vary in size, reflecting both the particularities of different data ecosystems and the pilot nature of the Barometer as we seek to explore both the depth and breadth of assessing data for the public good.

Finally, the Barometer explores several cross-cutting issues directly, typically investigated through sub-questions within indicators. These include: equity and inclusion, COVID-19, and emerging AI practices. The data the Barometer gathers also speaks meaningfully to sustainable development, open data, and data for development.

Indicator Design

We have designed the Barometer’s indicators to:

• Generate scores through the use of discrete elements. This is a change from the Open Data Barometer (ODB) scoring method that asked experts to provide a 0–10 score, and responds both to a desire from partners for more structured, granular data, and to past feedback that the previous scoring method led to unexplained variation between assessments. In the Global Data Barometer handbook, you will see the sub-questions under each indicator used to generate indicator scores. The exact calculation of scores is not included, but will be shared later in the year following further consultation.
• Anchor in established agreements and practices. For the majority of indicators, a review of the literature, international standards, and agreements has been completed to ensure that indicators assess countries against reasonable benchmarks that are rooted in applicable international agreements or commitments. In particular, we draw on the Sustainable Development Goals as the basis for international agreement on public goods.
• Identify bright spots and recognize different systems of government. We have sought to increase the sensitivity of indicators to federal systems and to cases where good practices may exist at an agency or sub-national level, even if the practice is not yet widespread. We have also sought to avoid cultural or high-income country biases in the design of indicators by utilizing examples and evidence from a wider range of settings.
• Generate actionable data. For a number of themes, we have worked with partners to understand how they might use the primary data generated by the Global Data Barometer, as well as how that data can support improved government practice.
• Maintain continuity with the ODB. Certain indicators and selected indicator sub-questions have been included in order to build upon past editions of the ODB and provide continuity with former study metrics, including assessing the presence of open data frameworks, initiatives, and datasets. In some cases, new secondary sources have been identified to replace previous ODB questions; therefore, not all ODB data categories are necessarily reflected in the Global Data Barometer handbook.

Government Survey

To augment the results of the expert survey and support a greater depth of analysis, we are also conducting a complementary government survey. In parallel with the expert survey, governments are invited to provide evidence that a researcher might not find on their own. These answers will be shared with reviewers, who will determine whether government-provided evidence requires researchers to update their assessments.

Running the expert survey and government survey in parallel will allow researchers to move forward with their assessments, while also reducing the impact of potential disparities in the quality and depth of government responses.

Guidance

General Guidance

The handbook is designed to be a one-stop resource on the GDB assessment process, including detailed information on methodology, general guidance to researchers, sources to be used, as well as detailed question-by-question guidance for researchers. Here you'll find both general guidance, about the research parameters and process overall, as well as guidance specific to each indicator.

Time Period for the Study

Each edition of the Barometer will focus on a particular, defined period of time. Researchers are asked to examine evidence and sources that apply specifically to this period; answers should assess the state of data within the country only during this defined period, unless otherwise stated.

• The 2021 pilot edition of the Barometer covers the state of data policies and practices between May 1st, 2019 and May 1st, 2021.

Therefore, for questions regarding laws, policies, strategies, capacity-building interventions, dataset availability, or uses of data, answers should only consider examples that have either occurred or were current during this two-year period.

Sometimes, determining whether or not an activity remained current during the relevant time period may seem complicated, particularly with regard to questions of capability and use. While we recognize that the effects of successful capacity-building or impactful use are, after all, often long-term by design, for an activity to be assessed for this edition of the Barometer, the activity must have been ongoing during the period of the study.

For example:

• A country that had a Data Strategy 2015–2019 but does not have a more recent strategy document, would not be assessed as having a data strategy in this study period.
• A country that has a Data Strategy 2018–2022, originally published in 2018, but for which there is evidence of continued activity or implementation, would be assessed as having a data strategy in this study period.
• Updates to a country's data portal on June 1st, 2021 would not be counted in the assessment for this study period.
• A government’s data literacy program that was held on April 30th, 2019, would not be counted in the assessment for this study period.
• To answer “Yes” to a question based on a use of data first reported in an article in 2016, a researcher would need to provide a citation or source showing that this use remains active or has meaningfully developed in recent years.
• If COVID-19 has affected data availability at any point during the study period, this would count as a case of COVID-19 affecting data availability, even if changes have been reversed by May 1st, 2021.

Wherever possible, researchers should cite contemporaneous sources from the defined period.

The Research Process

The Barometer uses an iterative process to generate robust, validated data. The following diagram and sequence of steps outline the data collection process.

Research training: Training sessions introduce regional coordinators and country-level researchers to the Barometer’s methodology and help establish consistency.

Research mini-testing: Researchers complete two indicators, which coordinators then review, providing feedback with regard to both form and substance. Researchers make any corresponding updates and apply what they have learned to the rest of the research process.

Research underway: Researchers perform desk research and consult with key individuals to answer the survey questions, providing justifications for each answer.

Research spot-checks: Coordinators monitor the research progress, carrying out spot-checks as responses are completed and providing feedback on areas to improve.

Data collected: Researchers have completed the full survey; coordinators check to make sure all expert survey questions have been answered and the survey tool has been completed properly.

Peer review: To validate the data, researchers then check the answers provided by colleagues in a crossed peer-review mechanism, offering comments or questions where required, or requesting additional detail in the justifications. To inform their review, reviewers will have access to any relevant evidence provided in response to the complementary government survey. The original researcher implements or addresses any reviewer feedback as appropriate.

Thematic review: During the peer review period, the core Barometer team also organizes a followup review of the assessments by thematic experts. Thematic experts may flag certain responses for additional research, correction, or clarification, and provide notes for the researcher to respond to.

Research completion: Reviewers and coordinators check the updated surveys to ensure that feedback has been addressed. The coordinator makes a final check and closes the data collection process.

Research Strategies

Starting points and searching

For each primary indicator, specific research guidance contains suggested starting points; these may include sources to check, searches to run, and individuals to consult.

As much as possible we have linked to existing information that researchers can check for evidence relevant to the indicator and its sub-questions. The search suggestions provided should be run on the most relevant or best available search engine for the country; these will need to be adapted and translated into relevant languages. Before setting up any interviews, researchers may wish to review the entire set of indicators to determine what interviews might be most useful to conduct. Researchers should also use their own expertise to identify other ways to answer questions.

Sub-questions have been designed to support keyword searching of documents and rapid review of datasets. We anticipate researchers will make extensive use of Ctrl-F / Cmd-F keyboard shortcuts to search inside documents and then check surrounding context, rather than reading every source document in full.

Time management

Completing the Barometer survey may take very different amounts of time from country to country, depending on a number of factors:

1. Whether or not the subject an indicator focuses on exists in the country. For example, if a researcher concludes that there is no legal or regulatory framework for publishing political party finance data at all—or that there are no independent political parties in the country, making the questions moot—answers to subsequent sub-questions would all be “No.” In these cases, the researcher only needs to write a research journal entry explaining their answer to the existence question plus a short justification.

2. The availability of online evidence. Some countries publish all of their laws in a single searchable online location and provide comprehensive national data portals; this will make keyword searches and dataset reviews more straightforward. In other countries, finding copies of laws or tracking down datasets may take more time. Similarly, the quality of a government’s websites and search engine indexing may also affect how long research takes. Additionally, when evidence is difficult to find online, researchers may need to conduct interviews with experts, which can affect how long research takes.

3. Levels of centralization or decentralization. For some countries, it may be important to check for each question not only the national government but also a number of sub-national governments in order to locate bright spots. In other countries, only the national government may be relevant to check.

4. Translation requirements. For some countries, researchers will need to identify the correct translation of key terms into the relevant local languages before searching.

We anticipate that, for most countries, these time variations should balance out.

As a general guideline, completing each question should take between 30 minutes and 3 hours. If you’re finding that questions take more than 1-½ hours to complete—on average—you may need to adapt your research strategies. The research journal can be used to indicate cases where it was hard to find a conclusive answer to a question on the first pass of research.

Researchers may also wish to experiment with researching first whether or not the subjects of a range of indicators exist, and then returning to explore other sub-questions in depth; this approach can help you become familiar with possible sources.

Indicator Guidance

The structure of this section of the handbook parallels the structure of the indicator’s various fields in the survey tool. Here researchers will find guidance for common concerns related to these various components.

The primary indicators in the Global Data Barometer are framed as to what extent questions. Indicators are made up of a number of discrete sub-questions, which in total will generate weighted scores on a 10-point scale. In the pilot edition, these scores are not displayed to researchers to avoid any potential bias while collecting data.

Typically, indicator sub-questions are organized in three sections: existence, elements, and extent, and each indicator has a research journal and justification and sources section.

Indicator Status and Confidence

Status

In the survey tool, at the top of each indicator is a space to indicate the status of your research. Use this to keep track of your work. Researchers can mark an indicator as “Not started,” “Draft,” or “Complete.” Reviewers can mark content as “Reviewed.” The research coordinator can view the completion status of indicators in their management dashboard.

Confidence

For each indicator, researchers can provide a personal assessment of their confidence in the answers they have provided. This is a useful way for researchers to indicate to reviewers whether they believe their answers to be highly accurate or if they have concerns about answers’ accuracy—for example, when researchers have not been able to confirm answers in the time allotted. Use the indicator’s research journal to briefly record any reasons for a lower confidence in the accuracy of the answer.

In some cases, researchers may also have concerns about the reliability of the data published by governments. This can be noted in the research journal or justification box. The confidence field is only for researchers to assess their confidence in the accuracy of their own answers.

Existence Sub-questions

Existence sub-questions ask researchers to determine whether relevant frameworks, institutions, training programs, datasets, or use cases exist. For each indicator, as part of the indicator-specific guidance, the handbook contains a “Definitions and Identification” section. This describes the governance arrangements, capabilities, types of data, or use cases the researcher should look for.

The researcher must check carefully whether anything meeting this definition exists in the country—and if so, locate the best possible examples to assess. As appropriate, the existence sub-question will then ask researchers to assess the nature of the example(s) they have identified.

When there is no evidence

If the researcher determines that there are no examples that correspond to an indicator—or if they cannot locate evidence of such existence—then they must explain in the research journal the research steps they took to come to this conclusion.

Additionally, researchers must provide in the justification box a short explanation and its source (if available), as well as any relevant context regarding this absence. Such context might include, for example, related evidence that did not fully match the requirements, evidence that was only available for times outside of the period defined in the study, etc.

For example...

Justification: A data protection law has been proposed a number of times by civil society, and introduced as a draft by opposition parties. However, it has no reasonable prospect of becoming law.

Source: Article describing history of campaign for data protection law in country.

In most cases, a “No” response to an existence question will mean the indicator’s other sub-questions do not need to be completed.

When information is not online

If the researcher finds evidence that information exists but is not available online—for example, because it is only accesible via an information request or by visiting the government agency in person—the researcher should select “information is not online.” Supporting questions will ask the researcher to explain and provide evidence about how the information can be accessed.

If the basic information that is available online is sufficient to answer any of the element or extent sub-questions, the researcher should try to do so, providing corresponding evidence. If the basic information isn’t sufficient to answer any other sub-questions, the researcher should mark those sub-questions “No” or similarly, as appropriate.

The Barometer draws on desk research and interviews, with an explicit focus on evidence that is available online. To answer sub-questions a researcher may need to conduct interviews, but the researcher shouldn’t have to visit government agencies to examine datasets—other than online—or seek additional information through formal information requests.

Locating the best example

The Barometer uses a bright spots design, built to handle federal systems with flexibility. This means that, unless otherwise specified in the indicator guidance, researchers should look first for national examples (e.g., national law, nationally provided dataset) from the government. If no such example is identified, or the example appears weak (e.g. the answers to many other sub-questions are “No”), the researcher should then check for the presence of sub-national examples or, when relevant, those that only apply to particular agencies.

If a sub-national example is both stronger than the national example and representative of widespread practice across the country, it can be assessed instead of the national example. This must be explained clearly in the justification box. Otherwise, the researcher should assess the national example and note any isolated sub-national examples they have identified in the justification box.

Generally, comprehensiveness issues will be addressed in an indicator’s extent sub-questions, which focus on geographic, jurisdictional, or institutional coverage.

See the section on “Handling multiple or fragmentary evidence (elements)” for guidance on how to assess element sub-questions cases when relevant data is distributed across several datasets, each of which may be of different quality.

Handling multiple or fragmentary evidence (existence)

Sometimes, answers to an indicator’s sub-questions will be spread out across multiple sources. For example, a relevant framework may involve multiple laws or policies, or relevant data may be organized across multiple datasets, perhaps even published by different agencies. This will vary by country. When you find this to be the case, to answer the existence question of such a framework, dataset, capacity-building program, etc., you must identify all of the relevant components in the overall justification box.

For related information, see also the section on “Handling multiple or fragmentary evidence (elements).”

Frameworks and the force of law

Existence sub-questions in core governance indicators ask whether relevant laws, regulations, policies, and/or guidance have the force of law. Researchers should exercise their expert judgement when deciding whether relevant laws, regulations, policies, and/or guidance have the force of law. For example, compare these two cases:

• In country X, the law creates an agency to monitor political finance and regulations empower the agency to collect structured data. The agency establishes systems to collect and publish the data. Right-to-information laws ensure a right to request data from the agency. In this case, if the agency stopped collecting or publishing data on political finance without there having been changes in regulations or law, a legal challenge could be mounted.
• In country Y, the law creates a duty for political parties to disclose details of their financing, but does not specify the format or public disclosure. The elections commission supplies an Excel template for parties to use, but does not have the power to mandate its use or publish submissions they receive. They start publishing submissions on a voluntary basis, but some parties withhold consent for their submissions to be published. Here, there is a framework in place, but significant parts of it are voluntary and lack the force of law.

Note: In sub-questions we often abbreviate “relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance” as “framework.” This is because the basis for collecting and publishing data is often distributed across multiple laws, regulations, policies, and guidance documents. For example, one law may empower an agency to collect data, another regulation or memorandum may specify that data should be provided in a structured form, and another law may mandate that when data is provided, it should be under open license. “Framework” is used to represent the collection of relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance, it does not imply that a government itself necessarily presents or understands these as a unified framework.

Element Sub-questions

Once the relevant frameworks, institutions, training programs, datasets, or use cases have been identified, the element sub-questions invite researchers to carry out a detailed assessment.

In general, elements are written as statements. The researcher will need to examine documents, datasets, or other evidence closely to confirm whether the statement is true or false. In cases where the statement is only partially true, or the researcher has doubts about how far the statement applies, they may answer “Partially.” In most cases, elements have supplementary questions that ask the researcher to provide sources or justifications.

An example of an elements section is shown above. Each statement is on one line, accompanied by radio boxes for selecting “No,” “Part” (Partially), or “Yes.” The “–” column indicates whether a question has been answered. To complete an indicator, all element sub-questions must be answered. As a researcher answers sub-questions, depending on the answers provided, conditional text boxes may ask for links or short text justifications.

Element sub-questions are clustered into groups; these are typically organized from larger questions that address the focus of the indicator, to narrower questions related to the indicator’s focus, to broader data questions and how they apply to this indicator. For example, in an availability question, you might find three groups of element sub-questions, named kinds of data, data fields and quality, and data openness, timing, and structure. Usually there will be two or three such named groups; the final group will be a repeating set of sub-questions that are almost always exactly the same.

Some indicators also include element sub-questions that investigate barriers or blocks—for example, looking at whether the availability of relevant data was affected by COVID-19. These elements are located at the very end of the elements section.

When to answer “Partially”

For some element sub-questions, we have provided specific guidance about what criteria justifies a “Partially” answer; this will display beneath the sub-question in italics. In many others we have left what constitutes a “Partially” answer open in order to remain flexible to the wide variance across countries and governments.

Sometimes a single element sub-question will ask about the presence of multiple types of provisions, information, or activities. In this case, researchers should mark “Partially” when only some of the types are present and note which ones in the response box.

For example, one of the sub-questions for the indicator on the availability of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) data asks researchers whether mortality information includes data about age, sex and/or gender, geographic location, and cause of death. A country that only makes available age data should be marked “Partially;” a country that makes available data about age, sex and/or gender, and cause of death (but not data about geographic location) should also be marked “Partially.” Researchers should explain in the corresponding response box which mortality data they found to be available.

Handling multiple or fragmentary evidence (elements)

Again, sometimes answers to an indicator’s sub-questions will be spread out across multiple sources. As noted above, to answer the existence sub-question of an indicator in such a case, you must identify all of the relevant components in the overall justification box. For corresponding element sub-questions, please also indicate in each individual response box which specific policy, dataset, etc. holds that answer.

For availability indicators, when you are working with answers spread out across multiple datasets, use the whole set to assess sub-questions about kinds of data and data fields and quality. However, in alignment with our bright spots design, when you assess data openness, timing, and structure, pick the most complete or comprehensive dataset and explain which one you have assessed in the justification box. Note that “completeness” or “comprehensiveness” here refers to the features assessed as part of the elements checklist. In some cases these individual datasets may not be the most complete in terms of geographic or jurisdictional coverage; this will be addressed in your answer to the indicator’s extent sub-question, which assesses the entire collection of datasets.

For related information, see also the section on “Handling multiple or fragmentary evidence (existence).”

Data standards

Some governance and availability indicators include a sub-question that asks you to assess whether data is required to follow or follows standards. Such standards establish common formats for describing, recording, and publishing data, making it easier for more actors to use and reuse data.

For some kinds of data, there is widespread international agreement on which standards should be used. In these cases, the relevant standard is specified in the guidance for the specific indicator, to help researchers know which standard can be scored as “Yes.” Some kinds of data, however, do not yet have widespread agreement on standards. In these cases, when indicators ask about standards, researchers should assess if any standard at all is used.

Sex and/or gender

Some of our element sub-questions ask about “sex and/or gender.” As noted in the “Equity and Inclusion” section of the handbook (within “Cross-cutting Issues”), while sex and gender are increasingly recognized as spectrums not dependent on each other, some organizations and cultures use sex and gender interchangeably. Consequently, in many cases, sex data is listed under the heading of gender, obscuring or blurring gender data.

When a researcher finds that both sex and gender data are available, sources for each should be provided and researchers should note this in the justification box. Identifying examples of either one, however, constitutes a “Yes” answer to such element sub-questions.

Marginalized populations

While marginalization occurs around the world, the specifics of marginalization vary within each country. At the beginning of the survey researchers are asked to identify patterns of marginalization in their country. Regional coordinators should check these to make sure they are comprehensive. Sub-questions that ask about marginalized populations should be cross-checked against this list.

Artificial intelligence

To explore artificial intelligence as a cross-cutting issue, some of the Barometer’s governance and use indicators include sub-questions that ask about artificial intelligence and machine learning. The definition of artificial intelligence varies depending on the context of its use; we have designed our indicators to be flexible to this fact.

For governance indicators, we expect the frameworks to provide a definition, probably drawing from other relevant national or regional laws. To respond to these sub-questions, researchers don’t need to assess the definition given against an established one, but only to explore if the issue is addressed, and then briefly describe how.

The relevant use indicators explore if identified datasets have been used with artificial intelligence or machine learning. Here, the researcher should start by identifying the uses the indicator examines and then look for explanations of the processes involved in these uses for mention of these technologies.

Assessing barriers: COVID-19 and missing data

A small number of element sub-questions investigate barriers or blocks to data policies and practices, in relation to COVID-19 or missing data.

One of the sub-questions related to COVID-19 is in a governance indicator, used only once; otherwise, most of the availability indicators ask a sub-question about the effect of COVID-19 on data availability (this sub-question is always the same). Wherever possible, we provide resources that have already assessed relevant COVID-19–related effects on data policies or practices in an individual indicator’s research guidance.

Where no such resource is provided for an availability indicator—or where resources are not sufficiently comprehensive—the researcher should pursue two strategies: For both strategies, start by identifying where the relevant data has been located in the past or should be located and check first for announcements of relevant COVID-related changes. If there are no such announcements, first, conduct web searches for news articles reporting on COVID-related changes in collecting or publishing data in your country. Second, using the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive, compare what the relevant site looked like in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 to see if you can identify a pattern that has been disrupted in conjunction with the pandemic. Document your research steps in the research journal and explain your conclusions in the justification box.

Each availability indicator also asks about whether or not there is evidence of missing data. In some cases, the Barometer’s availability indicators pair directly with a related governance indicator. In those cases, assess against the data requirements of the relevant governing framework. In other cases, the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against.

In cases where there is no such identified dataset or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles exposed the incompleteness of the data?).

Extent Sub-questions

An indicator's extent sub-question is designed to explore whether what is being evaluated demonstrates comprehensive coverage or whether it has limitations. For example, a capability indicator’s extent sub-question might ask whether a country’s data science training is available across the country or only in a limited number of locations; an availability indicator’s extent sub-question might ask whether a dataset that scores highly in the elements checklist is an exceptional outlier in a federal system or an example of the norm.

The research guidance for individual indicators includes details on any specific coverage concerns. See also the preceding section on “Locating the best example” for guidance on how to approach coverage when selecting examples to evaluate.

Meaningful positive impact

The Barometer’s use indicators include an extent sub-question that asks whether there is evidence that the identified uses have had or are having meaningful positive impacts. To answer this, researchers should first look for evidence that reports on or contextualizes an identified use’s impacts. Sometimes the evidence of the use will also include evidence of its impact, sometimes it will require additional research.

For example, if an investigative journalist has used lobbying data to expose government corruption, the researcher should look for evidence that this use has prompted action or response of some kind. This might include, for example, charges brought against officials, the launch of a committee to investigate or establish reforms, a poll that shows that this information has changed public opinion, etc.

Second, researchers should exercise their expert judgement as to whether the impacts associated with this use have been primarily cosmetic (lacking the substance to be either positive or negative), positive, or negative (causing identifiable harms). In the justification box, explain your reasoning and provide any available evidence.

Supporting Evidence

The supporting evidence section allows you to attach up to five structured links or files that should be published alongside the justification and indicator data, that provide evidence for the given assessment and that can be checked by reviewers. This might include:

• Links to policies, strategies, or laws for a governance indicator;
• Links to datasets for an availability indicator;
• Links to reports or discussions on data capability;
• Copies of PDF reports where they cannot be linked to online;
• Links to academic papers.

Evidence should be in the public domain and should not include private documents. Each item of evidence can have a title and either attached file or URL.

Choose the five most important sources to attach as structured evidence. In the justification box, cite all of the relevant sources.

Justifications & Sources

For every indicator, researchers should provide a list of the supporting evidence used and write a short prose explanation of the example assessed, and how certain judgements have been made.

Justification

The justification should include brief notes to support the assessments made, citing numbered items of supporting evidence to back up each key point. This justification is first used by the reviewers to check your assessment, and is then published alongside the raw data from the survey to support re-users of the data to understand the basis for each assessment.

Justifications should be written in clear English prose that does not use first person, but rather is written in a neutral impersonal way. Use a spellchecker or grammar checker if required.

You will need to create your own justifications based on the findings of your research, using content quotations when appropriate to support your argument but not relying solely on them. All justifications need to be self-contained and self-explanatory, with no cross-references between them. While sources must be cited to support justifications, a reader should be able to fully understand the justification without looking at the supporting evidence.

The following example is a real justification provided by a researcher for the ODB:

For example:

"In 2017, Government of Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) partnered with Compute Canada, Ontario Centres of Excellence and ThinkData Works launched the first “Human Dimensions Open Data Challenge”, organized as part of SSHRC’s Imagining Canada’s Future initiative (1). On 23 May 2017, two winning teams were awarded $3,000, and, as part of the challenge, will be provided access to Compute Canada cloud resources for the remainder of the calendar year. The top team was awarded an additional $5,000 and given four tickets and an invitation to present at the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPCS) on 5-9 June in Kingston, Ontario (2). In October 2017, Canada’s Open Data Exchange (ODX) has launched their second investment into the Ontario startup ecosystem through the ODX Ventures program. Through a planned $438,000 investment into 10 Ontario-based companies, the program aims to accelerate data-focused projects which have traditionally struggled to secure funding. In December 2016, the first ODX Ventures cohort included $400,000 worth of investment across eight startups, and to date, has led to 26 unique contractors developing work in the open data space (3). To support a culture of innovation, there is an online apps gallery hosts mobile apps, web apps and visualizations made with federal data (4). There is also a Community Page where dataset, discussions and apps are gathered based on interest (e.g. agriculture, education, nature and environment).

Sources

(1): http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/society-societe/community-communite/hdodc-ddodh-eng.aspx (2): https://www.computecanada.ca/events/human-dimensions-open-data-challenge/ (3): https://codx.ca/odx-invests-in-ontario-open-data-ventures/ (4): http://open.canada.ca/en/apps "

You should always provide a justification, even when you answer “No” to an existence question.

Citation guidance

Citing desk research and interviews

Selected sources should always reflect the project’s study period.

• Please use exactly the following format when citing interviews: Interview sources must include the full name of the interviewee, the name of the interviewee’s employer, and job title. Example: Interview with Jane Doe, Ministry of Justice, Director General.
• Anonymity: When it is not feasible to publish the name of an interviewee, out of justified fear for the interviewee’s safety or negative professional ramifications, please include the name of the interviewee in the research journal. In the justifications box, simply state “anonymous” for the interviewee name while providing as many other details as possible (e.g., Anonymous, Ministry of Finance, government official). The Barometer will maintain confidentiality; no names provided in the research journal for anonymous sources will be published.

Researchers should exercise professional judgment to determine whether opinions of an interviewee are factual and accurate. We strongly suggest researchers corroborate information obtained in interviews with desk research and do not rely on a single personal opinion.

• Please use the following format when citing media articles: name of author, name of publication, title of article, date published, and a URL/hyperlink or a digital/PDF attachment if a link is not available or has expired.
• Please use the following format when citing journal articles, written documents, or other third-party desk research: provide the full citation: name of author(s), year of publication, title, journal/publishing house; whenever possible please also provide a URL/hyperlink or attach an electronic copy if a link is unavailable. For example: Berg, Janina and Daniel Freund. 2015. EU legislative footprint: What’s the real influence of lobbying? _Transparency International EU _https://transparency.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Transparency-05-small-text-web-1.pdf

Citing laws or regulations

• Researchers must identify the law (full name, article, etc.), case law, specific legal articles, or statutes and provide a direct quote or a detailed explanation of the law in the comments box, as needed.
• Researchers must refer, where appropriate, to case law, specific legal articles, or statutes.
• Researchers are to reflect and describe applicable traditional and customary law when necessary.
• Laws cited must be domestic laws rather than international law.
• Please use this specific format when citing laws or regulations: name of law, article, section number, year, hyperlink to law. Example: Constitution Acts, Part I: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 6. 1982. http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/page-11.html#sc:7:s_6

The Research Journal

For each indicator, the survey tool provides a research journal. Researchers should use this to briefly record the steps they take to carry out their research. The research journal is not published, but is used to support the review process. The research journal holds particular relevance when reviewing indicators where no evidence of existence was found, since reviewers will need to inspect the research process followed to reach this conclusion.

For example...

In this example, the research journal entry describes the steps taken to respond to an indicator. "Followed source guidance to look at DLA Piper Data Protection Laws database & Greanleaf tables of privacy laws: used this to review the element sub-questions. Searched with Google for “UK Data Protection Migrants” based on past awareness of an “immigration exemption” and looked at the first three results. Sources used included in the supporting evidence section. Searched for “Data protection COVID-19” and reviewed content from the ICO: looked for the best source to use, and confirmed dates of documents. Checked results when talking with a civil society informant on June 22nd to discuss a number of different questions. Discussed whether migrants' judgement should be “No” or “Partially” — see justification for conclusion."

Ended: Guidance

Indicators

All Indicators

The Global Data Barometer draws on both primary indicators and indicators built from secondary data sources. This section lists all the primary indicators included in the pilot edition.

Core modules

• Governance
  • Governance: Data protection
  • Governance: Open data Policy
  • Governance: Data sharing frameworks
  • Governance: Data management
  • Governance: Language coverage & data
  • Governance: Accessibility coverage & data
• Capabilities
  • Capability: Civil service trining
  • Capability: Open data initiative
  • Capability: Government support for re-use
  • Capability: Sub-National

Thematic modules

• Company Information
  • Governance: Beneficial ownership
  • Availability: Beneficial ownership
  • Availability: Company register
  • Use: Corporate due diligence
• Land
  • Availability: Land tenure
  • Availability: Existing land use
  • Use: Influencing policy for gender and inclusion
• Political Integrity
  • Governance: Political finance
  • Availability: Political finance data
  • Governance: Asset declarations
  • Availability: Asset declarations
  • Governance: Lobbying register
  • Availability: Lobbying data
  • Governance: Public consultation data
  • Availability: Public consultation data
  • Governance: RTI performance
  • Availability: RTI performance data
  • Capability: Political integrity interoperability
  • Use: Accountability uses of PI
• Public Finance
  • Governance: Open public finance data
  • Availability: Budget and spending data
• Public Procurement
  • Availability: Public procurement data
  • Use: Procurement data analytics

• Climate Action

  • Availability: Emission
  • Availability: Biodiversity
  • Availability: Vulnerability

• Health & COVID-19

  • Availability: Vital statistics
  • Availability: Real-time healthcare system capacity
  • Availability: Vaccination (COVID-19)

Core modules

Governance

Governance: Data protection

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a comprehensive framework for protection of personal data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

More than 100 countries have some form of comprehensive data privacy law that sets out how the privacy of individuals should be protected by the public and/or private sector when data is handled. In other countries, there may be a patchwork of regulations that covers specific sectors (e.g., health), or that applies only to certain public sector entities.

Strong data protection frameworks should include:

• Choice and consent—providing individuals with clear information on how their data may be used and the choice to consent or not to it being collected and processed;
• Access and correction—providing individuals with the right to access data held about them, and to ask for inaccurate information to be corrected;
• Responsibilities on data holders—requiring data holders to manage personal data appropriately;
• Rights of redress—giving individuals (or groups) rights to complain or take action where their data protection rights are breached

Recent developments in global standards for data protection frameworks have also placed emphasis on:

• Breach notification—placing a responsibility on data holders (e.g., companies, government departments, or others who collect and manage personal data) to notify the appropriate authority if personal data is accessed or shared illegally;
• Algorithmic decision-making—creating specific rights and responsibilities in relation to personal data used within artificial intelligence systems or algorithms to make decisions that affect individuals

This question also asks about how far frameworks apply in specific contexts, including:

• Location data—location data can bring specific privacy risks. In some countries, this is explicitly addressed in the main data protection law. In other countries, there may be location-specific laws or regulations. This element asks you to check for evidence that the privacy risks of location data are recognized either in the main laws/regulations or in some other related law or regulation.

Useful terminology:

• Data subject—the individual human person that an item of data is about.
• Data holder—the organization responsible for managing a collection of personal data.

Research Guidance

For this question, you should consult existing resources detailing data protection frameworks, and identify which of the indicator's sub-questions these cover. You should also check for any recent updates that may not be reflected in the sources listed below and may affect your assessment.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • DLA Piper maintains a detailed analysis of the privacy frameworks of over 100 countries. Comparing your country of study with other countries can help you assess the framework.
  • The Global Table of Data Privacy Laws and Bills (2017) contains details of countries that, as of 2017, had or were drafting laws with "largely comprehensive" coverage of public sector, private sector, or both, and notes the presence and name of a country's data protection authorities (DPA).
  • DataGuidance.com provides links to laws and summary information, organized by jurisdictions. (Note that the license of OneTrust's paid for services prohibits use of this content in third-party products. Use this source for background/contextual research only, and do not cite any verbatim text in justifications).
  • The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) maintains a dataset of draft or enacted privacy laws with links to specific legal texts. Check carefully to make sure the most recent law is referenced, as the UNCTAD data may not reflect recent legislative reforms.
  • The WorldLii National Data Privacy Legislation collection also provides access to laws for a number of countries.
  • With regard to governance exceptions or amendments in the context of COVID-19, the COVID-19: Data Privacy & Security Guidance on Handling Personal Data During a Pandemic (Global) Tracker lists specific governance guidance and updates related to handling personal data and data protection in the context of COVID-19 by country. Note: this database doesn't guarantee comprehensiveness, so finding no relevant information here should only be understood as a starting point for looking elsewhere, not as proof of nonexistence.
  • The World Bank Digital Government/GovTech Systems and Services 2020 survey provides information on data protection & privacy laws (columns HC–HG) and data protection agencies (colums HH–HK).
• Search:
  • For news and articles about recent data protection or data privacy framework reforms.
  • The website of any data protection authority.
  • For information about protection of location data in the country.
• Consult:
  • Officers of national civil society organizations focused on privacy issues.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is there a single law that protects data in all settings? Is there a patchwork of laws that applies to specific sectors, localities, or media?

National and sub-national considerations

When a country's data protection framework is divided into different sub-jurisdictions—e.g., data protection laws are set at the state level, or certain special zones are excluded from the main national data protection regime (c.f. Greenleaf, 2013; pg. 5)—researchers should record this in their answer to the sub-question on geographic scope ("Does this framework apply across the whole country?") and clearly explain in the indicator's justification box.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• What is the nature of the framework?
  • No framework exists.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists but lacks full force of law.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists and has the force of law.

    Supporting questions: Please identify the framework(s) you have assessed (e.g. name of law(s) or regulations)

Elements

• Rights and responsibilities:

• The framework provides data subjects with rights of choice or consent. (No, Partially, Yes) Individuals should normally be given the choice of whether their information is collected, and should be able to give informed consent based on a clear statement of how their information will be used. There should be only limited exceptions to this where there is an overriding interest, defined in law, in the collection of such information.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework provides data subjects with rights to access and correct data about themselves. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework sets out clear responsibilities for data holders. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'No' if the framework does not detail data holder responsibilities. For and answer of 'Yes', data holders should be responsible for: taking steps to ensure personal information is updated and accurate; limiting access to personal data in accordance with its intended use; only transferring data to third-parties if there are assurances they will also respect data protection rights; destroying or anonymising data after it is no longer needed for its original intended use. Answer 'Partially' if data holders only have some of these obligations.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework provides rights of redress (No, Partially, Yes) Individuals and communities should have the right of redress against public and private bodies that fail to respect data protection rules in relation to data about them. Remedies can be provided through self­-regulation, private law actions, and government enforcement. Oversight of the system should be undertaken by an independent body. Answer 'Yes' if there is a framework for redress AND independent oversight. Answer 'Partial' if there is a framework for redress, but limited oversight.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires data controllers to notify an appropriate authority of data breaches. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Specific considerations:

• Frameworks explicitly cover the protection of location-related data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue. If the protection of location data is addressed in particular laws or guidance please give the name and URL of that here.

• The framework addresses algorithmic decision making. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if guidance, policy, or regulation address specific privacy issues related to algorithmic decision making, but these considerations are not included in law.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Negative scoring:

• Exceptions to the usual data protection framework have been made as part of the country's COVID-19 response. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Yes' if significant rights have been weakened or suspended; answer 'Partially' if there have been some minor adjustments, such as grace periods for compliance with rules.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate the name and url of the source of these exceptions and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide the name and url of the source of these exceptions.

Extent

• How broadly does this data protection framework apply?

  • The framework only applies in a narrow set of situations.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe the limits of the framework.

  • The framework applies widely in one or more sectors.

    Supporting questions: Please list the specific sectors the framework applies to.

  • The framework applies widely across all sectors (including public and private sector).

    Supporting questions: Please describe all sectors included in the framework and indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Does this framework apply across the whole country?

  • The framework assessed applies only to one sub-national region or city.

    Supporting questions: Please indicate to which region it applies.

  • The framework assessed relates to one sub-national region or city, but is representative of the kind of framework that exists for most regions or cities.

    Supporting questions: Please indicate to which region it applies and mention some of the similar ones from other regions.

  • The framework assessed, or equivalent frameworks, apply across the whole country.

    Supporting questions: Please indicate if the framework applies to the whole country, and if not, mention some of the equivalent ones from other regions.

Indicator Justification

Data protection rights are rooted in the universally recognized right to private life; they serve as a foundation for other fundamental freedoms, including freedom of association and expression. Since the 1970s, data protection rights have gained prominence as societies developed an awareness and understanding of the impacts of data-processing technologies. Data protection rights can be characterized as modern and active rights: creating positive duties on different actors to manage data in ways that respect the wider rights of data subjects, and establishing the need for independent supervision of how data is handled (Europäische Union and Europarat 2018).

Over the last forty years, the majority of countries in the world have passed some form of data privacy law (Greenleaf 2017). Rough consensus has formed regarding the essential principles of data protection law, drawing on the Council of Europe Convention 108 and OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data. Greenleaf identifies a total of fifteen key principles across these two frameworks (Greenleaf 2013), including limits on data collection, consent requirements, purpose limitations, individual access and correction rights, accountability of data controllers, and openness of policies on personal data. Greenleaf finds these principles widely applied in a sample of ten Asian countries, with the notable exception of the principle of openness of policies on personal data, which was only applied in six of the ten countries assessed (ibid.)

Over the last decade, a number of new concepts have gained prominence in data protection discourse, captured in updated OECD and Council of Europe documents. In particular, these updates strengthened requirements for notification of data breaches (both CoE and OECD) and established greater rights in relation to automated decision-making (CoE), responding to concerns about applications of algorithmic decision-making systems and potential risks from big data.

A number of emerging issues related to data protection may be addressed by future development of this indicator after the pilot edition of the Barometer, including:

• Group privacy: Whilst data protection frameworks have generally been presented in terms of individual rights, there is growing focus on the need to address risks of big data that play out on the collective level (Taylor, Floridi, and Sloot 2017), with resulting impacts both on individual autonomy and collective rights.
• Regulatory capacity: In January 2019, the Consultative Committee of the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data published Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence and Data Protection that call on governments to ensure that: "Supervisory authorities [are] provided with sufficient resources to support and monitor the algorithm vigilance programmes of AI developers, manufacturers, and service providers."

Governance: Open data policy

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a comprehensive framework for generating and publishing open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

A framework for open (government) data may take the form of law, regulation, policy, or guidance. It will commit the government to making non-sensitive, government-held data available for reuse both legally (e.g., through licenses and terms of use) and technically (e.g., through providing data in machine-readable formats).

Open data frameworks may exist on their own or as part of broader data strategies or policies.

For more about open data, consult the Open Data Handbook.

Research Guidance

Check the currency of any open data frameworks to confirm they remain active and are being implemented.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The EU Data Maturity Report provides data on the state of open data strategies and policies in European countries.
  • The OECD OUR Data Index provides country fact sheets covering open data policies.
  • The OGP Explorer contains details of commitments to open data made through the Open Government Partnership.
  • The qualitative data from the Open Data Barometer provides details of policies and strategies identified prior to 2017 generally, 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.C2."
• Search:
  • General searches for: "Open data policy," "data strategy," "open data strategy."
  • Search academic search engines (e.g., Google Scholar, arXiv, ResearchGate, etc.) for recent papers on "open data" + [country].
• Consult:
  • Open data advocates and experts.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Are there laws, regulations, policies, and guidance that provide a comprehensive framework for generating and publishing open data?
  • What is their nature?
  • Do they include a common definition of "open data"?
  • Do they promote open licenses?
  • Do they require machine readability as part of open data?
  • Do they require the use of data standards?
  • Do they promote data training and capacity-building among public officials?

National and sub-national considerations

You should focus your assessment on national policies, or policies set at the federal level in federal systems. In cases where no national frameworks exist, but strong frameworks have been developed sub-nationally or in a particular significant agency, you may carry out the assessment for another strong framework. Record this limitation in your answer to the question on geographical and institutional coverage and explain further in the indicator's justification box.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• What is the nature of the framework?
  • No framework exists.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists but lacks full force of law.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists and has the force of law.

    Supporting questions: Please identify the framework(s) you have assessed (e.g. name of law(s) or regulations)

Elements

• Rights and responsibilities:

• The framework establishes a common definition of open data. (No, Partially, Yes) If there is a definition, but it appears to omit key aspects of open data (such as permissions for re-use, or machine readability), you may answer 'Partially'.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework promotes open licensing without any restrictions beyond attribution and share-alike. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response describing the main limitations of the approach to data re-use.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  If Partially or Yes: If the framework requires a specific license, please provide the URL or name of the license here

• The framework requires to publish data in machine readable formats. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance requires the use of specific data standards. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Are they international standards?

  If Partially or Yes: Please list significant data standards mentioned in the rules/guidance.

• Specific considerations:

• The framework promotes training and capacity building among government officials. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

• How widely do these laws, regulations, policies or guidance apply?
  • The laws, policies and guidance assessed cover a limited number of localities or government agencies.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • The relevant laws, policies and guidance assessed cover, or are representative of those covering, many localities or government agencies.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • The relevant laws, policies and guidance assessed cover the majority of localities and government agencies.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

Indicator Justification

Promoting the reuse of public data is central to realizing the potential of data for the public good. Open data laws, policies, or strategies provide the framework within which government data can be made available as a resource for third parties to work with.

The Open Data Barometer's 2017 Leaders Edition included an indicator (ODB.2015.C.POLI) which asked the question "To what extent is there a well-defined open data policy and/or strategy?" This indicator is designed to provide comparable data to the ODB indicator. It converts the guidance from the ODB's 0–10 scoring system to element checklist items that should yield similar scoring for similar situations. It reflects the GDB's assumption that governance frameworks based in law are preferable to frameworks based in policy alone.

Governance: Data sharing frameworks

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a comprehensive framework for data sharing?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Data-sharing frameworks may take the form of law, regulation, policy, or guidance. Such frameworks govern and support the wider use of sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise non-open data.

Data sharing involves making data accessible to a defined group of other stakeholders with certain controls and restrictions on use. It is distinct from open data, which involves making data available without restrictions.

Government agencies, civil society, and private sector actors may all hold datasets containing sensitive, proprietary, or personal information that, if made available to other stakeholders with appropriate constraints, could potentially be used for the public good in various ways. For example, data on mobility patterns from private taxi apps might be used to support transport planning; sharing mapping data or logistics datasets following an earthquake might help first responders; farm production data might be used to develop improved insurance products.

Frameworks that promote data sharing for public good should combine incentives or rules to support appropriate data sharing with clear mechanisms to make sure sharing is well regulated and, safe and that possible harms are well managed.

A legal or policy framework to facilitate data sharing within or across sector may cover*:

• Government to government sharing—establishing the basis on which different parts of government may exchange data;
• Government to third-party sharing—establishing when and how government can share sensitive data with third parties (e.g., private sector, research, or others);
• Business to government sharing—establishing when and how government can access and use data generated by the private sector;
• Business to business sharing—establishing rules and incentives for public benefit pooling or exchange of data.

*This list is not exhaustive.

Some regions and countries are developing comprehensive frameworks to govern data sharing. Other countries have ad-hoc frameworks for particular sectors, or covering particular concerns, such as the use of data for artificial intelligence applications.

Note: Data-sharing frameworks are distinct from data protection frameworks, which primarily set out restrictions on use of personal data. Data-sharing frameworks are also distinct from open data and RTI or FOI frameworks, which primarily set out requirements for publishing or otherwise providing government data to the public.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The World Bank Digital Government/GovTech Systems and Services (DGSS) Dataset includes a section entitled Data Governance Institution, Policy & Regulations (columns FM–FX), which may provide leads to relevant policies and frameworks.

• Search:

  • "National data sharing framework";
  • Recent academic papers on data sharing in the country;
  • Articles or papers about data sharing in particular sectors such as transport, health, or education.

• Consult:

  • National experts on data sharing.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Are there policies, laws, or provisions in place designed to govern and support the wider use of sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise non-open data?
• What kinds of data flows and users do these policies or laws cover?
  • Government to government sharing—establishing the basis on which different parts of government may exchange data;
  • Government to third-party sharing—establishing when and how government can share sensitive data with third parties (e.g., private sector, research, or others);
  • Business to government sharing—establishing when and how government can access and use data generated by the private sector;
  • Business to business sharing—establishing rules and incentives for public benefit pooling or exchange of data.
• Is there special guidance for making use of this data through artificial intelligence techniques?

National and sub-national considerations

Research for this indicator should focus on national policy frameworks. If there has been little or no work on national frameworks, but a sub-national government has a more advanced policy or law, you may carry out the assessment with respect to this example, recording this in your answer to the question regarding the scope and coverage of the framework and explaining further in the indicator's justification box.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• What is the nature of the framework?
  • No framework exists.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists but lacks full force of law.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists and has the force of law.

    Supporting questions: Please identify the framework(s) you have assessed (e.g. name of law(s) or regulations)

Elements

• Rights and responsibilities:

• The framework covers data sharing within government. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework covers how government should share data with other sectors. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework covers data sharing from other sectors to government. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework covers data sharing within the private sector. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Specific considerations:

• The framework explicitly focuses on artificial intelligence uses of data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

• How broad is the coverage of legal or policy frameworks for data sharing for the public good?

  • The framework assessed covers a very limited number of government agencies or themes, and no other relevant frameworks could be located.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • The framework assessed covers a limited number of government agencies or themes, but there are other similar examples covering different agencies and themes.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • The framework assessed covers a substantial number of government agencies or themes.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • The framework assessed covers all government agencies, and many themes.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

• How comprehensive, in terms of jurisdiction, is the coverage of the laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?

  • They cover one or more localities, but there are many other localities without such rules/guidance, or with rules or guidance of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this framework cover?

  • They cover one or more localities and are a representative example of the kind of rules/guidance that can be found for all, or most, localities.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • They provide national coverage.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

Indicator Justification

A considerable amount of data that might be used for the public good is not suitable for sharing as open data, either due to proprietary interests in the data or risks of harm if the data were to be misused. However, such data can still be used for public benefit through data-sharing arrangements.

International normative standards for good data-sharing practice are currently being developed. The OECD's Enhancing Access to and Sharing of Data (2019) describes a range of initiatives for data sharing, tracking different governance approaches to supporting data reuse across organizations and sectors. These include European Union measures to create "common data spaces," efforts to create increased interoperability and exchange of data within the public sector, and the creation of sectoral requirements for public and private sector data-sharing. The 2021 World Development Report calls for the integration of civil society, academia, and the private sector into national data systems, both as users of public data and as suppliers of data that can be reused for public benefit.

For the pilot edition of the Barometer, this indicator aims to identify the extent of national data-sharing frameworks and whether they provide incentives, restrictions, and transparency mechanisms. This indicator is exploratory; we anticipate future editions of the Barometer may include a substantially revised indicator based on the findings from the pilot year.

Governance: Data management

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a comprehensive framework for consistent data management and publication?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

The value of data for the public good, regardless of whether it is open data or not, is increased when data is more easily discoverable, when data comes with clear documentation, when data quality has been assured, when appropriate technical standards are used, and when user feedback is sought to improve data management.

Governments may promote consistent and high quality approaches to data management through a variety of routes, including:

• National data strategies;
• Data management guidance;
• Data management standards.

Research Guidance

Look for the existence of government data management and/or publication guidelines and data standards policies. These may be found by searching the documentation of official open data catalogs, or through searching for recent government announcements on the topics.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The qualitative data from the Open Data Barometer may provide details of policies and strategies identified prior to 2017 generally, 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.C3."
• Search:
  • National standards for data management.
• Consult:
  • Government officials working on data management;
  • Data users.

What to look for?

Look for evidence of:

• Adoption of international data and metadata standards (e.g., DCAT, DCAT-AP, oData, Best Practices for the Publication of Data on the Web, etc.);
• Interoperability frameworks being widely adopted;
• Standardized processes for publishing and updating published government data;
• Guidance for soliciting and processing feedback from external users.

National and sub-national considerations

Research for this indicator should focus on national data management frameworks. If there has been little or no work on national frameworks, but there is a sub-national government that has a more advanced policy or law, you may carry out the assessment with respect to this example, recording this in your answer to the question regarding the scope and coverage of the framework and explaining further in the indicator's justification box.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• What is the nature of the framework?
  • No framework exists.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists but lacks full force of law.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists and has the force of law.

    Supporting questions: Please identify the framework(s) you have assessed (e.g. name of law(s) or regulations)

Elements

• Rights and responsibilities:

• There are minimum standards for metadata when government data is catalogued or published. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• There is a standardised process for publishing and updating published government data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• There are technical standards, including common data models, codelists, and identifiers for management and publication of government data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• There are clearly documented quality control processes for government data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• There are clearly documented processes for soliciting and integrating feedback from external users to improve data quality. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

• How broadly is good data management practice established?
  • The data management approaches assessed apply to a limited number of departments or localities.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • The data management approaches assessed apply to a limited number of departments or localities, but similar approaches are present across much of the public sector.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • The data management approaches assessed generally apply across the whole public sector.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

Indicator Justification

Maximizing the value of government data for the public good requires data to be quality controlled and made available for reuse in consistent, reliable ways.

The Open Data Barometer's 2017 Leaders Edition included an indicator (ODB.2015.C.MANAG) which asked the question, "To what extent is there a consistent (open) data management and publication approach?" This indicator is designed to provide broadly comparable data to the ODB indicator. It takes its guidance from the ODB's 0–10 scoring system, converting this into element checklist items that should yield similar scoring for similar situations.

Governance: Language coverage & data

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages? If the country has no official or national languages, are these processes available in the languages used in the country?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

A country may formally designate official and national languages. An official language typically refers to languages used by the country's government. A country's constitution or legislation may also identify a national language or languages, recognizing the language's importance in the country. Some countries only designate official languages, some only national languages, some both, some neither.

Research Guidance

Start by identifying whether your country designates any languages as official or national. This may not always match your perception, so it's important to check. If not, use Wikipedia or a reputable local encyclopedia to identify the languages used in the country.

Next, look for a framework that specifies the languages that the government must make its communications available in. Compare these to the country's official, national, or in-use languages as appropriate.

If a country has designated official languages, only assess these. If a country has designated national and only national languages, assess these. If the country hasn't designated either official or national languages, then assess against the in-use languages. Finally, examine the framework to determine how it applies to the government's datasets, data tools, and other data communications.

Alternatively, you can look first for a dedicated framework that addresses language matters specifically with regard to government data collection and publication (these are not currently common) and then apply the steps outlined above to that framework.

Provide details of your country's languages and how you consequently researched this indicator in the indicator's justification box.

Starting points

• Search:
  • Government websites for "language rights," "language policy," and similar terms.
• Consult:
  • Government officials who serve in communications roles.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is there a framework that addresses which languages government datasets and data tools must be made available in?
• If so, do the languages the framework covers correspond to the country's official or national languages? Or, if the country has neither, to languages commonly used in the country?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, frameworks that govern language coverage may be established primarily by individual states, regions, or cities. To assess such countries, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• What is the nature of the framework?

  • No framework exists.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists but lacks full force of law.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists and has the force of law.

    Supporting questions: Please identify the framework(s) you have assessed (e.g. name of law(s) or regulations)

• Where does this requirement exist?

  • It does not exist.

    Supporting questions: What are the official, national, or in-use languages of the country?

  • There is a broader framework which can be presumed to apply to data.

    Supporting questions: What are the official, national, or in-use languages of the country?

  • There is either a dedicated framework for language coverage related to data or a framework that includes specific provisions related to language coverage and data.

    Supporting questions: What are the official, national, or in-use languages of the country?

Elements

• Provisions for data quality:

• The rules/guidance empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes) There are many different kinds of verification processes. In some cases, data is required from multiple parties engaged in an activity and that data is then cross-verified. In others, a dedicated agency or official has the authority to conduct audits, engaging with other agencies or external parties to verify information received.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain the verification process used, and which parts of collected data the framework requires to be verified and which parts it does not.

  If Yes: Please briefly explain the verification process used.

Extent

• How comprehensive, in terms of jurisdiction, is the coverage of the laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?
  • They cover one or more localities, but there are many other localities without such rules/guidance, or with rules or guidance of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this framework cover?

  • They cover one or more localities and are a representative example of the kind of rules/guidance that can be found for all, or most, localities.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • They provide national coverage.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

Indicator Justification

Language coverage is a key component of making data both open and high quality. What language is used during data collection will affect how well the person providing the data understands the interaction—with consequences for both meaningful consent and data quality. Similarly, the languages in which data and its accompanying tools and materials are published will affect who can use that data and how.

Governance: Accessibility coverage & data

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication be accessible to people with disabilities?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Ensuring that datasets and data processes are accessible to people with disabilities can take many forms. Given the focus of this survey, we expect this indicator to primarily investigate requirements for making digital information accessible—for example, in terms of compatibility with assistive technologies useful for visual and physical impairments, such as screen readers, and through implementing universal design principles for relevant websites and data tools. However, in cases where relevant data can only be used in paper versions, this will include provisions such as physical infrastructure that makes relevant archives accessible, for example, for people with mobility impairments.

Note: This indicator is intended to be complemented by an automated assessment of related websites' conformance with WCAG 2.1 (or WCAG 2.2. depending on release date), drawing on the URLs provided as answers throughout the expert survey.

Research Guidance

First, identify whether your country has a framework that specifies how the government must make its communications accessible for people with disabilities. Next, examine the framework to determine how it applies to the government's datasets, data tools, and other data communications.

Alternatively, you can look first for a dedicated framework that addresses accessibility matters specifically with regard to government data collection and publication (these are not currently common) and then apply the second step outlined above to that framework.

Starting points

• Search:
  • Government websites for "accessibility requirements" and similar terms.
• Consult:
  • Government officials who serve in communications roles.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following question:

• Is there a framework that addresses how government datasets and data tools must be made accessible to people with disabilities? For example, mandating compatibility with regard to assistive technologies or establishing a review process to make sure websites follow WCAG 2.1 or other standards?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, frameworks that govern accessibility coverage may be established primarily by individual states, regions, or cities. To assess such countries, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• What is the nature of the framework?

  • No framework exists.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists but lacks full force of law.

    Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.

  • A framework exists and has the force of law.

    Supporting questions: Please identify the framework(s) you have assessed (e.g. name of law(s) or regulations)

• Where does this requirement exist?

  • It does not exist.
  • There is a broader framework which can be presumed to apply to data.

    Supporting questions: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your response.

  • There is either a dedicated framework for accessibility coverage related to data or a framework that includes specific provisions related to accessibility coverage and data.

    Supporting questions: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your response.

Elements

• Provisions for data quality:

• The rules/guidance empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes) There are many different kinds of verification processes. In some cases, data is required from multiple parties engaged in an activity and that data is then cross-verified. In others, a dedicated agency or official has the authority to conduct audits, engaging with other agencies or external parties to verify information received.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain the verification process used, and which parts of collected data the framework requires to be verified and which parts it does not.

  If Yes: Please briefly explain the verification process used.

Extent

• How comprehensive, in terms of jurisdiction, is the coverage of the laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?
  • They cover one or more localities, but there are many other localities without such rules/guidance, or with rules or guidance of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this framework cover?

  • They cover one or more localities and are a representative example of the kind of rules/guidance that can be found for all, or most, localities.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • They provide national coverage.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

Indicator Justification

Accessibility coverage is a key component of making data both open and high quality. The accessibility coverage of data collection will affect how well the person providing the data understands the interaction—with consequences for both meaningful consent and data quality. Similarly, the accessibility coverage of the formats in which data and its accompanying tools and materials are published will affect who can use that data and how.

Ended: Governance

Capabilities

Capability: Civil service training

To what extent is the government providing training to develop civil servants' data literacy and data skills?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Public servants are key players in ensuring that data is used for public good, with institutional readiness to govern, work with, and publish or share data depending significantly on the involvement of motivated and skilled public servants.

Public servants in data-centered positions should have strong data skills, while public servants in more general positions should meet at least a minimum level of data literacy. Achieving this requires regular and ongoing training opportunities to develop and maintain data skills and literacy.

This indicator focuses on different training activities that governments may undertake to train public servants; these may involve teaching the basics for working with data or improving already existing capacities. Training activities may take place within particular agencies or through cross-cutting programs for all public servants; they may be delivered through online platforms, shared lectures, and so on.

Research Guidance

Start by identifying the public employment or public service national agency, and check whether it mentions training in a general sense and data-related training more specifically. You can also check for e-government or innovation institutions that may lead data training in the country.

Starting points

• Search:
  • Public service national agency;
  • Documents and laws describing national data strategies.
• Consult:
  • Data literacy experts;
  • Scholars and officers of civil society organizations working in topics such as e-government, state modernization, data for public good, etc.;
  • Public servants.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is there evidence of government´s actions to train civil servants on data matters? If there is such evidence, are training activities isolated efforts or they are part of a wider strategy?
• Do data training efforts target a general audience of public servants or do they focus only on data scientists and others that already work intensively with data?
• What topics does this training address?
  • Data governance, including laws, policies, and guidelines to collect and share data within the government and with external actors;
  • Data gathering: how to collect data in order to be able to use it effectively;
  • Data analysis, visualization, and storytelling;
  • Technical tools for working with data.
• In what context are these trainings delivered?
  • Are they run by an established government training department that works with various subjects, including data?
  • Are they available thanks to a partnership with an external institution, such as a university, civil society organization, or international organization?
  • Are they isolated trainings run by an external provider?
  • Do public servants receive a certification when completing training or is there some other formal recognition of the training as professional development?
• How widespread are these trainings in terms of agencies and ministries?

National and sub-national considerations

Some countries may have training programs at a national level, which may coordinate efforts with local governments. Other countries may have local trainings, but no national initiatives. Please record whether the trainings you have assessed for this indicator were delivered at national or sub-national governments in your answers to the questions on the scope and coverage of the training, and then explain further as appropriate in the indicator's justification box.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is there evidence of government´s actions to train civil servants on data matters?
  • There is no evidence of government supporting civil servants training on data matters.
  • There is isolated evidence of government supporting civil servants training on data matters.

    Supporting questions: Please provide url of this evidence.Please indicate who is delivering these trainings: a dedicated government team, an occasional external supplier, an external mid-term partner such as universities, etc.

  • There is some evidence of government supporting civil servants training on data matters, as part of a planned and sustainable strategy.

    Supporting questions: Please provide url of this evidence.Please indicate who is delivering these trainings: a dedicated government team, an occasional external supplier, an external mid-term partner such as universities, etc.

  • There is widespread and regular evidence of government supporting civil servants training on data matters, as part of a planned and sustainable strategy.

    Supporting questions: Please provide url of this evidence.Please indicate who is delivering these trainings: a dedicated government team, an occasional external supplier, an external mid-term partner such as universities, etc.

Elements

• Kinds of capacities:

• Training delivered covers data frameworks and governance topics. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence of training on this topic and justify your answer.

• Training delivered to public servants covers topics on data gathering. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence of training on this topic and justify your answer.

• Training delivered covers data analysis, visualisations and storytelling techniques. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence of training on this topic and justify your answer.

• Training delivered covers specific technical topics for data centred roles. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide evidence of training on this topic and justify your answer.

• User groups:

• Training on data addresses non-technical public servants. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'partially' if you find evidence of training that addresses non-technical roles, but it is not as widespread as training for technical roles.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide an explanation for your answer and supporting urls if needed.

• Training on data is focused on specific positions already working with data. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'partially' if you find evidence of training that addresses technical roles, but it is not as widespread as training for non-technical roles.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide an explanation for your answer and supporting urls if needed.

• Specific features:

• Training is planned by an established training team, department, or agency. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No or Partially or Yes: Who is in charge of planning the trainings?

• Public servants receive a certification when taking a training so there is a formal recognition as a professional development. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: What kind of certification do they receive?

Extent

• How widespread, in terms of agencies and ministries, are the trainings assessed for this question?

  • The training assessed is available to one or more agencies or ministries, but there are many other agencies or ministries without such training.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • The training assessed is representative of the kind of training that can be found for all, or most, agencies or ministries.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

• How widespread, in terms of jurisdictions, are trainings assessed for this question?

  • Assessed training involves sub-national or local public servants of one or more localities, but there are many other localities without such trainings.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • Assessed trainings involve sub-national or local public servants, and are representative examples of the kind of trainings that can be found for all, or most, localities.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • Assessed trainings involve national public servants.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

Indicator Justification

Data literacy for public servants is a precondition for governments working toward using data for public good. The World Bank's 2021 Data for Better Lives highlights civil servants' data skills as a key component for effective data governance, stating that "institutions can only carry out their roles effectively if their staff are capable of and willing to use good data to undertake their core operations, inform policies, and deliver services... Governing data thus requires a strong technical capacity and investments in human capital development for those who collect, process, analyze, and use data to support evidence-based policy making, core government operations, and service delivery"(World Bank 2021).

Similarly, the OECD notes that skilled and motivated public servants are the foundation for an effective and sustainable open data policy, and key for achieving a data-driven public sector that governs and manages data as a strategic asset to create public value (OECD 2020).

For data literacy, public servants need ongoing training, either to learn basic skills to effectively govern, manage, and share data, or to improve and update existing skills. Training programs, therefore, should target different audiences among government officials: some should focus more broadly on civil servants who work with different types of content, while other should focus on improving the skills of those in data-specific positions.

Capability: Open data initiative

To what extent is there a well-resourced open government data initiative in the country?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

An open government data initiative is a program by the government to release government data online to the public. It has four main features:

1. The government discloses data or information without request from citizens. This may be according to a release schedule or ad hoc.
2. The Internet is the primary means of disclosure (including mobile phone applications);
3. Data is free to access and reuse (e.g., is released under open licenses);
4. Data is in a machine-readable format to enable computer-based reuse, e.g., spreadsheet formats, application programming interfaces (APIs), etc.

Resources for an open government data initiative include a sufficient budget, personnel, and facilities to carry out the initiative's mandate, including technical personnel with appropriate qualifications for dealing with open data issues.

This indicator investigates not merely the presence of an initiative, but an active initiative. Over the last decade, many countries launched open data initiatives. This indicator is concerned with whether these remained active during the study period.

Signs of activity may include (but are not limited to):

• Commitments from senior leaders to continued or new open data publication;
• Updates to relevant policies and guidance, or monitoring of policy/guidance implementation;
• Dedicated staff and financial resources supporting open data activities;
• Active participation in international fora such as the Open Data Charter;
• Regular updates to a national open data portal.

Note: This question is only concerned with initiatives led by the national or sub-national governments. Open data initiatives covering the country, but organised by a third party, such as the African Development Bank or another regional organisation should not be counted, although these can be mentioned in the sources and justification boxes.

Research Guidance

Start by identifying the national open data portal. Check there for recent updates, as well as information regarding the team behind the initiative. You may also want to look for social media accounts related to the initiative, which may share about recent activities with regard to guidance or senior leadership.

Consulting individuals or organizations working on open data can help you identify additional sources regarding budgets and other evidence.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The World Bank Digital Government/GovTech Systems and Services 2020 survey provides information on open data initiatives and portals (columns IZ–JB).
  • The Open Data Charter's list of government adopters and the Open Government Partnership's action plans can help identify which offices or agencies manage open data activities, and may provide leads to current open data initiatives.
  • The qualitative data from the Open Data Barometer may provide details of policies and initiatives identified prior to 2017 generally, 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.C1."
  • Answers to the current Barometer's core governance indicator on open data policies may also provide evidence of an initiative.
• Search:
  • For details of how central government data portals are updated; look for evidence of a team maintaining the portal or providing guidance.
  • Parliamentary or government records for recent mentions of "open data" that might provide evidence of active leadership or monitoring of open data initiatives.
  • General searches for "open data policy," "data strategy," "open data strategy."
  • Search academic search engines (e.g., Google Scholar, arXiv, ResearchGate, etc.) for recent papers on "open data" + [country].
• Consult:
  • Individuals or organizations working on open data in government or civil society.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• How recent were the latest updates to guidance, data portals, or other open data initiative resources?
• Is there a well-maintained open data portal in place? For example, a portal that offers:
  • A wide range of topics;
  • Data published by a wide range of public agencies;
  • Updated datasets;
  • APIs.
• Is there a government team working to support open data activities?
• Do open data activities appear to have allocated funding and budgets?

National and sub-national considerations

Look first for a national open data initiative. If there is no national initiative, but you locate a strong sub-national initiative, you may carry out the assessment with respect to this example, recording this in your answer to the question regarding the coverage of the initiative and explaining further in the indicator's justification box.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Has there been any form of government-led open government data initiative during the study period?
  • There is no evidence of any government-led open government data initiative in the country.
  • There has been a government-led open government data initiative, but there is limited evidence of recent activity.

    Supporting questions: When was the open government data initiative first launched?When was the initiative last active? (Please provide year, and if appropriate, a brief explanation. E.g. '2016: before the last election').

  • There is evidence of an active government-led open government data initiative.

    Supporting questions: When was the open government data initiative first launched?

Elements

• Specific features:

• There is a government team in place supporting open data activities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of the existence of this team, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of the existence of this team.

• There is an allocated budget for open data activities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this allocated budget, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this allocated budget.

• There is a well-maintained open data portal. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide the URL and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide the URL.

• There is guidance and support for government publication of open data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this guidance, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this guidance.

• Senior political leaders back the open data initiative. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this leadership, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this leadership.

Extent

• How widely does this, or similar, open data initiatives apply?
  • The open data initiative covers only a limited part of the national government, or only covers one or more sub-national governments.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe the scope of this initiative and indicate sources for this affirmation.

  • The open data initiative covers only a limited part of the national government, but there are similar initiatives for many other parts of government.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe the scope of this initiative and indicate sources for this affirmation.

  • The open data initiative covers much of the national government, and there are similar initiatives in many sub-national areas.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe the scope of this initiative and indicate sources for this affirmation.

  • The open data initiatives covers much of both national and sub-national government.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe the scope of this initiative and indicate sources for this affirmation.

Indicator Justification

Promoting the reuse of public data is central to realizing the potential of data for the public good. Consequently, the Open Data Charter calls for countries making commitments to open data to establish delivery mechanisms that will translate such commitments into improved supplies of open data. However, because integrating open data practices can change the way that public institutions work, such efforts benefit from ongoing open data initiatives that provide leadership, resourcing, guidance, support, and infrastructure for government open data activities.

The Open Data Barometer included an indicator (ODB.2013.C.INIT) which asked: "To what extent is there an active and well-resourced open government data initiative in the country?" This indicator is designed to provide comparable data. It converts the guidance from the ODB's 0–10 scoring system to element checklist items that should yield similar scoring for similar situations.

Capability: Government support for reuse

To what extent is there evidence that government is providing support for data reuse?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

This indicator tracks a wide range of actions to investigate whether a government has a consistent strategy to build, maintain, and develop a national culture of data reuse. Relevant actions include but are not limited to: challenges, hackathons, virtual events, communication strategies, information sessions, and financial programs to support data reuse.

Some governments may only support data reuse with regard to specific kinds of data. For example, open data strategies have long included components for creating communities to support the reuse of open government data. Recognizing the complexity of the contemporary data landscape, in addition to open data, this indicator examines support for the reuse of other types of data, such as private sector data and crowdsourced data, as well as support for working on data in a general way, regardless of its source or licenses.

The following examples, drawn from past editions of the Open Data Barometer, focus on open government data, but also point to the kinds of support for reuse that this indicator seeks:

• Challenge.gov is a website of the United States government that lists open data challenges and prize competitions; as of July 2016, there were 722 live competitions. Challenges and competitions are run by over 75 agencies across federal governments. According to challenge.gov, 640+ competitions have been launched and more than $220 million awarded in prizes since 2010, with participants from every state in the US.
• In cooperation with Cloudera, the government of Singapore launched the BASE (Big Analytics Skills Enablement) initiative, which aims to equip workforces from both the public and private sectors with data analytics skills.
• The Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations grants the Stuiveling Open Data Award annually to a public or private party who deploys, promotes, or enables open data in helping resolve social issues. (For a five year period, with 2016 being the first year of the award.)
• In France, Etalab, the national open data initiative, organizes a yearly challenge called Dataconnexions, where the best data reuses are showcased and promoted nationally.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • ODB notes for question ODB.2013.C7 may include relevant information, as of 2016. Some of those programs may still be operating, or may help you identify the organizations in charge of these kinds of activities.
• Search:
  • Annual reports on the government's activities regarding data.
  • Look for "news and updates" in national and local data portals.
  • Explore updates from newsletters of government agencies working with data.
• Consult:
  • Relevant people from the open data community.
  • Public officials working with open data and/or data in a general sense.
  • Scholars working on the local data issues.
  • Officials at civil society organizations working with data, e-government, and relevant topics.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is there evidence of a government strategy to support and encourage data reuse?
  • Does this evidence consist mainly of isolated examples, or does it show a coherent strategy with long-term objectives and plans?
• For what kinds of data does the government provide support for reuse? For example, open government data, private sector or NGO data, or crowdsourced data. Or does the government encourage data sharing more broadly, regardless of sources and licenses?
• In practice, how is government supporting data reuse?
  • With challenges that offer prizes or other incentives to develop data-based projects, tools, and services?
  • Through communication efforts, drawing on an active strategy to share information, tools, and guidelines for data reuse? This could be undertaken by various means, such as newsletters, social media activity, video tutorials, and other resources.
  • Providing regular information sessions for different stakeholders, to share data reuse strategies and to receive feedback from stakeholders?
  • Establishing financial aid or specific funding schemes for data projects?
  • Organizing hackathons for developers to prototype tools and services over the course of a one- or two-day event?
• For which stakeholders is support available?

National and sub-national considerations

Some countries have data strategies at a national level, which may or may not coordinate efforts with local governments. Other countries may have local support but no national initiatives. Record the situation that applies in your country in response to this indicator's question regarding coverage of the support, explaining further in the indicator's justification box.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is there evidence of a government strategy to support and encourage data reuse? Evidence may, for example, include plans, policies, actions, initiatives, and other events. Make sure relevant evidence is referenced in the justification.
  • There is no evidence of government supporting and encouraging data reuse.
  • There is isolated evidence of government supporting and encouraging data reuse.

    Supporting questions: Please provide URLs or details of the strategy that supports increased data reuse, and briefly explain your assessment.

  • There is some evidence of government supporting and encouraging data reuse.

    Supporting questions: Please provide URLs or details of the strategy that supports increased data reuse, and briefly explain your assessment.

  • There is widespread and regular evidence of government supporting and encouraging data reuse, framed by a long-term strategy.

    Supporting questions: Please provide URLs or details of the strategy that supports increased data reuse, and briefly explain your assessment.

Elements

• Kinds of capacities:

• There is evidence of government efforts to support open government data reuse. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this support.

• There is evidence of government efforts to support big data reuse in a general sense. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this support.

• There is evidence of government efforts to support private sector or NGO data reuse. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this support.

• There is evidence of government efforts to support crowdsourced data reuse. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this support.

• There is evidence of government efforts to support data reuse from various data topics. (No, Partially, Yes) Data topics could be varied: datasets related to political integrity, climate action, land, company information, health & COVID-19, etc. Answer 'No' if data reuse is focused on one or few data topics. Answer 'Partially if there is evidence of support for data reused involves some topics, but there are many other relevant datasets without support. Answer 'Yes' if government efforts to support data reuse address a wide range of data topics relevant to the country.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this support for data reuse and briefly explain which important data topics lack such support.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this support for data reuse.

• User groups:

• There is evidence of government efforts to support data reuse by civil society organizations. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Yes: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support.

• There is evidence of government efforts to support data reuse by media. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Yes: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support.

• There is evidence of government efforts to support data reuse by scholars and academic institutions. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Yes: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support.

• There is evidence of government efforts to support data reuse by the private sector. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Yes: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support.

• Specific features:

• Government support for data reuse involves data challenges. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Yes: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support.

• Government support for data reuse involves hackathons. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Yes: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support.

• Government support for data reuse involves communication and community building efforts. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Yes: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support.

• Government support for data reuse involves running information sessions on how to use particular datasets, or how to reuse government data in general. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Yes: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support.

• Government support for data reuse involves the release of funding schemes (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support, and briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Yes: Please provide a URL with details or an example of this kind of support.

Extent

• How comprehensive, in terms of jurisdiction, is the coverage of the support assessed for this question?
  • Support is given in one or more localities, but there are many other localities without such support, or with support of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Please provide sources that informed your answer, and a brief explanation.

  • Support is given in one or more localities and is a representative example of the kind of support that can be found for all, or most, localities.

    Supporting questions: Please provide sources that informed your answer, and a brief explanation.

  • Support assessed is at national level.

    Supporting questions: Please provide sources that informed your answer, and a brief explanation.

Indicator Justification

Achieving the full benefits of data for public good—its range of uses, outcomes, and impacts—requires more than establishing legal frameworks and making data available. User engagement with data is crucial for ensuring positive outcomes and impacts that justify policies and initiatives (OECD 2020). But data reuse isn't a single release–use trajectory. Rather, it is a complex process in which many different stakeholders interact, building an ecosystem within which stakeholders affect each other.

A government's actions to encourage data reuse are thus key components of a country's strategy for data for the public good. This indicator tracks what kind of support, if any, governments provide for data reuse.

This indicator also provides continuity with ODB.2013.C.SUPIN, which asked, "To what extent is the government directly supporting a culture of innovation with open data through competitions, grants, or other support actions?"

Capability: Sub-national

To what extent do city, regional, and local governments have the capability to effectively manage data?

Definitions

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).

Research Guidance

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.

Question sub-components

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

• Kinds of capacities:

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Indicator Justification

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?"

Ended: Capabilities

Ended: Core modules

Thematic modules

Company Information

Governance: Beneficial ownership

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a basis for collecting and publishing beneficial ownership data on companies?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

"A beneficial owner is a natural person who has the right to some share or enjoyment of a legal entity’s income or assets (ownership) or the right to direct or influence the entity’s activities (control). Ownership and control can be exerted either directly or indirectly." (Open Ownership, 2020)

A public register of the beneficial owners of companies extends beyond registration of the immediate shareholders or directors of a company to require identification and disclosure of the natural persons (individual named people) who exercise ultimate ownership or control—even if this ownership or control involves multiple intermediate companies or relationships. (For more information on beneficial ownership concepts, please review this primer.)

Beneficial ownership disclosure laws and frameworks are relatively new, and may have only been created in the last few years. Frameworks for beneficial ownership disclosure may cover all companies in a jurisdiction or may only cover specific sectors, such as extractives or companies involved in public procurement. Some frameworks do not require a central register, and some do not allow public access to the collected data.

Research Guidance

If there is no framework in place, but your research identifies ongoing campaigns, advocacy, or legislative processes that could create such a framework, please make a note of this in the justification section.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The Open Ownership map contains information on commitments made to introduce beneficial ownership registers; note that it does not record which commitments resulted in laws.
  • Country responses to FATF evaluations include an overview of commitments and actions to counter money laundering; search these for mentions of beneficial ownership.
  • Open Government Partnership National Commitments can be searched for commitments to introduce beneficial ownership registers.
  • The Financial Secrecy Index includes indicators on beneficial ownership (471, 473, 485) with references to source legislation.
  • The Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative Country Pages for member countries include a section on beneficial ownership disclosure, which may describe the presence of national frameworks or an extractives-specific data collection process.
  • Consult the description of the process for starting a business in the World Bank Doing Business survey and search for mention of beneficial ownership registration.
• Search:
  • European Union countries were required by the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive to introduce measures for central beneficial ownership registers. Search for information on transposition of AMLD5 into national legislation.
  • 'Beneficial ownership' + [country]—look for news of recent consultations, laws, or debates. Often corporate service firms will report on new regulations or frameworks being introduced for a given country.
• Consult:
  • Company transparency advocates (e.g., Transparency International chapters).
  • Company registration agents.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is there a current or planned requirement for companies to disclose their beneficial ownership to authorities, and will some or all of this information be made available to the public?
• Does the framework clearly define the types of entity that must report their beneficial ownership? Does it cover both ownership and control held directly or indirectly, including through informal agreements or financial instruments?
• Does the framework cover both ownership (e.g., shares, rights to profit) and control (e.g., voting rights, other influence)?
• Does the framework include exemptions for public disclosure of the identity of natural persons? Are any such exemptions clear and limited?
• Does a company declaring their beneficial ownership only have to do this once, or is there a process set out in the framework for regular updates? (E.g., when ownership changes, or through annual reporting)
• Does the framework seek to ensure the quality of the data? For example, are any bodies empowered to ensure accurate and timely data? Is a verification process required?
• Does the framework cover the majority of limited companies in the country or only a limited selection? (E.g., only companies operating in a single sector or in a single sub-national jurisdiction/state)?

National and sub-national considerations

Where company registration is a sub-national responsibility, beneficial ownership disclosure may also take place sub-nationally. If you identify a sub-national unit with a stronger frameworks than any national framework that might exist (or not), assess this and choose the appropriate answer to the "How widely do these laws, regulations, policies, or guidance apply?" question.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Are there laws, policies, or regulations requiring collection or publication of this information in any form?

  • No.
  • They are being drafted, or are not yet implemented.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

  • They exist and are operational.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

• Do relevant laws, policies, regulations, or guidance discuss the publication of open data?

  • There is no mention of data or the publication of data in relevant laws, policies, or guidance.
  • Requirements to publish data are set out in non-binding policy or guidance.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish this information as open data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

Elements

• Provisions for definitions, kinds, and fields:

• Definitions comprehensively cover ownership. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if only direct ownership is covered. Answer 'Yes' if definitions require disclosure interests that are held indirectly as well as directly.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  If Partially or Yes: If the framework sets a threshold below which a share of ownership does not need to be disclosed, please provide it here (e.g., 25%).

• Definitions cover control. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if the definition only specifies a limited set of forms of control. Answer 'Yes' if definitions have a provision to capture 'other significant methods of control' beyond those explicitly listed in order to limit loopholes.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  If Partially or Yes: If the framework sets a threshold below which a share of control does not need to be disclosed, please provide it here (e.g., 25%).

• Rules or processes exist to protect certain natural persons who are beneficial owners from having their data published. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Provisions for data quality:

• The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes) There are many different kinds of verification processes. In some cases, data is required from multiple parties engaged in an activity and that data is then cross-verified. In others, a dedicated agency or official has the authority to conduct audits, engaging with other agencies or external parties to verify information received.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain the verification process used, and which parts of collected data the framework requires to be verified and which parts it does not.

  If Yes: Please briefly explain the verification process used.

• The rules/guidance empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Provisions for openness, timing, and structure:

• The rules/guidance require beneficial ownership data to be collected in a central register or database. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance require that data is regularly updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance support the collection of structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

• How widely do these laws, regulations, policies, or guidance apply?
  • They cover a limited number of localities or companies (e.g., only companies operating in a single sector or in a single sub-national jurisdiction/state).

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe limits on coverage (e.g., which locality, type of company, or context for registration).

  • They cover, or are representative of those covering, many localities or companies.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe limits on coverage (e.g., which locality, type of company, or context for registration).

  • They cover the majority of limited companies in the country.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe limits on coverage (e.g., which locality, type of company, or context for registration).

Indicator Justification

Beneficial ownership data is valuable for a wide range of use cases, including:

• Supporting anti-corruption and anti–money laundering investigations;
• Enabling business intelligence and corporate due diligence;
• Supporting cross-border and wealth taxation;
• Governance of extractive industries and other high-risk sectors.

Lord (2019) describes how, over the last decade, three issues have come together to support a push for improved corporate data sharing, and in particular, better collection and sharing of data on beneficial owners: the 2008 financial crisis brought into relief the “dangers of uncertain information and unknown actors in financial markets”; a 2011 World Bank report on the abuse of anonymous companies; and international taxation and anti-money laundering reforms. These have all highlighted the need for interchangeable data not only on firms, but also on their ownership structures and the natural persons behind them.

Within the corporate information landscape, the concept of beneficial ownership has rapidly gained traction. Increasingly, countries require companies to disclose the identities of the individuals who hold ultimate ownership or control over legal entities, cutting through layers of shell corporations and other complex arrangements (Low and Kiepe 2020; Russell-Prywata 2020).

Some countries have responded to new requirements for beneficial ownership disclosure by updating existing corporate registers; others have developed parallel beneficial ownership registers or disclosure regimes (Financial Accountability Task Force/OECD 2019). Virtually all of the legal and regulatory frameworks for beneficial ownership transparency will have originated in an era in which administrations should be aware of the potential value of structured data. Consequently, tracking the extent to which these frameworks—and their related datasets—explicitly incorporate awareness of data can offer important insights into the degree to which countries are integrating a data-aware approach into new regulatory activities.

This indicator pairs with a related availability indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice.

Availability: Beneficial ownership

To what extent is company beneficial ownership information available as structured open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

A beneficial ownership register should contain details of the natural persons who have an ownership or control stake in registered companies.

There is currently significant variance with regard to beneficial ownership registers. In some cases, registers apply to all companies in a jurisdiction. In others, registers apply only to a small subset of companies, such as companies involved in the extractives industry, another regulated sector, or in receipt of public procurement contracts.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The OpenOwnership map links to a number of public registers of beneficial ownership (but is not exhaustive or always entirely up to date).
  • Global Witness reporting on EU Beneficial Ownership registers from March 2020 includes links to a number of available registers.
  • The Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative resource library contains a series of country guides (developed in 2016/17) aimed at public authorities seeking to access company and beneficial ownership information across borders; search these for 'beneficial ownership' and filter by country. These can provide context on the kinds of data collected and (as of their time of publication) made available to the public.
• Search:
  • Search the website of the national company register or registrar for mentions of beneficial ownership or related terms.
  • 'Beneficial ownership' + [country].
  • 'Ultimate beneficial owner' + [country].
  • 'Beneficiary owners' + [country].
• Consult:
  • Transparency campaigners.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Are members of the public able to access beneficial ownership information, or is it only provided to certain parties (e.g., law enforcement)?
  • Note: in cases where a register exists but is not public, the best sources of information about it are likely to be announcements from industry and government about relevant anti-money laundering (AML) legislative changes.
• Does the data contains unique identifiers for each company?
• Does the data contains clear and robust identifying information for each beneficial owner? Does it include only names and address or nationality, or does it also include persistent identifiers such as birth dates or national ID numbers? Is it sex- and/or gender-differentiated?
• Does the data contains comprehensive details of the interests held by each beneficial owner? Does it include not only details about the nature of an interest—such as whether it is shares, voting rights, ownership, or control—but also its size? (E.g., 25% of the shares, or 40% of the votes.)
• Does the data cover only a limited set of companies? E.g., from a single economic sector or only those that registered or updated their records after a certain date.

National and sub-national considerations

Where company registration is a sub-national responsibility, beneficial ownership registers may also be maintained sub-nationally. In these cases, look for and assess the best case example of data availability, and use the question on the coverage ('How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?') to indicate whether this represents common practice or not.

In cases where neither national nor sub-national governments maintain registers, but data is available for a particular sector (e.g., extractives), carry out your assessment for that sector, and use the coverage question to indicate whether this represents common practice or not.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• The dataset contains unique identifiers for each company. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If company information data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where company identifiers are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The dataset contains identifying information for each beneficial owner. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if a dataset contains only names and address or nationality. Answer 'Yes' if a dataset includes other key identifiers as well, such as date of birth (at least month and year), national ID number, or other persistent identifier.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please list the identifying information provided.

  If Partially or Yes: If beneficial ownership data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where clear identification of owners is located.

• The dataset contains details of the interests held by each beneficial owner. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Yes' if both the nature (e.g., shares, voting rights, ownership, or control) and size (e.g., 25% of the shares, or 40% of the votes) of the interest are given. Answer 'Partially' if only some of this information is given.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If beneficial ownership data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where details of interests are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes information about individuals' sex and/or gender. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe what data includes sex and/or gender information.

• The data is published according to one or more relevant data standards. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Which standards are in use?

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

• Is the data restricted to a particular sector? Or does it have broad coverage of companies in the country?

  • The data covers companies from a single economic sector (e.g., extractives industry) and there is minimal beneficial ownership data available from other sectors.

    Supporting questions: Which sector does this data cover?

  • The data covers, or is representative of, the kind of data that cover, companies involved in a number of different sectors (e.g., extractives, government procurement, financial markets).

    Supporting questions: Which sectors does this data cover?

  • The data covers the majority of registered companies in the country.

    Supporting questions: Which sectors does this data cover?

Indicator Justification

Beneficial ownership data is valuable for a wide range of use cases, including:

• Supporting anti-corruption and anti–money laundering investigations;
• Enabling business intelligence and corporate due diligence;
• Supporting cross-border and wealth taxation;
• Governance of extractive industries and other high-risk sectors.

Lord (2019) describes how, over the last decade, three issues have come together to support a push for improved corporate data sharing, and in particular, better collection and sharing of data on beneficial owners: the 2008 financial crisis brought into relief the “dangers of uncertain information and unknown actors in financial markets”; a 2011 World Bank report on the abuse of anonymous companies; and international taxation and anti-money laundering reforms. These have all highlighted the need for interchangeable data not only on firms, but also on their ownership structures and the natural persons behind them.

Within the corporate information landscape, the concept of beneficial ownership has rapidly gained traction. Increasingly, countries require companies to disclose the identities of the individuals who hold ultimate ownership or control over legal entities, cutting through layers of shell corporations and other complex arrangements (Low and Kiepe 2020; Russell-Prywata 2020).

Some countries have responded to new requirements for beneficial ownership disclosure by updating existing corporate registers; others have developed parallel beneficial ownership registers or disclosure regimes (Financial Accountability Task Force/OECD 2019). Virtually all of the legal and regulatory frameworks for beneficial ownership transparency will have originated in an era in which administrations should be aware of the potential value of structured data. Consequently, tracking the extent to which these frameworks—and their related datasets—explicitly incorporate awareness of data can offer important insights into the degree to which countries are integrating a data-aware approach into new regulatory activities.

This indicator pairs with a related governance indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice.

Availability: Company register

To what extent is company information available as structured open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

A national company register should contain details of companies that are incorporated within that country. This should include basic company information, such as company name, legal form, status, and registered address, as well as unique identifiers for each company, structured data on company accounts, and details of each director.

Some countries have only a few forms of corporate entities and registration practices; others have many, from private limited firms, to partnerships, mutual societies, financial institutions, and listed companies. Responsibility for company registration may belong to national registrars, handled through national gazettes, delegated to business associations and chambers of commerce, or to commercial franchise holders operating the registry. Listed companies in particular are subject to the disclosure requirements of the stock exchange on which they are listed, which can have substantial variations, particularly with respect to the information available on shareholders.

For the purpose of this indicator, focus on limited liability companies or the equivalent.

Note: Many countries operate corporate registration at a sub-national level. However, it is increasingly common to find systems that aggregate or search across sub-national registers. For example, Colombia and Germany both have comprehensive portals to access information from local registrars, and Canada has a beta service covering seven of Canada’s provinces and territories. A notable exception at present is the United States, although third parties have been able to aggregate data from the majority of states.

Research Guidance

If there are multiple forms of limited liability company in this country operating under different frameworks, you should focus your assessment on the most common domestic form, as identified in the World Bank's Doing Business report. If there are notable variations in the assessment you would make for other common forms of company, please briefly comment on this in the justification.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The Open Company Data Index includes assessments for most countries in the world; the small print at the bottom of country pages provides links to company register websites. A some assessments were carried out as early as 2012, you will need to check the current state of data availability carefully by reviewing the register itself.
  • The World Bank's Doing Business report provides details of the relevant registrar in each country.
• Search:
  • The company register page for details of data downloads or APIs.
• Consult:
  • Third parties who appear to be using bulk data from the company register to ask whether they access this from an open data source or via some other route.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included. Look for well-structured data that could be accessed or read into a database row by row.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is company information available as structured, open data?
• What company data is available?
  • Does the dataset have a field with a unique identifier for each company?
  • Is basic company information available, including company name, legal form, status, and registered address?
  • Are annual accounts for each registered company available as structured data?
  • Is information about the directors of each company, including names and a unique identifier, available?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries company registration is a sub-national responsibility, carried out by individual states, regions or cities.

To achieve the highest scores on this indicator, it should be possible to easily access data about all companies in a country. This might be achieved by:

• Having a central register of companies;
• Government providing an aggregation service that brings together data from local registers; or
• Having standardized or comparable-quality data available from every sub-national register, such that a third party can easily aggregate the data.

To assess countries where company registration is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice. If relevant, note in the justification any barriers that might prevent third parties from aggregating data from different sub-national registers.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• The dataset contains unique identifiers for each company. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If company information data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where company identifiers are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Basic company information, including company name, legal form, status, and registered address. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: If one or more of the basic company data features is not covered, please list which (e.g. registered address).

  If Partially or Yes: If company information data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where basic company information is located.

• The data contains details of each director. (No, Partially, Yes)

• Structured data on company accounts is available for each registered company. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If company information data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where company account data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes information about individuals' sex and/or gender. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe what data includes sex and/or gender information.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

Company registration data, and company identifiers in particular, are used in a wide range of contexts, including:

• Supporting anti-corruption and anti-money laundering investigations;
• Enabling business intelligence and corporate due diligence;
• Facilitating business processes and data management;
• Supporting cross-border and wealth taxation;
• Generating economic statistics and supporting economic policymaking;
• Analyzing social, environmental, and equity issues across the economy; and
• Improving consumer choice.

Sustained civil society campaigns have called for greater openness of company records, particularly in the European Union (see, for example, Quintanilla and Darbishire 2016). In 2019, the EU Open Data Directive included “Companies and company ownership” as one of six data categories “having a particular high value for the economy and society,” although campaigners have expressed concern that implementation of this commitment has been slow, in part because governments are reluctant to challenge current funding model of registers that charge for access to data (Domínguez 2021).

The distributed and fragmented nature of corporate registration both within and across countries has meant that, while trade and financial flows have globalized, information on firms has remained surprisingly siloed. The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation maintain a list of over 700 business registers around the world. A number of notable efforts to address this fragmented landscape include: the creation of proprietary company information products, such as Dun and Bradstreet’s company information products, used particularly in corporate due diligence and supply chain management; the work of OpenCorporates to scrape existing company registers and publish them as open data; and the creation of the global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) at the request of the Financial Stability Board to support identification of entities involved in financial markets. However, it remains unclear how far interested parties have effective access to structured and open data on firms across the world—this indicator seeks to address this knowledge gap.

To develop this indicator we have considered both international agreements on company registration, and user needs for corporate data. We drew in particular on interpretive notes of Financial Accountability Task Force Recommendation 24 which state that “All companies created in a country should be registered in a company registry” and that registration should include a “company name, proof of incorporation, legal form and status, the address of the registered office, basic regulating powers (e.g., memorandum & articles of association), [and] a list of directors” and that there should be mechanisms to keep this basic information up to date (FATF/OECD 2020, 91).

This indicator should be broadly comparable to the Open Data Barometer indicator that assessed the availability of company register data, defined as: “A list of registered (limited liability) companies in the country including name, unique identifier, and additional information such as address, registered activities. The data in this category does not need to include detailed financial data such as balance sheet, etc.” (ODB.2013.D7).

Use: Corporate due diligence

To what extent do products or services exist that use open company data to support due diligence?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Due diligence involves carrying out checks before entering into a financial relationship with a company, such as signing a contract with a supplier or opening a bank account for a company. For example, due diligence may involve checking who the owners of the company are, whether the company is still active, and whether the company has filed up to date accounts. Certain organizations are under legal obligations to carry out due diligence as part of anti-money laundering (AML) requirements, but due diligence may also be carried out voluntarily to manage operational and financial risks. In financial services, due diligence checks are sometimes referred to as "know your customer" (KYC).

Often, carrying out due diligence involves bringing together multiple sources of data and putting it in context. Some countries have an active market of due diligence providers who take open company data, process it, and combine it with other sources to produce reports on the opportunities or risks of working with a particular company. They may do this by providing an online tool or offering a digital service.

This indicator examines whether there are tools or digital services that are run from within—or specifically tailored to—the country. This intentionally contrasts with global tools that may just happen to include some companies from the country.

Examples of tools and services that would meet the indicator's definition include:

• YouControl from Ukraine, which provides an online search tool and detailed profiles of companies based on open and scraped data.
• DueDil in the UK, which provides access to analysis based on data from the UK Company Register (Companies House) for use in know your business (an extension of know your customer) and KYC applications.

Examples that would not meet the definition include:

• CompanyDilligence.com, a consultancy carrying out bespoke research for any country. It does not provide a data-driven tool or service or appear to use bulk data from any specific country.
• OpenCorporates.com, which, though it aggregates company register data from many countries, does not offer country-specific analysis products or services.

Research Guidance

You are most likely to find results for this indicator when the company register assessed in the related availability indicator is digitized and provides either open data or paid-for data feeds. If you cannot locate any data available from the company register, you should not spend long on this question.

We prioritize cases where open data is being used, although you can also record cases that appear to be sourcing data through other means.

Digital platforms and services will generally have a well-promoted web presence. Thus, to research this indicator, focus on web searches to find evidence of digital tools and platforms that process company data and produce reports or analysis for due diligence work. Look for evidence of where these products may be used.

When searching, be aware that international (that is, non-local) platforms often buy keyword advertisements against terms like 'due diligence' and 'know your customer.' Consequently, the first search results or ad-supported search results may not be relevant. Don't spend time on these unless they appear to be local services.

Starting points

• Consult:
  • Individuals who may have experience in working with company data from the country, and/or carrying out due diligence checks on businesses. Do they use platforms that bring together data to produce analysis?
  • Some services may have live chat support or contact details where you can ask whether they use data from the company register or beneficial ownership registers.
• Search: (focus on non-advertising results)
  • 'Open company data users' + [country].
  • [Country] + 'company due diligence tools'.
  • [Register name] + 'due diligence' + 'platform'.
    • (E.g., 'Companies House Due Diligence United Kingdom'.)
  • [Register name] + 'know your customer' or 'KYC' + 'platform'.
  • 'Who is using [register name] data?'

What to look for?

• Look for evidence that a platform or service is from, or tailored to, the country of research:
  • Does the brand name or website domain name indicate it is focused on the country?
  • Does the homepage of the website focus on the country, or provide specific links to information for the country? (Beware of landing pages with generic copy mentioning the country that have been created for search engine optimization purposes)
  • Does the tool or service say it can cover hundreds of countries? If so, it is probably not a country-specific tool or service.
• Look for evidence of the kinds of data being used in the tool:
  • Can you see examples of graphs, tables, and analysis that appears to be driven by company data?
  • Check that any know your customer (KYC) platforms you assess are concerned with company customers rather than individual people.
  • Are sources of data listed? Does it mention the company register or beneficial ownership data?
  • Can you access a (free) trial of the tool and see evidence of the kinds of data being used?
  • Do any of the tools or services appear to make use of beneficial ownership data?
• Look for evidence of who uses the tool or services:
  • Is the marketing of the tool or service focused only on private sector, or does it mention other users such as civil society and government?
  • Does pricing information for the tool mention discounts or free access for nonprofit users?
• Look for evidence of use and impact:
  • Are there any cases studies that show how these tools or services have been used?

National and sub-national considerations

For this indicator, you may track and assess national and sub-national examples without distinction; note in the justification box if the examples you found mostly used national or sub-national data.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is there evidence of this data being used in products/services?
  • There is no evidence of such products or services in the country.
  • One or more products/services exist, but they do not appear to make use of open datasets.

    Supporting questions: Where do these products or services appear to get their data from? Please provide evidence of those products and briefly explain your answer.

  • One or more products/services exist using making use of official open government datasets.

    Supporting questions: Please provide evidence of those products and briefly explain your answer.

  • One or more products/services exist making use of open government datasets, and there is evidence of their widespread use.

    Supporting questions: Please provide evidence of those products and briefly explain your answer.

Elements

• User groups:

• There is evidence of these products and services being promoted to, or used by, government. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Yes' for more than one example; answer 'Partially' for a single example.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL(s) of evidence.

• There is evidence of these products/services being promoted to, or used by, civil society (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Yes' for more than one example; answer 'Partially' for a single example.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL(s) of evidence.

• There is evidence of these products/services being promoted to, or used by, the private sector. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Yes' for more than one example; answer 'Partially' for a single example.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide URL(s) of evidence.

• There is evidence of these products and services being promoted to, or used by, media. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Yes' for more than one example; answer 'Partially' for a single example.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL(s) of evidence.

• Specific features:

• There is evidence that at least one of the examples cited is making use of beneficial ownership data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide the URL(s) of examples using beneficial ownership data.

  If Partially or Yes: If possible, please briefly describe how beneficial ownership data is being used.

• At least one of the examples identified describes using artificial Intelligence or machine learning to process data (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if you have doubts about the accuracy of claims to be using AI/machine-learning.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide brief details of the example(s) and how they describe using AI/machine-learning.

Extent

• There is evidence that these uses have had or are having meaningful positive impacts.
  • No
  • Partially

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to relevant evidence.

  • Yes

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to relevant evidence.

Indicator Justification

This indicator focuses on both the creation of products and services using company information, and the use of those services by different sectors. It thus seeks to capture the economic impacts of open data, on the assumption that such products and services may generate commercial revenue and re-risk economic activity. And it also seeks to capture the social impacts realized when civil society, media, and government use this data, after having accessed it through intermediaries.

Often, due diligence platforms combine company information with other domestic sources of intelligence on firms. We assume this may give domestic entrepreneurs building intermediary platforms some comparative advantages. Consequently, this indicator investigates the emergence of data-using intermediaries at the country level, rather than internationally.

Krasikov et. al. (2020) have raised the question of whether open data on companies is ready for use in enterprise contexts. This indicator responds to this knowledge gap, exploring the extent to which countries' data quality issues act as a barrier to developing a market of firms using company data.

Ended: Company Information

Land

Availability: Land tenure

To what extent is detailed land tenure information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Land tenure data identifies who holds rights over land. This data can be used to understand the land ownership landscape in a country, to identify land concentration, to understand access to land and land tenure security, and for anti-corruption purposes.

Land tenure datasets typically rely on the existence of a national land registration system and database; land tenure data should provide information regarding specific parcels of land, and then either:

• the rights held with respect to those parcels (e.g., whether it is owned land, common land, or unregistered land); and/or
• the actual subjects—people or entities—holding tenure rights.

Note: A dataset that only provides details of land parcels, without any information on the tenure rights over them, is not considered a land tenure dataset for the purposes of this survey.

Research Guidance

Start by identifying the agency or agencies in charge of land registration and/or collection and publication of land tenure data. Look for registers, cadastres, and institutions working with land tenure of any type. Some countries have departments in charge of collecting and publishing land-related data, often in conjunction with geospatial data.

In some cases, information on individual rights holders may be available under more restrictive licenses than general rights information. In these cases, you can indicate that data on individual subjects is ‘partially’ available.

There may be cases in which available datasets only cover one kind of right hold: e.g., datasets of state-owned land, ownership by legal persons, or land concessions and customary land tenure. In these cases, conduct your assessment for the most open dataset(s), and indicate which kinds of tenure or data subjects are covered.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The World Bank Doing Business Ranking contains a subindex on "Transparency of Information" (inside "Registering property") that tracks who can obtain information on land ownership from the agency in charge of immovable property registration; the subindex includes links to the relevant agencies that may be helpful. Be aware, however, that the detailed information provided in the subindex applies only to each country's largest business city.
• Search:
  • Releases of cadastral/register data;
  • Geospatial datasets;
  • Reports from government, civil society organizations, or international organizations on land tenure.
• Consult:
  • Officials with organizations that work on land tenure issues; for example, tenure security, anti-corruption, economic development, etc.;
  • Experts on land registration/land rights;
  • Geospatial data experts;
  • Rural reform advocates/experts;
  • Land information agencies;
  • Land registration agencies and/or national cadastres;
  • Geospatial agencies;
  • Open data portals.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that the data covers each of the following kinds of land tenure:

• Land tenure data involving natural persons and land tenure data involving legal persons—some countries' datasets may only cover land owned by individuals, while other countries may make data about corporate (company) land ownership accessible as open data.
• State lands—in some cases, data about the land owned by government entities is managed separately and may not be included in the main tenure dataset. Sometimes, when the main tenure dataset is closed rather than open, data about state lands may be in a separate open dataset. Land concessions information may also be bundled with state land data.
• Communal lands—land held by communities, and may include records of indigenous lands and reservations.
• Open access lands—land anyone can access, and may include national parks or common land.
• Urban tenure and rural tenure—some tenure datasets only cover urban or rural land. Check whether both are included, or whether separate datasets exist for urban and rural areas.

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, land tenure data may be collected and published at the sub-national level, carried out by individual states, regions, or cities.Focus on land tenure data at a national level first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where land data is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether  datasets available cover the tenure data of the majority of land, taking into account that this might not be the only cause of fragmentary evidence.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Kinds of data:

• Datasets have information regarding indigenous people or marginalized populations. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If land tenure data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where indigenous people or marginalized populations land tenure data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data covers land tenure involving natural persons. (No, Partially, Yes) In some cases, information on individual rights holders may be available under more restrictive licenses than general rights information. In these cases, you can indicate that data on natural persons is ‘Partially’ available.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Are individual owners identified in the dataset?

  If Partially or Yes: If land tenure data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where natural persons land tenure data is located.

• The data covers land tenure involving legal persons. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: What information is provided to identify legal owners (e.g. company registration number, company name, address etc.)?

  If Partially or Yes: Is information provided on the beneficial ownership of land held by legal persons?

  If Partially or Yes: If land tenure data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where legal persons land tenure data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data covers land tenure involving state land. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If land tenure data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where state owned land data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data covers land tenure involving communal lands. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If land tenure data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where communal land tenure data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data covers land tenure involving open access lands. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If land tenure data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where open access land data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data covers urban and rural tenure, and other relevant forms of tenure. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL(s) of evidence and briefly explain which types of land tenure is covered by datasets available.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data covers and has information on land concessions and/or leases. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If land tenure data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where land concessions or leases data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data fields and quality:

• Each record has a geospatial reference that allows to assign features to a spatial extent. (No, Partially, Yes) The geospatial reference might be latitude–longitude coordinates, an address, an ID to associate it to a geospatial dataset, etc. Answer "Partially" when a geographical reference exists but is broad; for example, when a neighborhood is identified, but not a more granular location. Answer "Yes" for datasets that have the most granular geographic references that can be expected for their kind.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: What kind of geospatial reference is provided?

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain your answer and provide supporting URL(s) if necessary.

• The data contains information on land transactions and sale-values. (No, Partially, Yes)

• Each tenure record contains information about the rights held over the land (freehold, lease, etc.). (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain your answer and provide supporting URL(s) if necessary.

• Data includes information about individuals' sex and/or gender. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe what data includes sex and/or gender information.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• Do the datasets available cover the tenure data of the majority of land?
  • The datasets available cover a small proportion of land tenure in the country.

    Supporting questions: What kind of land tenure does it cover?

  • The datasets available cover a big proportion of land tenure in the country, but not all.

    Supporting questions: What kind of land tenure does it cover?

  • The datasets available cover all forms of land tenure in the country.

    Supporting questions: What kind of land tenure does it cover?

Indicator Justification

Land is a key element in every human civilization. The way in which societies interact with land has broad impacts, from shaping social and economic development, to supporting cultural, and even religious life. The eradication of hunger and poverty, and the sustainable use of the environment depend in large measure on how people, communities, and others gain access to land and other related assets (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2012). Even though data is recognized as an important asset for good land governance, for many stakeholders, collecting and publishing information about land has been a challenge for various technical, conceptual, and political reasons.

Many initiatives, policy recommendations, and research papers highlight land tenure as fundamental to understanding land dynamics. Land tenure itself comprises a wide range of fundamental and complex topics. LandVoc, an online thesaurus for land governance, for example, classifies within this thematic area concepts such as land tenure systems, tenure regularizations, indigenous land rights, housing rights, and land ownership. For this indicator the Barometer focuses on data related to different kinds of rights held by people and/or institutions over a piece of land.

Availability: Existing land use

To what extent is existing land use information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identifications

Land use is commonly defined as a series of operations on land, carried out by humans, with the intention to obtain products, and/or benefits through using land resources. Land use refers to the purposes to which land is put; these may be residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural, forestry, or recreational.

This indicator focuses on data on actual uses of land rather than planned uses, asking about structured datasets that detail the kinds of activities occurring in particular locations, with associated geospatial references. Land use data should include metadata that describes the land use nomenclatures and hierarchies used, as well as information on protected areas and forested areas. To track how land use changes over time, there should also be a well-maintained archive of previous existing land uses.

A forested area or forest land “includes all land with woody vegetation consistent with thresholds used to define forest land in the national GHG inventory, sub-divided into managed and unmanaged, and also by ecosystem type as specified in the IPCC Guidelines. It also includes systems with vegetation that currently fall below, but are expected to exceed, the threshold of the forest land category”(IPCC et al. 2003: 24).

A protected area is defined as a “geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values” (IUCN 2008).

Example: The Australian Collaborative Land Use and Management Program (ACLUMP) makes land use maps available for exploring online, as well as making them accessible through APIs and downloads.

Note: Land use data may have different levels of detail, depending on the area covered. National land use maps tend to cover wider areas but with limited detail, while more local publications tend to offer detailed land use data in smaller units, such as parcels.

Research Guidance

Start by looking for national-level datasets that provide information about current land uses, cover a wide range of land uses, and include geospatial references. You may find digital maps and/or other kinds of downloadable files such as .xls, .shp, .geoJSON, etc. If there is no single national dataset or repository of local datasets, look for land use datasets for smaller areas.

As a methodological warning, land use data tends to be very localized. In some cases, national maps are published by combining different local sources. In some cases, gaps are filled by commercial initiatives. Often, different publishing systems within a country may not be consistent with one another.

Starting Points

• Search:
  • Open data portals;
  • National geographic institutes;
  • Environment agencies;
  • Land information offices;
  • Geoportals.
• Consult:
  • Organizations that work with land issues;
  • Experts on land use land use change (LULUC);
  • Geospatial data experts;
  • Climate action advocates.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of land uses and other features included.

Look for evidence of:

• A land uses dictionary that provides an overview of possible land uses and the nomenclature used.
• A register or archive of previous uses that makes it possible to track changes in land use over time.
• Information identifying forested areas, either in the main dataset assessed or in an associated one (e.g., one that is linked to, is available on the same page, or can found in the same domain).
• Information identifying protected areas, either in the main dataset assessed or in an associated one (e.g., one that is linked to, is available on the same page, or can found in the same domain).

To answer the sub-question, ‘How comprehensive is the data available in terms of types of land uses?’ you will have to determine if the available land use data covers only one or a few land use categories (protected areas, industrial use, etc.), or if covers a wide range of land uses.

National and sub-national considerations

When available, we prioritize assessment of land use data at the national level. In cases where only aggregated statistical data exists for the national and/or sub-national level, note this in your response to the question on the geospatial data. If no national data is found—or only statistical data—you can assess a sub-national dataset. Record this in your response to the question 'How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?' and explain as appropriate in the indicator's justification box.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• Each record is categorized according to a standardized land use dictionary. (No, Partially, Yes)

• Forested areas can be identified in available data or in a related dataset. (No, Partially, Yes)

• Protected areas can be identified in available data or in a related dataset. (No, Partially, Yes)

• Each record includes a geospatial reference. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'No' if there is data about land use at a country level, but it is aggregated and cannot be mapped with detail. Answer 'Partially' if each record of land use has a geospatial reference, but lacks more granular details (e.g., only includes references at a state or province level). Answer 'Yes' if each record includes a geospatial reference associated with a precise location.

• Metadata provides information about the source(s) from which the data was built. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if the institutional source is stated, but not the technical approach. Answer 'Yes' if metadata includes information about the tools used to collect the data and build the dataset, such as: satellite images, remote sensing, aerial photography, LiDAR, administrative records, volunteered geographic information (VGI), etc.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: What kinds of sources are mentioned?

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

• How comprehensive is the data available in terms of types of land uses? Answer that the data available covers 'one or a limited number of land uses' if you have only found data on particular land uses (e.g., information on protected areas or mining zones may be released in a single dataset by the agency in charge). Answer that data covers 'the majority or all relevant land uses in the country' when you can confirm that data covers most or all of the relevant land use categories in your country.

  • The dataset(s) available cover one or a very limited number of land uses.

    Supporting questions: Which land uses are covered by the dataset(s) available?

  • The dataset(s) available cover a wide range of land uses, but not the majority of them.

    Supporting questions: Which land uses are covered by the dataset(s) available?

  • The dataset(s) available cover the majority or all relevant land uses in the country.

    Supporting questions: Which land uses are covered by the dataset(s) available?

Indicator Justification

Good governance in land use is critical to achieving goals related to socioeconomic development, maintaining ecological systems, and enabling adaptation to climate change (Quan 2017). International organizations have identified effective land use and management as key for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and addressing issues such as desertification, food security, and employment and migration challenges.

Both land use restrictions as well as land use decision-making processes should be transparent, efficient, and predictable (Deininger et al. 2011). Thus, the Food and Agriculture Organization encourages states to conduct regulated spatial planning and monitor and enforce compliance with those plans. This should be done in a manner that promotes diverse and well-balanced sustainable territorial development, taking into consideration the variety of tenure systems, as well as particular issues such as the gendered aspects of land use andindigenous peoples' land rights and uses (FAO 2012).

When used in conjunction with land tenure or land ownership data, land use data opens up avenues for addressing environmental issues, corruption, land access, food sovereignty, housing, health, and a plethora of other challenges.

This indicator focuses on current and historical land use data, with special attention to forest and protected areas.

Use: Influencing policy for equity and inclusion

To what extent is there evidence that land data is being used to influence policy in the interests of equitable and inclusive land tenure and use?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

When available, land data can help identify inequity and exclusion, as well as paths to reduce them. This indicator tracks evidence of land data being used to influence policy in the interests of more equitable and inclusive land tenure and use. Examples may come from governments as well as other actors.

This indicator focuses on uses of land tenure and use data, assessed in the land module's availability indicators. The following examples sketch possible use cases, organized around gender and indigeneity:

• Journalists might use land data to write stories on gender inequity in a given country, illustrated through land tenure.
• Scholars might use land tenure and use data to analyze the impact of tenure changes in indigenous-occupied lands on landscape conservation.
• Civil society organizations might track the impact of policies on women's land tenure and use realities; for example, there is a growing interest in tracking the gender implications of large-scale land acquisitions or land reforms.
• Journalists might use, for a variety of purposes, land tenure data to track the extent of land that indigenous people hold rights over; for example, analyzing land management to address climate change.
• Academics might analyze whether urban and/or rural planning fits diverse needs, including women's needs, through the lens of land use data, as shown by studies that highlight that current cities are not built thinking about women needs.

Research Guidance

Many different actors may use land data to influence land policies, through a variety of means. Consequently, evidence for answering this indicator may take many different forms—such as reports, events, tools, and forums—and be produced by a range of stakeholders, including journalists, lobbyists, NGOs, grassroot organizations, academics, and others. What will be common to all of the use cases gathered for this indicator, however, is that they use land data to promote equity and inclusion. This may, for example, involve raising awareness of issues, proposing policy reforms, tracking the relevant effects of policies that already exist.

Starting points

• Search:
  • News media for articles on "women" + "tenure insecurity" or "land rights," and "indigenous" + "tenure insecurity" or "land rights." Note: search as well for the specific Indigenous peoples in the country.
  • Google Scholar, arXiv, ResearchGate for recent papers on "land use" + [country] for examples of academic research drawing on land use data and inclusion.
  • Websites of local community or civil society organizations focused on land rights.
• Consult:
  • Journalists who cover issues of land rights, tenure insecurity, sex and/or gender and land, indigeneity and land.
  • Community or civil society organizations that focus on land rights.
  • Scholars at local universities that work with land and city planning.

What to look for?

Taking into account both land tenure data and land use data, look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is this type of data being used regularly by journalists, civil society organizations, academics, and other stakeholders to address equity and inclusion issues and to influence policy towards more equitable land tenure and land use? Or is it perhaps only used infrequently? Or never, as far as you can determine?
• What kinds of impacts on policies do you see from these uses, and how significant are these impacts?
• To what extent is there evidence that land data is being used to influence policy in the interests of more equitable land tenure and use?

National and sub-national considerations

For this indicator, you may track and assess national and sub-national examples without distinction; note in the justification box if the examples you found mostly used national or sub-national data.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is there evidence of this data being used to influence policy in the interests of more equitable land tenure and use?
  • No evidence of actors or entities using this data to influence policy in the interests of more equitable land tenure and use.
  • There are isolated cases of actors or entities using this kind of data to influence policy in the interests of more equitable land tenure and use.

    Supporting questions: Please provide the URL(s) of these use cases, and explain what kind of stakeholders are using this data: academics, civil society organizations, journalists, etc.

  • There are a number of cases of actors or entities using this kind of data to influence policy in the interests of more equitable land tenure and use.

    Supporting questions: Please provide the URL(s) of these use cases, and explain what kind of stakeholders are using this data: academics, civil society organizations, journalists, etc.

  • There are widespread and regular cases of actors or entities using this kind of data to influence policy in the interests of more equitable land tenure and use.

    Supporting questions: Please provide the URL(s) of these use cases, and explain what kind of stakeholders are using this data: academics, civil society organizations, journalists, etc.

Elements

• User groups:

• There is evidence of civil society organizations using data in this way. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If available, please provide URLs for one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is evidence of media using data in this way. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If available, please provide URLs for one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is evidence of academics using data in this way. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If available, please provide URLs for one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is evidence of the private sector using data in this way. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If available, please provide URLs for one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Specific features:

• At least one of the examples identified describes using artificial Intelligence or machine learning to process data (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if you have doubts about the accuracy of claims to be using AI/machine-learning.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide brief details of the example(s) and how they describe using AI/machine-learning.

Extent

• Is there evidence that these uses have had or are having meaningful positive impacts on land policy? Even though it may be hard to link advocates´ actions to an effective policy change towards more equitable land tenure and land use, evidence could be tracked about policy updates after public debates and lobbying strategies.
  • No
  • Partially

    Supporting questions: Please provide any URLs that document this evidence.Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  • Yes

    Supporting questions: Please provide any URLs that document this evidence.

Indicator Justification

Equity and inclusion are key areas of concern for land governance. Longstanding inequities in land tenure and ownership leave women and traditionally disadvantaged groups vulnerable. In some countries, for example, legislation and cultural or religious biases bar women from owning, inheriting, and retaining land and property after divorce. Scholars question whether planned cities sufficiently address women's needs (Malaza et al. 2009; Micklow et al. n.d.; UNHabitat 2019) and have found important gender-related variation in land-use decisions in rural areas (Villamor et al. 2014). Further, around the world, indigenous peoples, migrants, and herders suffer land tenure insecurity.

This indicator aligns with SDG indicators 1.4.2: “Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, with legally recognized documentation, and who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and by type of tenure” and 5.a.1 “(a) Proportion of total agricultural population with ownership or secure rights over agricultural land, by sex; (b) share of women among owners or rights-bearers of agricultural land, by type of tenure;” as well as the UN-Habitat Policy and Plan for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in Urban Development and Human Settlements program. It is also supports SDG goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Ended: Land

Political Integrity

Governance: Political finance

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a basis for collecting and publishing data on campaign and party finance?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

This indicator examines frameworks that require political parties and political campaigns to disclose information about how they raise and spend money. Financial support may come from various sources, including donations, membership fees, and public funding.

This indicator is based on the presence and strength of legislation, regulations, or policies that govern whether:

• Party and campaign finance data is collected and maintained as structured, open data across the whole country.
• Financial disclosures contain structured data on income, spending, assets, *and *debts.
• Financial disclosures are *updated in a timely fashion; this includes both *regular updates and updates that are responsive to campaign-based schedules.
• Financial disclosures are published.
• A mandate is given to an independent agency or institution to examine financial reports and/or investigate violations.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The IDEA Political Finance Database provides information on bans, public spending, regulation, and oversight mechanisms, with sources listed beneath questions; this longstanding database covers more than 180 countries. It includes links for regulations that can also help you identify the country's relevant agency or agencies.
  • For countries in Eurasia, the EuroPAM database lists relevant laws and provides overviews of relevant bans, public spending, regulation, and oversight mechanisms; the database currently includes 34 countries.
  • The V-Dem Database, which covers 202 countries, includes a question, "Disclosure of campaign donations" (v2eldonate) that overlaps with part of this indicator; countries' answers can provide a useful starting point.
• Search:
  • For recent updates to party and campaign finance laws in the country.
  • The website(s) of the country's political finance agency or agencies for details of how they collect and manage data, and the basis of this in law or regulation; relevant agencies vary across countries, common ones include registrars of political donations and election commissions.
  • For examples of current forms used to register financial disclosures of parties and campaigns.
  • For political finance databases constructed by journalists or country-relevant NGOs that coordinate multiple streams of political finance data; among other information, these may contain details on known gaps in the country's laws or regulations.
• Consult:
  • Investigative journalists who focus on corruption and integrity issues in the country.
  • Local officials of civil society organizations focused on transparency and accountability in governance.
  • Elected officials, party staff members, or people who have recently worked on political campaigns.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is the framework for disclosure and verification of campaign and party finance data provided for in law, regulation, policy, or guidance?
• Does the framework provide unambiguous definitions of campaigning activities, or is there vagueness or notable inconsistencies about what constitutes a campaigning activity or third-party campaigning?
• Does the framework require publication of identifying information about donors, and if so does this include all donors or only some? Is information published as summary or in specific detail that links donors to their donations?
• What does the framework cover? Does it include not only assets and liabilities, but also income and spending details? Does it cover both financial contributions and in-kind and non-financial contributions?
• Does the framework empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data? Does it require a verification process?
• Does the framework specify that information should be updated in a manner that is not only at regular intervals but is also timely and responsive to campaign activities?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, frameworks that govern political finance data may be established primarily by individual states, regions, or cities. To assess such countries, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Are there laws, policies, or regulations requiring collection or publication of this information in any form?

  • No.
  • They are being drafted, or are not yet implemented.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

  • They exist and are operational.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

• Do relevant laws, policies, regulations, or guidance discuss the publication of open data?

  • There is no mention of data or the publication of data in relevant laws, policies, or guidance.
  • Requirements to publish data are set out in non-binding policy or guidance.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish this information as open data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

Elements

• Provisions for definitions, kinds, and fields:

• The framework contains clear and unambiguous definitions of campaigning activities of parties, candidates, and third parties. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires donors' identities be made public. (The framework does not require the disclosure, public or otherwise, of a donor's identity., The framework requires the public disclosure of the identity of any donor who contributes above a defined threshold., The framework requires the public disclosure of the identity of every donor.)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If The framework requires the public disclosure of the identity of any donor who contributes above a defined threshold.: What is the threshold?

  If The framework requires the public disclosure of the identity of any donor who contributes above a defined threshold. or The framework requires the public disclosure of the identity of every donor.: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires collecting specific information on financial contributions. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires collecting specific information on assets and liabilities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires collecting specific information on income and spending. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires collecting specific information on in-kind and non-financial support. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Provisions for data quality:

• The rules/guidance empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes) There are many different kinds of verification processes. In some cases, data is required from multiple parties engaged in an activity and that data is then cross-verified. In others, a dedicated agency or official has the authority to conduct audits, engaging with other agencies or external parties to verify information received.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain the verification process used, and which parts of collected data the framework requires to be verified and which parts it does not.

  If Yes: Please briefly explain the verification process used.

• Provisions for openness, timing, and structure:

• The framework requires regular updates, including updates in conjunction with campaigns and defined campaign schedules. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance support the collection of structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

• How comprehensive, in terms of jurisdiction, is the coverage of the laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?
  • They cover one or more localities, but there are many other localities without such rules/guidance, or with rules or guidance of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this framework cover?

  • They cover one or more localities and are a representative example of the kind of rules/guidance that can be found for all, or most, localities.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • They provide national coverage.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

Indicator Justification

The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) calls for transparency regarding the role of money in politics. Transparent campaign and party financing is critical for understanding whose interests shape parties, ballot initiatives, and the decisions of specific public officials. For, while donating to a politician or political cause is widely considered a form of political participation, there is also widespread concern about the effects of money in politics—with particular questions regarding who donates to parties and campaigns, how much, and how that affects political outcomes.

To support political finance transparency efforts, this indicator thus investigates the frameworks countries have in place for collecting and publishing data on campaign and party finance. This indicator pairs with a related availability indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice.

Availability: Political finance data

To what extent is political finance information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Political finance datasets should provide a comprehensive overview of the financial state of political parties and political campaigns, including their income, assets, and liabilities. Further, whether financial support comes from donations, membership fees, or public funding, datasets should show clearly from whom political parties and political campaigns raise money, how much money, and how that money is spent.

Political finance datasets should be available to members of a public for free, have appropriate language coverage, and include both regular updates and updates that are responsive to campaign schedules. If verification is not standard across all data, datasets should show which data have been verified and which have not.

Among other functions, it should be possible to use political finance datasets to verify that parties and campaigns are not receiving financial support from any entities that may be banned under the country's laws (for example, this often includes foreign entities).

Because countries have different election schedules and this data is responsive to campaigns, if the country you are assessing has not held a major election within the Barometer's period of assessment, please assess data in conjunction with the most recent major election and note this in the free text justification.

Research Guidance

More granular details about donations may be located in a separate donations register.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • Transparency International's Integrity Watch includes political integrity information for ten countries: Chile plus nine in Europe (France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Slovenia, Span, United Kingdom); depending on the country, this may include political finance data, interest and asset information, and lobbying data; from the main site, select "National versions" to see specifics for each country. Datasets are available here.
• Search:
  • The site of the country's relevant oversight agencies, such as its elections commission, registrar of political donations, etc.
• Consult:
  • Investigative journalists who report on political finance or money in politics more broadly, particularly any who appear to be using aggregate political finance data.
  • Officials of civil society organizations that advocate for transparency and accountability regarding money in politics.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• What financial and non-financial information does the data include? For example, does it include information about financial contributions, income, assets and liabilities, spending, and in-kind or non-financial support?
• What information about donors and donations does the data include? For example, does it include not only donation amounts but identifying details of donors, such as names, residence, occupation, employer?
• Is there evidence of missing data, assessed first against the related governance framework, if that exists, or in the context of the datasets in front of you and your local knowledge?
• Is there evidence that the availability of this data was affected by COVID-19?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, political finance data may be generated and published at the sub-national level, carried out by individual states, regions, or cities.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where political finance data is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier, or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• Data contains details of donations, public funding, and membership dues for each party or candidate. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If political finance data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data about different kinds of income are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data contains details of income for each party or candidate. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If political finance data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where income details are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data contains details of financial contributions to each party or candidate. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If political finance data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data about financial contributions is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data contains details of assets and liabilities of each party or candidate. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If political finance data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data about assets and liabilities is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains details of the spending of each party or candidate. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If political finance data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where spending details are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data contains details of in kind and non-financial support donated to each party or candidate. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If political finance data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where in kind and non-financial details are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data contains details of the timing and amounts of donations linked to donors. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If political finance data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where donation details are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data contains first and last name for each donor. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If political finance data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where donor names are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data contains detailed information about each donor, including place of residence, occupation, and employer. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If political finance data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where donor details are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes unique identifiers for each donor. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If political finance data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where donor identifiers are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) calls for transparency regarding the role of money in politics. Transparent campaign and party financing is critical for understanding whose interests shape parties, ballot initiatives, and the decisions of specific public officials. For, while donating to a politician or political cause is widely considered a form of political participation, there is also widespread concern about the effects of money in politics—with particular questions regarding who donates to parties and campaigns, how much, and how that affects political outcomes.

To support political finance transparency efforts, this indicator thus investigates the campaign and party finance data that countries make available. This indicator pairs with a related governance indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice.

Governance: Asset declaration

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a basis for collecting and publishing data on the interests and assets of public officials?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Most countries around the world have a requirement that public officials declare their interests and assets. Some such requirements are motivated by a desire to avoid conflicts of interest, some to eliminate illicit enrichment, while others combine elements of the two.

There is substantial variance in whose interests and assets must be disclosed. Some frameworks only require public officials who hold specific positions to make financial disclosures, some require all public officials. Some frameworks limit disclosures to the interests and assets under the direct control of the public official alone, some require disclosures of interests and assets belonging to partners, family members, or other intimates.

This indicator is based on the presence and strength of legislation, regulations, or policies that govern whether:

• Interest and asset data is collected and maintained as structured, open data across the whole country.
• Financial disclosures contain structured data on income, spending, assets, and debts.
• Declarations cover both financial (income, assets, and liabilities) and non-financial (e.g., employment, memberships) interests.
• Declarations are *updated in a timely fashion; this includes both *regular updates and updates that are responsive to changes in position or significant changes in assets and liabilities.
• Financial disclosures are published.
• Declarations must also disclose interests and assets held by a public official's partner, family members, or other intimates.
• A mandate is given to an independent agency or institution to examine declarations and/or investigate violations.

Research Guidance

If there are multiple forms of interest and asset declaration requirements operating under different frameworks, you should focus your assessment on the most common domestic form. If there are notable variations in the assessment you would make for other common forms of declarations, please briefly comment on this in the indicator's justification box.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The World Bank's Public Accountability Mechanisms offers information on countries' financial disclosure and conflict of interest provisions in law and practice; broader contextual information can also be found in the 2009 report of their collaboration with StAR.
  • The World Bank's Financial Disclosure Law Library.
  • OGP's database of country commitments regarding asset disclosure.
• Search:
  • For recent updates to financial disclosure laws in the country.
  • The website(s) of the country's ethics or integrity agency or agencies for details of how they collect and manage data, and the basis of this in law or regulation.
  • For examples of current forms used to register financial disclosures, to certify divestitures, to make ethics pledges.
  • For interest and asset databases constructed by journalists or country-relevant NGOs that coordinate multiple streams of financial data; among other information, these may contain details on known gaps in the country's laws or regulations.
• Consult:
  • Investigative journalists who focus on corruption and integrity issues in the country.
  • Local officials of civil society organizations focused on transparency and accountability in governance.
  • Officials of governmental ethics or public integrity offices.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is the framework for disclosure and verification of interests and assets data provided for in law, regulation, policy, or guidance?
• Does the framework require financial disclosures from all public officials, or only officials or nominees to particular positions?
• Does the framework require financial disclosures from a public official's partner, family members, or other intimates?
• Does the framework require publication of financial disclosures? Is access to financial disclosures restricted? For example, by providing disclosures only upon request or allowing only in-person review of a paper archive?
• Does the framework empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data? Does it require a verification process?
• Does the framework specify that information should be updated at regular intervals but also in a manner that is timely and responsive to changes in employment?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, frameworks that govern interest and asset declarations may be established primarily by individual states, regions, or cities. To assess such countries, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Are there laws, policies, or regulations requiring collection or publication of this information in any form?

  • No.
  • They are being drafted, or are not yet implemented.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

  • They exist and are operational.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

• Do relevant laws, policies, regulations, or guidance discuss the publication of open data?

  • There is no mention of data or the publication of data in relevant laws, policies, or guidance.
  • Requirements to publish data are set out in non-binding policy or guidance.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish this information as open data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

Elements

• Provisions for definitions, kinds, and fields:

• The framework requires collecting specific information on assets and liabilities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires collecting specific information on in-kind and non-financial support. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires collecting information on significant changes in assets and liabilities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires disclosure of income and assets held by a public official's spouse, family members, or other intimates. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Provisions for data quality:

• The rules/guidance empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes) There are many different kinds of verification processes. In some cases, data is required from multiple parties engaged in an activity and that data is then cross-verified. In others, a dedicated agency or official has the authority to conduct audits, engaging with other agencies or external parties to verify information received.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain the verification process used, and which parts of collected data the framework requires to be verified and which parts it does not.

  If Yes: Please briefly explain the verification process used.

• Provisions for openness, timing, and structure:

• The rules/guidance require that data is regularly updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the publication of income and asset declarations. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance support the collection of structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

• How comprehensive, in terms of jurisdiction, is the coverage of the laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?
  • They cover one or more localities, but there are many other localities without such rules/guidance, or with rules or guidance of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this framework cover?

  • They cover one or more localities and are a representative example of the kind of rules/guidance that can be found for all, or most, localities.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • They provide national coverage.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

Indicator Justification

Interest and asset declarations, sometimes referred to as wealth declarations or financial disclosures, have been used since at least 1960, when the Philippines passed its Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act requiring public officials to declare under oath their assets and liabilities at the beginning and end of their terms in office (Apostol n.d.). In 2003, the adoption of the UN Convention Against Corruption, which includes strong declaration practices, sparked a renewed focus on the declaration as an accountability mechanism. A World Bank study published in 2016 found that 161 of 176 countries had some form of interest and asset declaration, though these showed significant variation (Rossi, Pop, and Berger 2016).

To support government transparency and accountability efforts, this indicator investigates the frameworks countries have in place for collecting and publishing data on the interests and assets of public officials. This indicator pairs with a related availability indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice.

Availability: Asset declarations

To what extent is interest and asset declaration information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Disclosure datasets should provide a comprehensive overview of the financial state of all relevant public officials, clearly identifying their income, assets, and liabilities, including in-kind and non-financial interests. In addition to regular updates, such data should include information on any significant changes in an official's assets and liabilities—for example, it should be responsive to changes in employment. Disclosure datasets should also use unique identifiers to clearly identify not only the public official but also any partners, family members, or other intimates that the country requires to disclose interests and assets as well.

Among other functions, it should be possible to use disclosure datasets to verify that relevant public officials do not have interests that trigger conflict between their public responsibilities and private identity. Datasets may include information about interests that have been divested or placed in a blind trust or other mechanism designated by the country.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • Transparency International's Integrity Watch includes political integrity information for ten countries: Chile as well as nine in Europe (France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Slovenia, Span, United Kingdom); depending on the country, this may include political finance data, interest and asset information, and lobbying data; from the main site, select "National versions" to see specifics for each country. Datasets are available here.
• Search:
  • The site of the country's relevant oversight agency or agencies; these may include, for example, an office of governmental ethics, public integrity agency, etc.
• Consult:
  • Investigative journalists who report on conflicts of interest, public officials' assets, or money in politics more broadly, particularly any who appear to be using aggregate interest and asset data.
  • Officials of civil society organizations that advocate for transparency and accountability regarding money in politics.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• What financial and non-financial information does the data include? For example, does it include information about income, assets and liabilities, and in kind or non-financial interests?
• Does the data include information about significant changes in assets? For example, in response to a change in employment or substantial change in investments?
• Whose interests and assets are disclosed? Does the data only include information about some public officials or all public officials? Does it include information about the interests and assets of an official's family or other intimates?
• Is there evidence of missing data, assessed first against the related governance framework, if that exists, or in the context of the datasets in front of you?
• Is there evidence that the availability of this data was affected by COVID-19?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, asset declarations may be generated and published at the sub-national level, carried out by individual states, regions, or cities.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where asset declarations are organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• The data contains unique identifiers for each public official and any family members or intimates for whom disclosure is required. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If asset declaration data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where public official identifiers are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains information on income, assets, and liabilities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If asset declaration data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where income, assets, and liabilities details are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains information on in-kind and non-financial interests. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If asset declaration data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where in kind and non-financial details are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains information on significant changes in assets and liabilities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If asset declaration data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where details about changes in assets and liabilities are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains details of the assets and liabilities held by each family member for whom disclosure is required. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If asset declaration data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where details about family assets and liabilities are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

Interest and asset declarations, sometimes referred to as wealth declarations or financial disclosures, have been used since at least 1960, when the Philippines passed its Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act requiring public officials to declare under oath their assets and liabilities at the beginning and end of their terms in office (Apostol n.d.). In 2003, the adoption of the UN Convention Against Corruption, which includes strong declaration practices, sparked a renewed focus on the declaration as an accountability mechanism. A World Bank study published in 2016 found that 161 of 176 countries had some form of interest and asset declaration, though these showed significant variation (Rossi, Pop, and Berger 2016).

To support government transparency and accountability efforts, this indicator investigates the data that countries make available regarding the interests and assets of public officials. This indicator pairs with a related governance indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice.

Governance: Lobbying register

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a basis for collecting and publishing data on lobbying activities?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

While there are considerable differences in how lobbying activities are defined for reporting purposes—a key impediment to studying lobbying comparatively—there’s widespread consensus on the underlying concept of lobbying. Here we use the International Standards for Lobbying Regulation’s definition: lobbying includes “any direct or indirect communication with a public official that is made, managed, or directed with the purpose of influencing public decision-making;” moreover, as their guidance notes, “a lobbying definition should address commonly known forms of lobbying, where a lobbyist enters into direct contact with a public official, but it should also cover indirect lobbying activities, for example, where lobbyists mobilize other stakeholders to represent their views or hire consultancy firms to do lobbying work on their behalf.”

Increasingly, governments at different levels are establishing frameworks to govern lobbying. Typically these take the form of lobbying registers. Lobbying registers track who engages in and with lobbying, how, and when.

This indicator is based on the presence and strength of legislation, regulations, or policies that govern whether:

• Lobbying register data is collected and maintained as structured, open data across the whole country.
• Lobbying registers contain structured data on the activities of lobbyists, clients, and public officials.
• Lobbying registers include a verification process.
• Lobbying registers are regularly updated in a manner that is timely and responsive to lobbying activities.
• Lobbying registers are published.

It's important to note that not every lobbying actor may be located in the same country. If a lobbyist in country A lobbies a local official in country A on behalf of a company located in country B, then lobbying registers in both country A and country B may in theory be expected to contain details of that activity.

Research Guidance

Verification of lobbying activities may be accomplished through various methods. For example, one method involves cross-verification of registers kept by lobbyists and public officials; another empowers an agency or official with an investigative or enforcement mandate that includes appropriate external auditing powers.

In the case of lobbying, it's possible for a framework to require regular updates without those updates being timely or responsive to lobbying activities. For example, if a framework requires updates every year, those updates may be regular but not sufficiently responsive to specific lobbying activities to offer insights into which lobbyist clients may have influenced a public official's stance on a policy. Check to make sure the framework includes not just regular updates but updates that are responsive to lobbying activities.

If there are multiple forms of lobbying registers operating under different frameworks, you should focus your assessment on the most common domestic form. If there are notable variations in the assessment you would make for other common forms of lobbying registers, please briefly comment on this in the indicator's justification box.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • High Authority for Transparency in Public Life's comparative study of lobbying regulation mechanisms; this covers 41 jurisdictions, primarily European but with examples from elsewhere around the world as well, with sources; from October 2020
  • The Open Government Partnership commitments on lobbying offer an overview of lobbying commitments and their implementation made by various countries and cities (currently 21 in number).
  • This 2014 report from the OECD reviewed the implementation of the OECD's 2010 principles for transparency and integrity in lobbying; chapter 3 in particular examines lobbying disclosures across OECD countries.
• Search:
  • For recent updates to lobbying laws in the country.
  • The website(s) of the country's lobbying registration agency or agencies for details of how they collect and manage data, and the basis of this in law or regulation.
  • For examples of current forms used to register lobbying activities.
  • For lobbying databases constructed by journalists or country-relevant NGOs that coordinate multiple streams of lobbying data; among other information, these may contain details on known gaps in this law or regulation.
• Consult:
  • Investigative journalists who focus on corruption and integrity issues in the country
  • Local officials of civil society organizations focused on transparency and accountability in governance
  • Lobbyists

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is the framework for disclosure and verification of lobbying activities provided for in law, regulation, policy, or guidance?
• Does the framework focus on lobbyists, lobbying transactions, or both?
• Does the framework provide unambiguous definitions of lobbying activities, or is there a pattern of confusion or disagreement about what constitutes a lobbying activity?
• Does the framework empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data? Does it require a verification process?
• Does the framework specify that information should be updated in a manner that is timely and responsive to lobbying activities?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries lobbying registers have been established by individual states, regions, or cities.

This indicator is concerned with whether there is a framework that will support access to data about all lobbying activities in a country. This might be achieved by:

• Having a minimum set of practices and standards that lead to data collection across all sub-national units; and
• A framework that provides for aggregation of data from different sub-national units into a national database.

To assess countries where lobbying registers are organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Researchers should also note whether a framework exists either to aggregate data from sub-national registers, or to provide this data in interoperable formats.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Are there laws, policies, or regulations requiring collection or publication of this information in any form?

  • No.
  • They are being drafted, or are not yet implemented.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

  • They exist and are operational.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

• Do relevant laws, policies, regulations, or guidance discuss the publication of open data?

  • There is no mention of data or the publication of data in relevant laws, policies, or guidance.
  • Requirements to publish data are set out in non-binding policy or guidance.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish this information as open data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

Elements

• Provisions for definitions, kinds, and fields:

• The framework contains clear and unambiguous definitions of lobbyists, lobbying clients, lobbying activities, and public officials. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the collection and publication of the identities of lobbyists, lobbyist clients, and public officials who engage with lobbyists. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the collection and publication of information on lobbyists' goals for lobbying activities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the collection and publication of information on timing of lobbying activities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the collection and publication of information on topics of lobbying activities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the collection and publication of information on how much money is spent on lobbying activities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Provisions for data quality:

• The rules/guidance empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes) There are many different kinds of verification processes. In some cases, data is required from multiple parties engaged in an activity and that data is then cross-verified. In others, a dedicated agency or official has the authority to conduct audits, engaging with other agencies or external parties to verify information received.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain the verification process used, and which parts of collected data the framework requires to be verified and which parts it does not.

  If Yes: Please briefly explain the verification process used.

• Provisions for openness, timing, and structure:

• The rules/guidance require that data is regularly updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance support the collection of structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

• How comprehensive, in terms of jurisdiction, is the lobbying framework assessed for this question?
  • The framework assessed covers only some selected parts of national or local government.

    Supporting questions: Which parts or locality does this framework cover?

  • The framework assessed covers the national government, but may have some exceptions or may not apply to other levels of government.

    Supporting questions: What are the exceptions?

  • The framework covers the entire public sector.

Indicator Justification

In recent years lobbying has become an area of increasing regulation, with a priority placed on understanding who specifically lobbies. Thus, regulations typically require some form of lobbying register. Depending on how registers are construed, they may include not only identities of lobbyists but also transaction data regarding meetings, briefs, and gifts. Such registers ground a great deal of new empirical research (see, e.g., Bombardini and Trebbi 2020; de Figueiredo and Richter 2014) on lobbying. At the same time, they have gaps: different definitions of what requires reporting, sometimes within the same level of government (e.g., Mexico); more or less stringent sanction and cross-verification practices; differing capabilities for surfacing grassroots lobbying.

To understand both gaps and best practices across the world, this indicator investigates the frameworks countries have in place for collecting and publishing data on lobbying activities. This indicator pairs with a related availability indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice.

Availability: Lobbying data

To what extent is lobby register information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

A lobbying register should include details on lobbyists, lobbying clients, and public officials, and track the contacts and transactions that occur between lobbyists and public officials, including when, with regard to what matters, how much money is expended, and for what goals. A register should include both regular updates and updates that are responsive to lobbying activities. The best lobbying registers are rigorously verified, either by an agency with a mandate to investigate reports and sanction violations, through cross-verification of a public official's and lobbyist's records, or both.

Although lobbying scandals occur worldwide, relatively few countries currently have frameworks that govern lobbying activities. The frameworks—and consequently datasets—that do exist appear across levels of government; in some cases multiple frameworks exist at the same level of government.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • Transparency International's Integrity Watch includes political integrity information for ten countries: Chile as well as nine in Europe (France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Slovenia, Span, United Kingdom); depending on the country, this may include political finance data, interest and asset information, and lobbying data; from the main site, select "National versions" to see specifics for each country. Datasets are available here.
  • The Sunlight Foundation assessed the different kinds of databases associated with lobbying registers in 2016; the most right-hand column includes links. (Note: all of the links to the spreadsheet itself are currently inaccessible, but the linked article has an accessible version embedded about halfway through.)
• Search:
  • The lobbying register's site for details about data downloads, possible data formats, or APIs.
• Consult:
  • Investigative journalists who report on lobbying or money in politics more broadly, particularly any who appear to be using aggregate lobbying data.
  • Officials of civil society organizations that advocate for transparency and accountability regarding money in politics.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• What information about lobbying activities does the data include? For example, does it include information about the identity of participants, the date and time of activities, lobbyists' goals for activities, topics, and cost?
• Is the data not just regularly updated, but updated in a timely manner? For example, is it updated in response to lobbying activities, quarterly, annually, or on some other schedule?
• Is there evidence of missing data, assessed first against the related governance framework, if that exists, or in the context of the datasets in front of you?
• Is there evidence that the availability of this data was affected by COVID-19?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, data about lobbying activities may be generated and published at the sub-national level, carried out by individual states, regions or cities.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where data about lobbying activities is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality (I):

• The data contains unique identifiers for each lobbyist and public official. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If lobbying data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where lobbyist and official identifiers are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains clear identifying information for each lobbying client. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If lobbying data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where identifying details about lobbying clients are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data fields and quality (II):

• The data contains participant details for each interaction between a lobbyist and a public official. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If lobbying data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where details about participants in lobbying interactions are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains information about lobbyists' goals for lobbying activities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If lobbying data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where details about goals of lobbying interactions are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains dates and time details for each interaction between a lobbyist and a public official. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If lobbying data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where details about the dates and times of lobbying interactions are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains information about the topic of each interaction between a lobbyist and a public official. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If lobbying data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where details about topics of lobbying interactions are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains information about the money spent on each interaction between a lobbyist and a public official. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If lobbying data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where details about expenditures on lobbying interactions are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

In recent years lobbying has become an area of increasing regulation, with a priority placed on understanding who specifically lobbies. Thus, regulations typically require some form of lobbying register. Depending on how registers are construed, they may include not only identities of lobbyists but also transaction data regarding meetings, briefs, and gifts. Such registers ground a great deal of new empirical research (see, e.g., Bombardini and Trebbi 2020; de Figueiredo and Richter 2014) on lobbying. At the same time, they have gaps: different definitions of what requires reporting, sometimes within the same level of government (e.g., Mexico); more or less stringent sanction and cross-verification practices; differing capabilities for surfacing grassroots lobbying.

To understand both gaps and best practices across the world, this indicator investigates the data on lobbying activities that countries make available. This indicator pairs with a related governance indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice.

Governance: Public consultation data

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a basis for collecting and publishing data generated through and about public consultation on rulemaking?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Public consultation processes are key foundations to the open information and data flows that data for public good builds upon. Here we investigate the transparency of a country's public consultation processes, with regard to both the data these processes generate and data about the performance and administration of these processes.

This indicator examines public consultation processes for executive rulemaking, including regulations, bylaws, and rules, sometimes known collectively as secondary legislation. The indicator is based on the presence and strength of legislation, regulations, or policies that govern whether:

• Comments generated through public consultation processes are collected and published.
• Notice of comment, justification, proposed policies, supporting documents, and final drafts are collected and published.
• The responses of public officials are collected and published alongside relevant comments.
• Information about challenges to regulations that have been passed, the grounds for challenge, and the results of challenges are collected and published.

Note: Countries may also use public consultation processes in conjunction with parliamentary legislation or proposed projects, particularly extractive projects with likely environmental impacts. This indicator focuses first and foremost on governance frameworks that apply to the data generated by public consultations for rulemaking.

Research Guidance

If your country doesn't use public consultation processes in conjunction with regulatory matters, but does for projects or parliamentary legislation, please explain this briefly in the indicator's justification box and assess here the framework that applies to project-based or legislative public consultation.

If there are multiple forms of public consultation processes in this country—for example, applicable to different executive agencies or operating at national and sub-national levels—please explain this briefly in the justification box and assess here the most common domestic form. If there are significant differences in how you would assess other common forms of public consultation, please explain briefly in the justification box.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The World Bank's Public Consultation in Rulemaking Database offers assessments of 187 countries across a number of different elements of public consultation.
  • OECD Database of Representative Deliberative Processes and Institutions (2020) includes examples across levels of government for OECD countries.
  • Regulatory Governance in the Open Government Partnership (2020) offers details of current public consultation practices in more than twenty countries.
• Search:
  • For recent updates to public consultation laws in the country; around the world, this is an area of increasing legislation.
  • For examples of current notices of proposed legislation and comment periods, which may mention frameworks that require later publication.
  • For news articles that mention public consultation; in many places articles appear in connection with extractive projects, indigenous sovereignty, or both.
• Consult:
  • Experts in administrative law.
  • Legislators.
  • Journalists who specialize in the affairs of executive agencies.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is the framework governing public consultation data provided for in law, regulation, policy, or guidance?
• Does the framework require that an agency or ministry provide drafts of proposed rules to members of the public in advance, or does it only require agencies or ministries to provide the formal proposed rule? How are these versions published and archived?
• Does the framework require that comments generated through the public consultation process be collected and published? Are restrictions or redactions applied to this? For example, around publishing personal identifying information associated with comments?
• Does the framework require that reasoned responses from public officials be collected, published, and archived alongside relevant public comments? Or are responses published and archived separately—or not at all?
• Does the framework specify that information about challenges to rules that have gone through public consultation practices, such as the number, grounds, and results of challenges, be collected and published?
• Does the framework empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data? Does it require a verification process?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries public consultation processes and the related frameworks for the data they generate have been established by individual states, regions, or cities.

To assess countries where public consultation processes are organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Are there laws, policies, or regulations requiring collection or publication of this information in any form?

  • No.
  • They are being drafted, or are not yet implemented.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

  • They exist and are operational.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

• Do relevant laws, policies, regulations, or guidance discuss the publication of open data?

  • There is no mention of data or the publication of data in relevant laws, policies, or guidance.
  • Requirements to publish data are set out in non-binding policy or guidance.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish this information as open data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

Elements

• Provisions for definitions, kinds, and fields:

• The framework requires the publication of notice of intent in advance of public consultation processes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the publication of proposed regulations. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the timely publication of a full set of public comments generated through public consultation processes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires reasoned responses to be published alongside comments. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the publication of final regulations and justification. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the publication of challenges to laws and regulations that have undergone public consultation processes, as well as their results. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Provisions for data quality:

• The rules/guidance empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes) There are many different kinds of verification processes. In some cases, data is required from multiple parties engaged in an activity and that data is then cross-verified. In others, a dedicated agency or official has the authority to conduct audits, engaging with other agencies or external parties to verify information received.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain the verification process used, and which parts of collected data the framework requires to be verified and which parts it does not.

  If Yes: Please briefly explain the verification process used.

• Provisions for openness, timing, and structure:

• The rules/guidance require that data is regularly updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance support the collection of structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

• How comprehensive, in terms of jurisdiction, is the coverage of the laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?
  • They cover one or more localities, but there are many other localities without such rules/guidance, or with rules or guidance of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this framework cover?

  • They cover one or more localities and are a representative example of the kind of rules/guidance that can be found for all, or most, localities.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

  • They provide national coverage.

    Supporting questions: Please explain your answer and provide supporting urls if necessary.

Indicator Justification

Fundamental to democracy is the authority of the public and the involvement of the public in the act of governing, through voting as well as other forms of political participation. Public participation is well-recognized under international law as a fundamental human right, articulated in detail, for example, by the UN OHCHR in Guidelines for States on the Effective Implementation of the Right To Participate in Public Affairs (2018). Increasingly, as the OECD’s 2020 Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave details, such political participation includes public consultation in law- or rulemaking processes. Public consultation in law- or rulemaking aligns with SDG 16.7, and is a component within Transparency International’s decision-making dimension of political integrity.

As with right-to-information frameworks, public consultation frameworks fundamentally govern flows of information between members of a public and public officials, generating a stream of data as they do. Similarly as well, it's important to collect and publish data on the performance and administration of public consultation practices both from a transparency standpoint and to assess their efficacy.

This indicator investigates the frameworks countries have in place for collecting and publishing data generated through and about public consultation on rulemaking. It pairs with a related availability indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice.

Availability: Public consultation data

To what extent is public consultation information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Increasingly, countries draw on public consultation processes to inform law- and rulemaking. In practice, not all implementations of these processes have lived up to expectations. This indicator focuses specifically on the availability of data that public consultation processes for executive rulemaking—including regulations, bylaws, and rules, sometimes known collectively as secondary legislation—generate.

Such data includes the relevant regulations and comments themselves as well as administrative data regarding the performance of a country's public consultation processes. Such administrative data may be required by law or simply provided by governments as part of good practice.

To assess the performance of a public consultation process, data should include notice of intent, comments, and the various drafts of the regulation under consultation, as well as information on: number of comments submitted; the provision of reasoned responses; and challenges to regulations that have undergone public consultation processes and the results of these challenges.

Note: Countries may also use public consultation processes in conjunction with parliamentary legislation or proposed projects, particularly extractive projects with likely environmental impacts. This indicator focuses first and foremost on the data made available in conjunction with public consultations for rulemaking.

Research Guidance

If your country doesn't use public consultation processes in conjunction with regulatory matters, but does for projects or parliamentary legislation, please explain this briefly in the indicator's justification box and assess here the dataset that applies to project-based or legislative public consultation.

In some countries, national public consultation processes for rulemaking are run through a unified system, while in others such processes are run by individual executive agencies. If there are multiple forms of public consultation processes operating under different frameworks, you should focus your assessment on the most common domestic form. If there are notable variations in the assessment you would make for other common forms of public consultation processes, please briefly note this in the justification box.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • Reports published by a broader registrar's office, reports from individual agencies that engage with public consultation processes. (Note: some countries provide different sets of data through a broader registrar's office and individual agencies.)
  • National statistical offices or the appropriate governmental agency that houses statistical information.
• Consult:
  • Government officials who manage public consultation processes for their agency or department.
  • Officers of civil society organizations that actively mobilize public comments.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• What information does the data provide? For example, does it include notice of intent, proposed regulations, public comments, reasoned responses, final regulations and justification, challenges?
• Are the comments available for downloading in bulk? For example, through an API or other mechanism?
• Is there evidence of missing data, assessed first against the related governance framework, if that exists, or in the context of the datasets in front of you?
• Is there evidence that the availability of this data was affected by COVID-19?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, public consultation processes have been established by individual states, regions, or cities; consequently the data consultations generate may be published at various levels of government.

To assess countries where public consultation processes are organized sub-nationally, researchers should analyze the public consultation data associated with the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• The data includes proposed regulations. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If public consultation data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where proposed regulations data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes a full set of public comments generated through public consultation processes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Are comments available for downloading in bulk, via an API or other means?

  If Partially or Yes: If public consultation data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where public comments data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes supporting information, such as notices of intent and reasoned responses. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If public consultation data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where supporting information is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes final regulations and justifications. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If public consultation data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where final regulations data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes details of challenges to regulations that have passed through public consultation processes, as well as the results of these challenges. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If public consultation data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where challenges to regulations data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

Fundamental to democracy is the authority of the public and the involvement of the public in the act of governing, through voting as well as other forms of political participation. Public participation is well-recognized under international law as a fundamental human right, articulated in detail, for example, by the UN OHCHR in Guidelines for States on the Effective Implementation of the Right To Participate in Public Affairs (2018). Increasingly, as the OECD’s 2020 Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave details, such political participation includes public consultation in law- or rulemaking processes. Public consultation on law- or rulemaking aligns with SDG 16.7, and is a component within Transparency International’s decision-making dimension of political integrity.

As with right-to-information frameworks, public consultation frameworks fundamentally govern flows of information between members of a public and public officials. Similarly as well, it's important to collect and publish performance data on public consultation practices to assess their efficacy.

This indicator investigates the public consultation data that countries make available. It pairs with a related governance indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice.

Governance: RTI performance

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a basis for collecting and publishing data on the performance of right to information (RTI) / freedom of information (FOI) processes?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Alternately framed as right to information (RTI), freedom of information (FOI), and access to information (ATI), most countries around the world have some provision by which members of a public can request information that is held by government. Significant differences exist in terms of which branches of government a request can be made of, and what types of exemptions are allowed. Further, in some countries distinct frameworks exist at multiple levels of government.

Taking the RTI process as foundational to the open information and data flows upon which much data for public good builds, this indicator examines the transparency of a country's RTI process, as evinced through its performance and administrative data.

Thus, this indicator is based on the presence and strength of legislation, regulations, or policies that govern whether:

• Information is collected and published regarding the number of RTI/FOI requests submitted and filled.
• Information is collected and published regarding agencies' response times.
• Information is collected and published regarding material withheld from requesters, either partially or entirely, and the reasons for that withholding.
• Information is collected and published regarding appeals to RTI/FOI determinations and the results of these appeals.
• Published RTI performance information is linked to the relevant agency, department, or other governmental entity.

Note: This indicator focuses on the frameworks that govern the performance data of RTI/FOI processes. A separate indicator, built from secondary data sources, will assess RTI/FOI governance frameworks themselves.

Research Guidance

If there are multiple forms of RTI/FOI frameworks operating in this country—for example, at national and sub-national levels—please explain this briefly in the justification box and assess here the most common domestic form. If there are significant differences in how you would assess other common forms of RTI performance data frameworks, please explain briefly in the free text justification.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • Non-exhaustive databases of right-to-information laws: RTI Rating; Constitutional Provisions, Laws, and Regulations; Public Accountability Mechanisms, and the Africa ICT Policy Database.
  • The Access to Information Commitments in OGP Action Plans. See also the database of commitments and progress report.
  • Regional analysis such as AFIC's State of Right of access to Information in Africa Report (currently through 2017).
  • For COVID-19 disruptions or changes with regard to access to information, RTI Rating offers a specific COVID-19 Tracker.
• Consult:
  • Government officials who handle appeals to denials of public records requests, in order to obtain a sense of the conditions in which an agency denies (or grants) information.
  • Officers of civil society organization with expertise in access-to-information issues.
  • Journalists who report on government transparency or who use RTI/FOI requests as part of their practice.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is the framework governing RTI/FOI performance data provided for in law, regulation, policy, or guidance?
• Does the framework require that basic performance and administrative data about the RTI/FOI process, such as the number of requests submitted and filled, be generated and published?
• Does the framework require that agencies, either individually or through a unified system, not only track how long it takes them to fulfill RTI/FOI requests, but also publish that information?
• Does the framework require that agencies not only track when and why material is withheld from requesters—either partially or in full—but also publish that information?
• Does the framework require agencies not only to track appeals to RTI/FOI determinations and their results, but also to publish that information?
• Does the framework require that published RTI/FOI performance and administrative data be linked to the relevant agency, department, or other governmental entity?
• Does the framework empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data? Does it require a verification process?
• Does the framework cover the entire public sector? Does it cover the national government, but not certain positions, agencies, or branches? Does it only apply to certain levels of government?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries frameworks that govern RTI/FOIA performance data have been established by individual states, regions, or cities.

To assess countries where such frameworks are organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Are there laws, policies, or regulations requiring collection or publication of this information in any form?

  • No.
  • They are being drafted, or are not yet implemented.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

  • They exist and are operational.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

• Do relevant laws, policies, regulations, or guidance discuss the publication of open data?

  • There is no mention of data or the publication of data in relevant laws, policies, or guidance.
  • Requirements to publish data are set out in non-binding policy or guidance.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish this information as open data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

Elements

• Provisions for definitions, kinds, and fields:

• The framework requires the collection and publication of data regarding the number of requests submitted and processed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the collection and publication of data regarding how long it took the relevant government agency or agencies to fill requests. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires the collection and publication of data regarding material withheld and the reasons for withholding it. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  If Partially or Yes: Does this include collecting and publishing the total requests provided full access or partial access, as well as the total requests refused access?

• The framework requires the collection and publication of data regarding appeals to RTI determinations and their results. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  If Partially or Yes: Does this include collecting and publishing the percentage of requests that result in appeals?

• The framework requires that information is linked to the relevant agency, department, or other governmental entity. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Provisions for data quality:

• The rules/guidance empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes) There are many different kinds of verification processes. In some cases, data is required from multiple parties engaged in an activity and that data is then cross-verified. In others, a dedicated agency or official has the authority to conduct audits, engaging with other agencies or external parties to verify information received.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain the verification process used, and which parts of collected data the framework requires to be verified and which parts it does not.

  If Yes: Please briefly explain the verification process used.

• Provisions for openness, timing, and structure:

• The rules/guidance require that data is regularly updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance support the collection of structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

• How comprehensive, in terms of jurisdiction, is the framework assessed for this question?
  • The framework assessed covers only some selected parts of national or local government.

    Supporting questions: Which parts or locality does this framework cover?

  • The framework assessed covers the national government, but some positions, agencies, or branches may be exempt or the framework may not apply to other levels of government.

    Supporting questions: What parts of government are exempt? What levels of government are not covered?

  • The framework covers the entire public sector.

Indicator Justification

Right-to-information practices are a key part of transparency and accountability initiatives that support members of a public in assessing whether and how consistently public officials use political power for the common good. This right to access the information that public authorities hold is recognized by the special mandates for the UN, OSCE, and OAS and connects directly with SDG 16.10.

When RTI practices function well, they support oversight, reduce information asymmetries, and open a dialogue between members of the public and public officials. However, the quality, comprehensiveness, and attention to performance of these laws vary. Further, in practice, a host of obstacles may impede the RTI that legislation lays out, with regard to the timeliness of response, inappropriate use of exemptions, difficulties in contesting decisions—even lack of appropriate staffing and technical expertise among the relevant record officers can be a critical de facto impediment.

This indicator investigates the frameworks countries have in place for collecting and publishing data on the performance of RTI processes. It pairs with a related availability indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice. A separate indicator, built from secondary data sources, will assess RTI governance frameworks themselves.

Availability: RTI performance data

To what extent is detailed RTI performance information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

While most countries have some form of right-to-information (RTI) or freedom-of-information (FOI) framework, in practice not all implementations of these frameworks have lived up to expectations.

This indicator focuses on the availability of administrative data regarding the performance of a country's RTI/FOI obligations. Such administrative data may be required by law or simply provided by governments as part of good practice.

To assess the performance of an RTI/FOI regime, data should include information on: number of requests submitted; response times for filling requests; denials and reasons for withholding; and appeals and their results. Further, data should be linked to the relevant agency, department, or other governmental entity.

Research Guidance

In some countries, national reporting on the performance of RTI/FOI practices is accomplished through a unified system, while in others such information is published by individual agencies. If in your country individual agencies report their own RTI performance data, you should focus your assessment on the most representative example of common domestic practice. If there are notable variations in the assessment you would make for other agencies, please briefly comment on this in the free text justification.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • For COVID-19 disruptions or changes with regard to access to information, RTI Rating offers a specific COVID-19 Tracker.
• Search:
  • Reports published by the information agency, media reports, and publications by development/donor agencies.
  • National statistical offices or the appropriate governmental agency that houses statistical information.
  • Independent oversight bodies, such as transparency councils, ombuds offices, offices of information services.
• Consult:
  • Government officials who handle appeals to denials of public records requests, in order to obtain a sense of the conditions in which an agency denies (or grants) information.
  • Officers of civil society organizations with expertise in access-to-information issues.
  • Journalists who report on government transparency or who use RTI/FOI requests as part of their practice.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• What information does the data provide? For example, does it include number of requests, response times, exemptions and reasons, appeals and their results?
• Is the data available at the level of individual agencies, or only in aggregate?
• Is there evidence of missing data, assessed first against the related governance framework, if that exists, or in the context of the datasets in front of you?
• Is there evidence that the availability of this data was affected by COVID-19?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, governance frameworks for RTI/FOI processes have been established by individual states, regions, or cities; consequently, administrative data about RTI/FOI performance may be published at various levels of government.

To assess countries where RTI/FOI datasets are organized sub-nationally, researchers should analyze the administrative data associated with the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• The dataset includes details on the number of requests submitted and processed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If RTI data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where number of requests data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The dataset includes details on how long it took the relevant government agency or agencies to fill requests. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If RTI data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where response times data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The dataset includes details about material withheld and the reasons for withholding it. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If RTI data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where exemptions and reasons data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The dataset includes details about appeals to RTI determinations and their results. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If RTI data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where appeals and results data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is linked to the relevant agency, department, or other governmental entity. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If RTI data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where disaggregated data by agency is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

Right-to-information practices are a key part of transparency and accountability initiatives that support members of a public in assessing whether and how consistently public officials use political power for the common good. This right to access the information that public authorities hold is recognized by the special mandates for the UN, OSCE, and OAS and connects directly with SDG 16.10.

When RTI practices function well, they support oversight, reduce information asymmetries, and open a dialogue between members of the public and public officials. However, the quality, comprehensiveness, and attention to performance of these laws vary. Further, in practice, a host of obstacles may impede the RTI that legislation lays out, with regard to the timeliness of response, inappropriate use of exemptions, difficulties in contesting decisions—even lack of appropriate staffing and technical expertise among the relevant record officers can be a critical de facto impediment.

This indicator investigates the performance and administrative data that countries make available for RTI processes. It pairs with a related governance indicator to compare frameworks and actual practice. A separate indicator, built from secondary data sources, will assess RTI governance frameworks themselves.

Capability: Political integrity interoperability

To what extent is political integrity data interoperable across different political integrity datasets, as well as other datasets associated with relevant information flows?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

This indicator looks at to what degree the different data fields and identifiers correspond across political integrity datasets as well as other datasets associated with relevant information flows. The lack of interoperability across these datasets has been a longstanding issue for researchers, journalists, and civil society organizations.

The focus here is not on matching a universal standard—this is a thematic area that doesn't currently have relevant data standards, although Transparency International has been working to develop some—but on governments increasing the usefulness of this data through thoughtful coordination.

This indicator thus calls for a meta-analysis of the five political integrity datasets already identified, plus a meta-analysis across the relevant datasets of the Barometer's company information, land, public finance, and public procurement modules.

Research Guidance

This indicator asks primarily for a meta-analysis of datasets you have already identified and assessed, so we expect it to require minimal additional work with regard to searches or consultation.

Start from the data already located for political finance, interest and asset declarations, lobbying, public consultation, and RTI performance. You're looking to determine whether these key datasets share common identifiers that facilitate mapping flows across the larger data ecosystem. You may want to look first for evidence of a system in use to assure and validate the interoperability of these specific datasets; if found, spot check across several datasets to understand its application in practice. If you can find no evidence of a system for validating interoperability, assess the fields and metadata definitions of the datasets themselves to identify correspondences and differences; spot check across datasets to determine how consistent any correspondences are in practice.

After comparing the use of common identifiers across the key political integrity datasets, then compare them across the relevant datasets of company information, land, public finance, and public procurement.

Starting points

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Do the political integrity datasets share common identifiers that facilitate mapping flows across the data ecosystem?
• Do the relevant political integrity datasets share common identifiers for public officials?
• Do lobbying data and political finance data share common identifiers for lobbyist clients and party and campaign donors?
• Do lobbying registers and public consultation data share common identifiers for regulations?
• Do asset declarations and political finance disclosures share common identifiers for interests, assets, and liabilities?
• Do the various datasets share common identifiers for legal persons (companies, nonprofits, and other legal entities) associated with donations, interests, assets, liabilities, and lobbying activities?
• Do the political integrity datasets and relevant company information datasets share common identifiers?
• Do the political integrity datasets and relevant land datasets share common identifiers?
• Do the political integrity datasets and relevant public finance datasets share common identifiers?
• Do the political integrity datasets and relevant public procurement datasets share common identifiers?

National and sub-national considerations

This question investigates the interoperability of datasets that operate within the same level of government, although best practice involves not only interoperability across the same level of government but across national and sub-national levels.

In some countries, political integrity data may be generated and published at the sub-national level, carried out by individual states, regions, or cities. To assess countries where political integrity data is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practices across the different dimensions of political integrity data, assess these datasets for interoperability, and then explain in the indicator's justification box whether this sub-national example is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• There is evidence that datasets share common identifiers.
  • The datasets do not share common identifiers.
  • The datasets use a limited number of common identifiers.
  • The datasets of this theme consistently use common identifiers.
  • The datasets of this theme consistently use common identifiers and share common identifiers with relevant datasets in other themes.

Elements

• Interoperability across political integrity datasets:

• The key datasets for this theme share common identifiers that facilitate mapping flows across the data ecosystem. (No, Partially, Yes)

• The different political integrity datasets use common identifiers for public officials. (No, Partially, Yes)

• Lobbying data and political finance data share common identifiers for lobbyist clients and party and campaign donors. (No, Partially, Yes)

• Lobbying registers and public consultation data use common identifiers for regulations. (No, Partially, Yes)

• Asset declarations and political finance disclosures share common identifiers for interests, assets, and liabilities. (No, Partially, Yes)

• The various datasets share common identifiers for legal persons associated with donations, interests, assets, liabilities, and lobbying activities. (No, Partially, Yes) The category of legal persons includes companies, corporations, nonprofits, and similar entities that the law recognizes as being able to undertake actions such as entering into contracts, suing (or being sued), or owning property.

• Interoperability across other relevant datasets:

• The key datasets for the political integrity and company information modules share common identifiers that facilitate mapping flows across the data ecosystem. (No, Partially, Yes)

• The key datasets for the political integrity and land modules share common identifiers that facilitate mapping flows across the data ecosystem. (No, Partially, Yes)

• The key datasets for the political integrity and public finance modules share common identifiers that facilitate mapping flows across the data ecosystem. (No, Partially, Yes)

• The key datasets for the political integrity and public procurement modules share common identifiers that facilitate mapping flows across the data ecosystem. (No, Partially, Yes)

Extent

• To what degree do the datasets associated with this theme use consistent identifiers and identification systems for elements that appear in more than one dataset?
  • There is no consistency of identifiers or identification systems.
  • There is minimal consistency; at least one category of identifiers is consistent across two datasets.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain what is consistent and what is not.

  • There is partial consistency; several categories of identifiers are consistent across multiple datasets or whole identification systems are consistent across at least two datasets.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain what is consistent and what is not.

  • There is strong consistency; all of almost all of the element categories that appear in more than one dataset use consistent identifiers and identification systems.

Indicator Justification

SDG 16 calls for governments around the world to "promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development; provide access to justice for all; and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels," with targets 16.3, 16.4, 16.5, 16.6, 16.7, and 16.10 focusing on specific matters of integrity and accountability. Similarly, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) commits countries to combat corruption in both the public and private sectors.

Corruption often doesn't involve only a single act, type of act, or actor, but rather entails networks and flows. Data can be a critical tool in tracking illicit financial flows and otherwise fighting corruption, but when the relevant data types aren't interoperable, it may offer only a fragmentary picture. However, making such data interoperable—for example, using the same unique identifiers across different types of datasets—makes it increasingly useful.

This indicator thus investigates the interoperability of data across different political integrity datasets, as well as across datasets associated with relevant information flows.

Use: Accountability uses of PI

To what extent is there evidence of political integrity data being used to identify, expose, or highlight failures of government?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Political integrity data offers key tools for public oversight of governance processes and officials. When political integrity data is available, actors both inside and outside government have greater opportunities to identify, expose, and highlight failures of government, for example:

• Journalists might use political integrity data to trace financial flows across donors, parties, and officials when investigating corrupt networks.
• Businesses might use lobbying data to identify unfair advantages held by competitors and organize industry-wide responses through relevant professional organizations.
• Civil society organizations might file amicus briefs opposing the implementation of a specific regulation, citing public consultation data as grounds for challenging its legitimacy.
• Legal scholars and others might use integrity data to evaluate the effectiveness of a disclosure law, analysis which might then also be cited by courts.
• Insurance companies, bond issuers, and other businesses looking to limit political risk might factor in data that tracks government corruption.
• Media organizations investigating propaganda or persuasion tactics might use party or campaign data to report on advertising buys, and then use data on lobbying activities and officials' interests and assets to delve more deeply.
• Academics might analyze and report on problems in government decision-making, using information obtained through freedom of information requests.
• Civil society organizations might draw on financial disclosures to generate ethics scorecards for different agencies or officials.
• Businesses required to disclose various kinds of corporate risk as part of their quarterly or annual reporting might use integrity data to highlight probable or actual government failures.

For this indicator, we focus on accountability uses by actors outside government, including media, civil society organizations, academia, private sector, and individual members of the public. We prioritize institutionalized actors, though accountability uses by individual members of the public (as opposed to members of organized civil society or academia) may also be taken into account.

Note: While this indicator focuses on accountability for failures of government, it is important to recognize that political integrity data often confirms that officials or electoral candidates or others are maintaining a high standard of integrity. These confirmations, too, are important examples of using political integrity data for accountability purposes, though not the focus of this indicator.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • For Latin America, NDI Honduras is conducting a (forthcoming) mapping of society monitoring initiatives that may provide relevant examples. Their tentative list includes:
    • Observatorio Electoral Argentino (Argentina)
    • Observatorio para el control de gastos de campaña (Argentina)
    • Índice de transparencia en los partidos políticos (Chile)
    • Elecciones y contratos (Colombia)
    • Monitor Ciudadano de la Corrupción (Colombia)
    • Cuentas Claras—Observatorio al Financiamiento de la Política (Ecuador)
    • Centro de Monitoreo de Transparencia y Democracia: Datos abiertos del financiamiento de la política (El Salvador)
    • Centro de Monitoreo de Transparencia y Democracia: Mapa de Financiamiento por donantes y sectores (El Salvador)
    • Centro de Monitoreo de Transparencia y Democracia: Índice de transparencia financiera (El Salvador)
    • Foro Social de Deuda Extrerna y Desarrollo (Honduras)
    • Tres de Tres (Mexico)
    • Quién te financia (Peru)
  • For countries in Africa, the Cost of Politics series by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy may include relevant examples; note that these draw from various evidence sources, such that the role that political integrity data plays for any country will need to be carefully assessed, as will the involvement of relevant civil society organizations, journalists, and other local actors.
• Search:
  • News media for articles about money in politics, corruption, conflicts of interest, ethics violations by government officials, financial scandals, and lobbying.
  • Websites of local civil society organizations that focus on corruption, transparency, and accountability.
  • Google Scholar, arXiv, or ResearchGate for examples of academic research drawing on political integrity data.
• Consult:
  • Journalists who cover government beats or have particular expertise in corruption or financial networks.
  • Officials of civil society organizations that focus on corruption, transparency, or accountability in government, and/or organizations that focus on strengthening participatory democracy.
  • Scholars at local universities who work on money in politics, public participation in government, and RTI.

What to look for?

Focusing in turn on the media, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector, look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Does this kind of actor regularly use some form of political integrity data for accountability purposes? Or do they perhaps only use such data infrequently? Or never, as far as you can determine?
• Do only certain kinds of political integrity data seem to be being used? Are others largely neglected?
• What kinds of impacts do you see from these uses, and how significant are these impacts?

National and sub-national considerations

For this indicator, you may track and assess national and sub-national examples without distinction; note in the justification box if the examples you found mostly used national or sub-national data.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is there evidence of this data being used for accountability purposes?
  • No evidence of actors or entities using this data for accountability purposes.
  • There are isolated cases of actors or entities using this kind of data for accountability purposes, though the source may not be open data.
  • There are a number of cases of actors or entities using this kind of open data for accountability purposes.
  • There are widespread and regular cases of actors or entities using this kind of open data for accountability purposes.

Elements

• User groups:

• Civil society organizations regularly use this data for accountability purposes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain which data is being used.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URLs for one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially or Yes: Is there evidence that this data has been invoked disproportionately with regard to gender or membership in a marginalized population?

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The media regularly uses this data for accountability purposes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain which data is being used.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URLs for one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially or Yes: Is there evidence that this data has been invoked disproportionately with regard to gender or membership in a marginalized population?

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Scholars or academic institutions regularly use this data for accountability purposes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain which data is being used.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URLs for one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially or Yes: Is there evidence that this data has been invoked disproportionately with regard to gender or membership in a marginalized population?

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The private sector regularly uses this data for accountability purposes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain which data is being used.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URLs for one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially or Yes: Is there evidence that this data has been invoked disproportionately with regard to gender or membership in a marginalized population?

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Specific features:

• At least one of the examples identified describes using artificial Intelligence or machine learning to process data (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if you have doubts about the accuracy of claims to be using AI/machine-learning.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide brief details of the example(s) and how they describe using AI/machine-learning.

Extent

• There is evidence that these uses have had or are having meaningful positive impacts.
  • No
  • Partially

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to relevant evidence.

  • Yes

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to relevant evidence.

Indicator Justification

Political integrity data is a key tool not only for identifying whose interests shape how governance decisions are made and implemented, but for supporting officials to maintain a high standard of integrity—and providing evidence to hold officials accountable when they fail to do so.

Various actors work to hold officials accountable, including the media, civil society organizations, academia, the private sector, and individual members of the public; these actors may mobilize political integrity data in different ways.

This indicator's focus on accountability uses of political integrity data aligns with SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, particularly its targets around rule of law (16.3); transparent, accountable institutions (16.6); responsive, inclusive, participatory, and representative decision-making (16.7); and public access to information (16.10).

Ended: Political Integrity

Public Finance

Governance: Open public finance data

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a basis for collecting and publishing data on public finances? (E.g., government budgets, government spending, debt, and borrowing.)

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Most countries have a legal framework to guide public financial management (PFM); this framework will set how income, debt, budget, spending, and other public finance information, such as budgetary performance indicators or measurements, should be collected, managed, and reported.

This indicator asks whether your country's framework explicitly addresses the collection and publication of structured data, and whether or not it supports provision of structured data from summary reports and/or detailed transactions.**

Summary reports, also called accounting reports, provide an overview of the amounts budgeted or spent against a number of categories. They are often presented as relatively short tables or cross-tabulations. Summary reports generally do not contain details of individual line items, specific projects, or items of expenditure covered by a budget category.

Rules or guidance that support the provision of structured summary data may, for example, set out a requirement to use a particular reporting system, or establish digital templates for reporting.

Transactional data provides line-by-line information on budget allocations or spending, either at the level of granular categories (e.g., disaggregated to the level of staff spending in a particular school), or individual transactions (e.g., the payment to a particular building contractor for work on the school).

Rules of guidance that support the provision of structured transaction data may, for example, require collection and publication of detailed spend records, or may provide the basis for budget transparency at a disaggregated level. When transactional data is provided, it may be necessary for governments to make provisions to redact certain private information, such as details of payments to individuals.

Note: This indicator is not intended to assess the quality of public financial management governance, only whether governance frameworks for public financial management support the provision of structured data.

Research Guidance

This question should be explored alongside public finance availability questions, as in some cases, the information surrounding available data may provide evidence concerning the rules or guidance under which data is produced and provided.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • Look at the latest Open Budget Survey report and Questionnaire for this country and check question "GQ-2" to identify the relevant legal frameworks; search for discussions of data and reporting or transparency requirements.
  • Check for recent Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessments for this country and look in reports for information related to the legal framework, and to the use of Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (Search: IFMIS or FMIS).
• Search:
  • Public finance open data + [country]
• Consult:
  • Public spending experts in the country

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Does the framework require that both summary reports and more granular transaction-level reports be provided as structured data?
• What does the framework cover? For example, does it cover the executive budget proposal, approved or enacted budget, in-year reports, and year-end reports?
• Does the framework seek to ensure data quality? For example, by requiring this information to be verified in some way and empowering an agency or official to ensure accurate and timely data?
• What kinds of provisions does the framework include for publishing the information as open data? For regularly updating the data?
• What agencies does this framework cover? Does it cover the entire general government or public sector, or only part?

National and sub-national considerations

In many cases, even where the national government sets the rules or guidance for public financial management, there will be different rules for national and sub-national government.

You should carry out your assessment with respect to the rules or guidance from, and relating to, national government budget and spending, but use the question on the coverage of rules and guidance to indicate whether this is representative of practice across the whole public sector or not.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Are there laws, policies, or regulations requiring collection or publication of this information in any form?

  • No.
  • They are being drafted, or are not yet implemented.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

  • They exist and are operational.

    Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

• Do relevant laws, policies, regulations, or guidance discuss the publication of open data?

  • There is no mention of data or the publication of data in relevant laws, policies, or guidance.
  • Requirements to publish data are set out in non-binding policy or guidance.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

  • Requirements to publish this information as open data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

Elements

• Provisions for definitions, kinds, and fields:

• Summary reports must be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Expenditure information at the most disaggregated level of the economic classification must be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes) In some countries this is called "transactional" data. Answer 'Yes' if there are only limited exceptions (e.g., for privacy reasons); answer 'Partially' if there are significant exceptions (e.g., a high threshold such that many lower value expenditures are not collected/published).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance require executive budget proposal information to be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if expenditures are covered, but not income, debt, or performance information.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance require the approved or enacted budget to be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance require in-year reports as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance require year-end reports as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• Provisions for data quality:

• The rules/guidance empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes) There are many different kinds of verification processes. In some cases, data is required from multiple parties engaged in an activity and that data is then cross-verified. In others, a dedicated agency or official has the authority to conduct audits, engaging with other agencies or external parties to verify information received.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain the verification process used, and which parts of collected data the framework requires to be verified and which parts it does not.

  If Yes: Please briefly explain the verification process used.

• Provisions for openness, timing, and structure:

• The rules/guidance require that data is regularly updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

• The rules/guidance support the collection of structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the coverage of laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?

  • They only apply in a narrow set of situations.

    Supporting questions: When do these rules/guidance apply?

  • They cover one or more central government agencies, but there are many agencies or local government units with weaker rules/guidance.

    Supporting questions: To which agency or agencies do these rules/guidance apply?

  • They cover one or more central government agencies, but there are similar rules/guidance that apply to many other agencies and/or local government units.

    Supporting questions: To which agency or agencies do these rules/guidance apply?

  • The laws, regulations, policies or guidance assessed, or equivalent rules/guidance, apply across the whole public sector including national, sub-national, and local government.

    Supporting questions: Are there any notable exceptions? (E.g., defence sector.)

• How comprehensive is the coverage of laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?

  • They only apply in a narrow set of situations.

    Supporting questions: When do these rules/guidance apply?

  • They cover one or more central government agencies, but there are many agencies or local government units with weaker rules/guidance.

    Supporting questions: To which agency or agencies do these rules/guidance apply?

  • They cover one or more central government agencies, but there are similar rules/guidance that apply to many other agencies and/or local government units.

    Supporting questions: To which agency or agencies do these rules/guidance apply?

  • The laws, regulations, policies or guidance assessed, or equivalent rules/guidance, apply across the whole public sector, including national, sub-national, and local government state owned enterprises or corporations, extrabudgetary funds (such as trust funds or some emergency funds), etc.

    Supporting questions: Are there any notable exceptions? (E.g., defence sector.)

Indicator Justification

Principles of fiscal transparency requiring governments to publish information on planned and executed budgets and spending are well established: evidenced in the IMF's Fiscal Transparency Guide (2007), OECD Budget Transparency Toolkit (2017), IMF Fiscal Transparency Handbook (2018) and the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) diagnostics. In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the GIFT High-Level Principles on Fiscal Transparency(UNGA Resolution 67/218).

Recent guides on fiscal transparency have incorporated a recognition of the importance of providing structured and open data, drawing in particular on the G20 Anti-Corruption Open Data Principles. The long-established Open Budget Survey incorporates questions on the legal framework for publication of budget and spending information and questions on the availability of machine-readable data, but does not assess whether laws, rules, and guidance explicitly support the production of structured data on budgets and spending.

Availability: Budget and spending data

To what extent is government budget and spending information (budget execution) available as structured open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Most governments carry out an annual budget process, involving proposing and approving a budget, and reporting spending against that budget. The Open Budget Survey provides a regular assessment of how transparent this process is, with a focus on the documents involved in the budget process. This indicator complements the evidence collected by the Open Budget Survey by looking specifically at whether structured data is available on: proposed budget, amended budget, approved budget (the budget formally agreed upon by the appropriate legislative process in the country), government spending, extrabudgetary spending, social security spending, and public corporation spending.

Budget documents often present summary tables that describe the proposed and approved budgets. The budget part of this indicator asks whether the data behind such summary tables is available. This will usually take the form of a dataset organized with rows that contain the value of each budget line (possibly including proposed, agreed, and amended values), along with columns that provide classifications of the line.

Reporting on spending or budget performance should involve showing the total spend against each line of a budget. It may extend to showing information on how the goods, works, or services to be funded by that budget line have been delivered. Structured data on performance might include a dataset, or a column in a budget-related dataset, that shows how much has been spent to date against each budget line.

Further, this indicator assesses the presence of structured budget classification data consistent with internationally agreed standards. It asks for checks on four kinds of classification, though researchers are encouraged to add notes in the justification about other forms of notable classification used (e.g., geographical):

• Administrative classification identifies the entity that is responsible for managing the public funds described by a budget line, such as the ministry of education and health or, at a lower level, schools and hospitals.
• Economic classification identifies the type of expenditure incurred; for example, salaries, goods and services, transfers and interest payments, or capital spending.
• Functional classification categorizes expenditures according to the purposes and objectives for which they are intended.
• Program classification categorizes expenditures according to the programs used to enact public policies, thus aligning policies and programs with administrative structures.

(Sources: IMF Technical Note on Budget Classification and IMF's Fiscal Transparency Handbook (2018))

Data should be disaggregated both at the transaction level and with regard to cross-cutting programs. Transaction-level spending data records spending at a granular level, often with many rows of transaction data for each line of the budget; transactional data may include details of each counterparty (e.g., buyer and supplier).

Two sub-questions of this indicator ask researchers to assess whether the data has identifiers or other features that make it easy to connect:

• Budget and performance/spending
• Budget and procurement

This may take the form of clearly documented classifications that uniquely identify budget lines, or the presence of stable unique identifiers for budget lines.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The Open Budget Survey contains assessments by budget experts on the availability of budget documents. Country results pages contain full researcher responses for each question along with the URLs to data that Open Budget Survey researchers identified. Check carefully to validate the technical assessments made by OBS researchers. This will usually involve opening and examining linked files, and checking if there are other alternative sources of information if the data linked from the OBD survey presents only summary tables.
    • Question EB-5 asks about the availability of machine-readable data on enacted or approved budgets.
    • Question IYRs-5, MYRs-5 and YER-5 ask about the availability of machine-readable in-year, mid-year, and year-end reports that may contain data on budget performance.
    • Question GQ-1b asks about the presence of a consolidated dataset of budget information.
  • The World Bank produced a dataset (last updated 2017) with details of country's financial management information systems (FMIS), whether or not they have public data, and where it may be located. This can provide a starting point to identify current budget data sources.
  • The BOOST Public Expenditure Database contains details of World Bank–supported budget data publication for a number of low- and middle-income countries.
  • The Managing COVID Funds project of the International Budget Partnership, published May 2021, includes information about pandemic-related updates to budgets and spending (see particularly the answers to questions 1 and 2 in your country's questionnaire), as well as the guidance and information countries have made available for budget and spending related to emergency fiscal policy packages.
• Search:
  • "Open budget data" + [country]
• Consult:
  • Open data advocates.
  • Investigative journalists who report on government budgets and expenditures or public finance more broadly, particularly any who appear to be using aggregate public finance data.
  • Officials of civil society organizations that advocate for transparency and accountability regarding public finance.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included. Look for well-structured data that could be accessed or read into a database row by row.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• What budget data is available? Does the country publish proposed, amended, and approved budgets, not just as summary tables, but as the data itself?
• What spending data is available? Does the country publish government spending data, both in gross terms and on an accrual basis, including spending in annual and multi-annual investment projects? Does it do the same for extrabudgetary spending, social security spending, and public corporations spending?
• What types of classification are used? Administrative, economic, functional, program? Are these consistent with internationally agreed standards?
• Is the data disaggregated both at transaction level and for cross-cutting programs?
• Does the data include common identifiers that support easy analysis across budget and performance, budget and project?

National and sub-national considerations

This indicator asks you to carry out your assessment for the national government, but where national datasets also include sub-national and local government spending, or allow data from these layers of government to be aggregated together following common standards, this can be indicated in the "How comprehensive is the data assessed?" sub-question for this indicator.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Kinds of data:

• There is structured data available on the executive budget proposal in gross terms, including spending on annual and multi-annual investment projects. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data on the executive budget proposal is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is structured data available on amended budgets (when applicable) or amendments of the enacted budget. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data on amended budgets is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is structured data available on the approved or enacted budget in gross terms, including spending on annual and multi-annual investment projects. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data on the approved or enacted budget is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is structured data about government budget execution or spending, in gross terms and on an accrual basis, including spending in annual and multi-annual investment projects. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data on government spending is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is structured data about the government's extrabudgetary funds spending, in gross terms and on an accrual basis. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data on extrabudgetary spending is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is structured data about the government's social security spending, in gross terms and on an accrual basis. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data on social security spending is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is structured data about public corporations' spending, in gross terms and on an accrual basis. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data on public corporations' spending is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data fields and quality:

• Budget entries have administrative classifications to an internationally agreed standard. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if there are administrative classifications, but their alignment with international standards cannot be confirmed.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where administrative classifications are located.

• Budget entries have economic classifications to an internationally agreed standard. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if there are economic classifications, but their alignment with international standards cannot be confirmed.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where economic classifications are located.

• Budget entries have functional classifications to an internationally agreed standard. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if there are functional classifications, but their alignment with international standards cannot be confirmed.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where functional classifications are located.

• Budget entries have program classifications according to an internationally agreed standard. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if there are program classifications, but their alignment with international standards cannot be confirmed.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where program classifications are located.

• Information about individual financial transactions or expenditures is available at the most disaggregated level of the economic classification level. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• Data is disaggregated by cross-cutting programs, or issues such as SDGs, climate action, gender budgeting, etc, (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• The data contains common identifiers to connect budget and budget performance data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• The data contains identifiers that can be used to connect budget data with data on major projects (e.g., infrastructure construction) and procurement processes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If budget and spending data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where these identifiers are located, and briefly explain your answer.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed?
  • The data assessed covers one or more national government agencies, but there are many agencies or local government units without data available.

    Supporting questions: Please, briefly explain your answer.

  • The data assessed covers one or more national government agencies and there is similar data available for most other parts of national government.

    Supporting questions: Please, briefly explain your answer.

  • The data assessed covers one or more national government agencies,, and there is similar data available for the majority of the public sector (including sub-national government, state-owned enterprises or corporations, and extrabudgetary funds).

    Supporting questions: Please, briefly explain your answer.

  • The data assessed covers the majority of the public sector (including sub-national government, state-owned enterprises or corporations, and extrabudgetary funds; i.e., a consolidated dataset).

    Supporting questions: Please, briefly explain your answer.

Indicator Justification

Public financing is critical to achieving the 2030 Agenda. As the International Budget Partnership explains, budgets offer a concrete means to track a country's commitments to achieving the goals, while information on spending reveals whether countries have followed through on these commitments (2017:1–2). Transparency in public finance supports delivery of SDG 16 on effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions. Indicator 16.6.1 investigates primary government expenditures as a proportion of original approved budget, by sector (or by budget codes or similar). Similarly, indicators for SDG 1 on No Poverty require detailed information on government spending and resource allocation, particularly those for targets 1.a and 1.b.

While transparency has long been an important principle of public financial management, increasingly fiscal transparency efforts have emphasized providing not only fiscal documents, but also disaggregated data. Perhaps the most impactful use of public finance data is the improvement of public financial management and budget allocation. Data can be used to support gender budget analysis, green budget analysis, and evaluation of the impact of fiscal policy on minorities and marginalized groups. This indicator thus examines the extent to which government budget and spending information—also known as budget execution—is available as structured open data.

Ended: Public Finance

Public Procurement

Availability: Public procurement data

To what extent is detailed structured data on public procurement processes available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Governments enter into many different contracts for the provision of goods, services, and public works. They may publish data about these contracts in tender lists or through contract finder websites, procurement portals, or open data portals.

In some countries, public procurement data may be held in a single system. In others, different stages of the procurement process (planning, tender, award, implementation) may be held in different datasets, and a government may publish "notices"—with or without identifiers—that make it possible to connect data from different stages of the procurement process.

For example:

• Contracts Finder in the UK provides a JSON API and data dumps from a database designed to aggregate tender and award information for all government procurement above a given threshold. It provides machine-readable data and offers an OCDS export. However, a sample export of records reveals no links to spending, that documents are often missing, and company identifiers are only provided in some cases.
• In Portugal, open contracting data is published for public works projects, covering tender, award, and contract implementation; however, checks show that dates are often missing from this data.
• The Zambia Public Procurement Authority hosts a platform that contains data on roughly 1000 procurement processes run through their e-procurement platform.

Research Guidance

Look for services that aggregate data from across government, not just single departmental websites. However, if no such service is available, check a selection of the biggest government departments and note if they publish their contract data in any form.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The Open Contracting Partnership maintains a map of cities and countries publishing procurement data using the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS).
  • The country profiles in the Global Public Procurement Database provide links to procurement agency websites, national e-procurement systems, and, where available, links to OCDS data.
  • Columns EB, EC, ED, and EE of the data spreadsheet from the World Bank Doing Business module on Contracting with Government include links to where public works contracts for roads are posted online for each country (based on data gathered before May 2020). This can be used to check whether public works contract data is in the same portal as other tender information.
  • OCDS Downloads gathers data in the Open Contracting Data Standard for many countries, and shows which sections and fields of the OCDS file are populated with data.
  • The Managing COVID Funds project of the International Budget Partnership, published May 2021, includes information about pandemic-related procurement guidance and information; see particularly the answers to questions 18 and 19 in your country's questionnaire.
• Search:
  • National data portals for "contracts" or "procurement" datasets;
  • The website of the national procurement agency for open data, APIs, or data exports.
• Consult:
  • Transparency experts or journalists writing about procurement; ask about known limitations of contracting data.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of procurements included.

Look for evidence of:

• The stages of the procurement process for which data is available—check for details of contact awards and implementation information (spending and performance).
• Goods and services contracts—these can range from low-value to high-value contracts, covering a wide range of supplies to government.
• Public works contracts—these are often higher-value contracts, involving construction work; for example, building schools and hospitals, roads, and other infrastructure.
• Procurement from a range of government departments—does the data appear to contain only procurement from a single department? Or from across government more broadly?
• Procurement from sub-national government units—if you find procurement for sub-national entities in the data, does this appear to be comprehensive, or could it just be voluntary publication by a few local government units?
• Bulk data access via downloads or APIs. Can you, for example, export a search as XLSX and does the resulting data contain relevant data fields? Is there documentation for an API that allows access to full data records?
• Persistent data—can you find data from last year? Or the year before? Does it appear that old data is being archived? Or does old data expire from the platform?
• The data is structured according to an established standard—does the data follow a standard such as the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)?

Dashboards and other public analytic tools may help you to assess the comprehensiveness and coverage of the data.

National and sub-national considerations

Even within federal countries, national governments will carry out significant procurement activities. In some federal systems, national government (or supranational institutions) provide portals that centralize tenders and other procurement data.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

If there is no evidence of procurement data being available at the national level, but there is a strong example of data availability from a sub-national government, or a specific agency, you may carry out an assessment for this data, and use the question on its coverage to note that this only covers a very limited number of procurements.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Kinds of data:

• Procurement related to goods and services is included. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If public procurement data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data on goods and services is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Procurement related to public works is included. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If public procurement data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where data related to public works is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The planning phase is covered. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If public procurement data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where data on planning phase is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The tender stage is covered. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If public procurement data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where data tender stage is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The award stage is covered. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If public procurement data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where data award stage is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The contract implementation stage is covered. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Yes' if you can locate any data from after contract award and signature, such as spending transactions, confirmation that goods or services were delivered, contract amendments, or data on contract performance.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: What kind of implementation data is available?

  If Partially or Yes: If public procurement data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) implementation data is located.

• Data fields and quality:

• The data contains identifiers or other features that connect together data on each stage of a single procurement process. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain your answer.

• The data contains names and unique identifiers for companies awarded contracts. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No or Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• The data contains start and end dates for tender processes and/or contracts. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• The data contains the value (cost) of each tender, award, or contract (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• The data contains, or can be linked to, information on spending against the contract. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• The data contains a description of the goods, services or works being procured. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• The data is published according to one or more relevant data standards. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Which standards are in use?

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data contains links to accessible tender, award, or contract documentation (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Yes' if it is possible to follow links and download documentation (e.g., tender details, text of contracts) without barriers such as registration or login for all stages of the process covered by the data. Answer 'Partially' if linked documents are accessible, but there are barriers to easy access, or documents are only available for some of the states in the data. Answer 'No' if no links are available.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers a very limited number of public procurements and few other sources of data are available.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe the nature of the procurements the data covers.

  • The data assessed covers, or is representative of the data available for, a significant number of public procurements but there are large gaps in coverage.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe any notable gaps in coverage.

  • The data assessed covers, or is representative of the data available for, a large proportion of public procurement but some gaps in coverage exist.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe any notable gaps in coverage.

  • The data assessed covers, or is representative of the data available for, almost all public procurement.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe any notable gaps in coverage.

Indicator Justification

A wide range of stakeholders may use public procurement data, from private firms seeking government contracts, to civil society organizations monitoring procurement processes, to governments using their own data to get better value for money. Numerous agreements, including the G8 Open Data Charter, G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group Open Data Principles, and others, recognize contracting data as an essential open dataset that can bring social and economic benefits.

Many use cases for public procurement data require that the data connects across the different stages of the procurement process. Many use cases also rely on the availability of a number of core data fields, and benefit from the ability to links to other datasets. This indicator draws on the Open Contracting Data Standard, developed to support reusable public procurement data.

The 3rd, 4th, and Leaders Editions of the Open Data Barometer included a data availability indicator on public contracts, focused on award data. Our current, updated indicator supports the disaggregation of data on stages of the contracting process, allowing a more-or-less directly comparable benchmark (availability of award data) to be generated. However, this indicator is also sensitive to the availability of tender, award, and contract performance information, as well as to the completeness of the available dataset (that is, whether it represents just a few procurement processes or all the procurement processes carried out by a country).

Consequently, the GDB version of this indicator may allow countries which only make tender information available as structured or open data to score more highly than they did in the ODB (which would have given a zero score to a country with no award information). This current GDB indicator will also lead to countries that only make award information partially available and don't provide contract performance information achieving lower scores than the comparable ODB indicator.

Use: Procurement data analytics

To what extent is there evidence of government procurement data being analyzed to improve procurement practice?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Procurement data analytics involves using structured data about procurement processes to produce insights and knowledge, and to support decision-making.

Among other things, procurement data analytics can be used to:

• Produce interactive dashboards that report basic statistics such as procurement spend by department or category, the kinds of procurement processes used, and the length of time each process has taken.
• Look for potential corruption or fraud risks using red flag analysis.
• Improve the diversity of procurement by reporting on, and developing strategies to improve, the number of bidders or contract winners from particular marginalized communities.
• Assess and improve the environmental impact of procurement.

Evidence that government procurement data is being analyzed in these ways may take the form of:

• Interactive online tools;
• Business processes that make decisions based on data analysis;
• Reports that demonstrate advanced analysis (more than simple summary statistics or counts of procurements).

Note: The analytic tools a government uses may or may not be public, and may or may not be based on data that is openly published. For non-public tools, you may find evidence of them in presentations, press releases, or public statements. For public tools, you may find evidence of them on procurement agency websites.

Research Guidance

In countries where procurement data is open, analytic tools may be produced and hosted by government, or they may be produced by third parties, including civil society. Because the shortest route to impact is often when government makes direct use of procurement analytics, for this question you should focus first on checking for evidence that government is making use of procurement analytics by:

• Checking for dashboards or analytic tools on the website of, or produced by, the procurement agency/agencies identified in previous questions;
• Look for case studies and reports on government use of procurement data, and/or consult experts who may know about how government is making use of procurement data.

You should also check for evidence of platforms created by third parties by carrying out web searches for relevant terms. These platforms may be based on published structured data, or might involve scraping or manually collecting procurement data.

You will need to decide upon the appropriate search terms for your country to look for examples of procurement analytics related to diversity and inclusion.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • No general sources have been identified for this question, however, the Open Contracting Partnership impact evidence pages provide useful case studies that can help you to identify appropriate search terms or search strategies for your focus country.
• Search:
  • "Government procurement dashboard" + [country];
  • [Procurement agency name] "dashboard";
  • Procurement red flag analysis + [country / procurement agency name]
  • "Sustainable procurement" + "data" + [country]
  • Diversity keywords + procurement + data [country]
• Consult:
  • Government procurement officials or experts;
  • Civil society campaigners focused on procurement.

What to look for?

Look for uses of procurement data, through analytic tools and other forms of data analysis, that seek to make procurement practices more transparent, fair, inclusive, or sustainable.

• What form do these uses take? For example:
  • Interactive dashboards;
  • Red flag analysis;
  • Initiatives to improve the diversity of procurement processes;
  • Environmental impact assessments related to procurement;
• Who is analyzing the data or using analytic tools? Government, civil society organizations?
• Is there evidence of artificial intelligence or machine learning being used in conjunction with analytics?
• Is beneficial ownership data being used along with public procurement datasets?
• What kinds of impact have these tools or analysis had?

National and sub-national considerations

For this indicator, you may track and assess national and sub-national examples without distinction; note in the justification box if the examples you found mostly drew on national or sub-national data.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• To what extent is there evidence of this kind of data use?
  • There is no evidence of this use.
  • There is evidence of isolated uses or pilot projects.

    Supporting questions: Please provide URLs of the evidence and briefly describe it.

  • There is evidence of multiple different uses involving different organisations.

    Supporting questions: Please provide URLs of the evidence and briefly describe it.

  • There is evidence that these uses are widespread, regular and embedded.

    Supporting questions: Please provide URLs of the evidence and briefly describe it.

Elements

• Kinds of use:

• There is evidence of government procurement data being presented through data-driven dashboards. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If dashboards are public, please provide the URL of an example dashboard page.

• There is evidence of government procurement data being used for red flag analysis. (No, Partially, Yes) If you cannot find current evidence, but do find evidence from outside the study period, answer 'Partially.'

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If there are public online tools used to perform red flag analysis, please provide the URL of an example.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is evidence that government procurement data is being analyzed to improve access to procurement opportunities for marginalized groups. (No, Partially, Yes) If you cannot find current evidence, but do find evidence from outside the study period, answer 'Partially.'

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly list any marginalized groups addressed (e.g., women

  If Partially or Yes: If available, please provide a URL to a page, tool, or report providing details.

  If Partially: Please, briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is evidence of government procurement data being analysed to support sustainable / environmental procurement. (No, Partially, Yes) If you cannot find current evidence, but do find evidence from outside the study period, answer 'Partially.'

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide brief details.

  If Partially or Yes: If available, please provide a URL to a page, tool or report providing details.

• User groups:

• There are examples of government using data in these ways. (No, Partially, Yes) If you find tools designed for government, but no evidence these are being used by government, answer 'Partially.'

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL or brief description

• There are examples of civil society using data in these ways. (No, Partially, Yes) If you find tools designed for civil society, but no evidence these are being used by civil society, answer 'Partially.'

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL or brief description.

• There is evidence of private sector using data in this way (No, Partially, Yes)

• Specific features:

• At least one of the examples cited appears to make use of open procurement data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• At least one of the examples identified makes use of open beneficial ownership data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• At least one of the examples identified describes using artificial Intelligence or machine learning to process data (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if you have doubts about the accuracy of claims to be using AI/machine-learning.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide brief details of the example(s) and how they describe using AI/machine-learning.

Extent

• There is evidence that these uses have had or are having meaningful positive impacts.
  • No
  • Partially

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to relevant evidence.

  • Yes

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to relevant evidence.

Indicator Justification

Data analytics can be applied to government procurement in order to deliver improved outcomes in many different ways. This indicator explores the connections between data availability and data use, asking about a range of applications of procurement data analytics and whether these uses involve government or civil society stakeholders.

For this indicator, we prioritize direct government use of data analytics, as evidence suggests that this creates the shortest path to better outcomes. We have selected four applications of procurement data analytics:

• General dashboards;
• Red flag analysis;
• Analytics to support improved diversity;
• Analytics to support sustainable procurement.

Ended: Public Procurement

Climate Action

Availability: Emission

To what extent is emissions information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Emissions data reported to the UNFCCC should be easily accessible to actors and audiences within the country, so that a diverse group of climate decision-makers can take action across scales. Emissions datasets should include detailed information on sources of greenhouse gas emissions and use unique identifiers that allow easy assessment across inventories, reduction commitments, and sources.

Among other functions, it should be possible to use emissions datasets to easily and accurately assess the current state of the country's emissions and how it is changing (or not) over time, to identify major sources of greenhouse gases within the country, and to explain how the country's emissions fit within the global context.

This question is designed to align with efforts countries already put into reporting to the UNFCCC. Consequently, it takes as its starting point the emissions data already reported to the UNFCCC and focuses primarily on whether or not that data is also made open, accessible, and useful to actors within the country. It elaborates on that to include sources of emissions, but the specifics of the national dataset would largely be defined by the country's UNFCCC reporting.

Note: The focus here is on making already existent data more useful and more broadly available; data on a national site doesn't have to explicitly state that it is the same data as that reported to the UNFCCC, so long as it includes the same data.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; depending on whether the country falls into the Annex I or non-Annex I category, the data may be reported in a dedicated inventory document, the national communications, a biennial update report, or a separate report. Links to all of these can be found here.
• Search:
  • Websites of the ministry of environment, office of climate action, etc.; relevant keywords for searching such websites include "emissions," "greenhouse gases" or "GHGs," "sinks," "inventory," and the "UN Framework Convention on Climate Change," and similar in appropriate languages.
• Consult:
  • Officials in your national or local environmental or climate action office.
  • Officials at civil society organizations dedicated to climate action, environmental protection, or nature conservation.
  • Journalists who report on climate change, vulnerability, or adaptation.
  • Academic researchers who study emissions and climate change in your country.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Is the emissions data reported to the UNFCCC also made open and accessible to actors within the country through national or sub-national platforms or portals? Are significant portions of it missing in the national version?
• Who or what are the significant producers of emissions in the country? What level of granularity is available for emissions sources?
• How straightforward is it to match emissions data across inventories, reduction commitments, and information about emission sources?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, emissions data may be generated and published at the sub-national level, carried out by individual states, regions, or cities.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where emissions data is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• Nationally published data includes detailed information on greenhouse gas emissions and targets reported to the UNFCCC. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain, and provide URLs.

• Data contains detailed information on sources of greenhouse gas emissions. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain, and provide URLs.

• Emissions data includes, or site where emissions data is made available links to, details of land use effects on emissions. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain, and provide URLs.

• The dataset contains unique identifiers for greenhouse gas emissions that allow easy assessment across inventories, reduction commitments, and sources. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain, and provide URLs.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

Emissions, and more specifically, greenhouse gas emissions, are the iconic dataset for understanding climate change. The speed at which countries, cities, companies, and other actors reduce greenhouse gas emissions has lock-in effects, and both determining the extent of potential benefits and expanding or reducing the time available for other acts of mitigation and adaptation. Consequently, stabilizing emissions has been a key component of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since 1992, with considerable efforts put into sharing emissions data by the scientific and international communities.

Increasingly, a diverse assortment of actors seeks to understand emissions’ impacts at a more granular level. However, the greenhouse gas inventories and adaptation data countries share with the UNFCCC via their National Communications often aren't available more locally in user-friendly ways. This indicator thus examines the local or domestic availability of such data.

Availability: Biodiversity

To what extent is information on endangered species and ecosystems available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Information about endangered species and ecosystems should be comprehensive and easily accessible to support integrated approaches to climate and biodiversity. Red lists should include a wide range of taxa, beyond the more commonly studied terrestrial vertebrates and vascular plants. A complementary green list, focused on recovering species, should be available to help identify successful practices and understand patterns of change. To support collaborative data collection work across actors, the data repository should have a mechanism to support contributions from additional actors. Data should follow the Darwin Core Standard or other common standard, and be nationally validated through government participation, publishing, or some other means.

Among other functions, it should be possible to use red lists to easily and accurately assess the current state of the country's species and how it has changed over time, to identify vulnerable species and ecosystems, and to compare data about species' population and distribution across national borders.

In some countries, national red lists may be maintained by governments; in others such lists may be led and managed by conservation groups or other civil society organizations. The latter may reflect the long history of collaboration across communities and borders with regard to species data, making conservation groups well-positioned to facilitate such a list. In other cases, it may reflect newer biodiversity data sources. In either case, it's important to assess whether the data is validated such that the government can use it for public good as well. This could be achieved in various ways. For example:

• A national ministry of nature and environment could be partnering on the red list effort—collaborating on the generation of data, providing funding or other support, etc.
• An environmental protection agency might publish the data on their site.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The IUCN's list of national red lists can serve as a starting place, to be checked against the relevant national ministry or agency.
  • National reports to the Convention on Biological Diversity may include relevant information, depending on the country.
• Search:
  • Websites of ministries of the environment.
  • Websites of civil society organizations focused on conservation, biodiversity, climate change, environment, nature.
• Consult:
  • Officials in your national or local environmental or conservation office.
  • Scholars or researchers at civil society organizations who research conservation and biodiversity in your country.
  • Officers at civil society organizations who work on implementing conservation or biodiversity projects within communities.
  • Journalists who report on conservation, biodiversity, climate change.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• How comprehensive is the red list? Does it include only terrestrial vertebrates or vascular plants? Does it include invertebrates such as insects? Aquatic animals and plants? Non-vascular plants and fungi?
• If data on threatened species and ecosystems is generated and managed by non-governmental actors, does the government participate in validating the data or otherwise recognize it as nationally validated? For example, is a relevant government agency a collaboration partner, is the data accessible through government sites, etc.
• Does the data use an accepted standard such as the Darwin Core Standard?
• Is there a "green" list that details recoveries of species or ecosystems? Is there a de facto green list through information about how the status of species or ecosystems has changed over time?
• If you wanted to contribute data, is there a clear means for you to do so?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, data about endangered species may be generated and published at the sub-national level, carried out by or for specific states or regions.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where data about endangered species is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Kinds of data:

• Data includes mammals. (No, Partially, Yes) Score this as 'Partially' if you only see a relatively small number of examples.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If biodiversity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where mammals data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes birds. (No, Partially, Yes) Score this as 'Partially' if you only see a relatively small number of examples.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If biodiversity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where birds data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes reptiles. (No, Partially, Yes) Score this as 'Partially' if you only see a relatively small number of examples.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If biodiversity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where reptiles data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes amphibians. (No, Partially, Yes) Score this as 'Partially' if you only see a relatively small number of examples.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If biodiversity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where amphibians data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes fish. (No, Partially, Yes) Score this as 'Partially' if you only see a relatively small number of examples.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If biodiversity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where fish data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes invertebrates. (No, Partially, Yes) Score this as 'Partially' if you only see a relatively small number of examples.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If biodiversity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where invertebrates data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes fungi and lichen. (No, Partially, Yes) Score this as 'Partially' if you only see a relatively small number of examples.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If biodiversity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where fingi and lichen data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes non-vascular plants. (No, Partially, Yes) Score this as 'Partially' if you only see a relatively small number of examples.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If biodiversity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where non-vascular plants data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes vascular plants. (No, Partially, Yes) Score this as 'Partially' if you only see a relatively small number of examples.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If biodiversity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where vascular plants data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data includes a "green" list, or detailed information on species or ecosystems recovering from danger, threat, or vulnerability. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to this data.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data fields and quality:

• The data is published according to one or more relevant data standards. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Which standards are in use?

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is nationally validated by the government. (No, Partially, Yes) For example, if the data originates in a collaboration involving non-governmental actors, the government may nationally validate it through governmental participation or publishing.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain and provide relevant URLs.

  If Yes: Please provide relevant URLs.

• A mechanism allows additional actors to contribute to the data repository. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain and provide relevant URLs.

• Limitations of the data are clearly stated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain and provide relevant URLs.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

Biodiversity, or the variety and interconnectedness of life, intertwines with the climate crisis: Species and ecosystems play key roles in regulating the climate. Consequently, habitat loss and ecosystem degradation compromise the ability of the planet to repair anthropogenic and other damage. The IPBES 2019 Global Assessment found that “Biodiversity—the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems—is declining faster than at any time in human history” (10). At the same time, climate change is the third leading driver of biodiversity loss (IPBES 2019). And, as the WWF Living Planet Index recently explained, climate change is projected to become “as, or more, important than the other drivers” (2020:12). Despite this critical importance of biodiversity to climate and planet, governments failed to achieve any of the Aichi 2020 Targets for Biodiversity (Convention on Biological Diversity 2020).

The research community widely agrees that significant data shortfalls hinder our understanding of biodiversity and our ability to take action on biodiversity loss. Hortal et al. (2015) identify gaps with regard to the identity and distribution of species as critical, for such information serves as the foundation for understanding larger patterns and processes (537). They note, too, that when data is available, it tends to be heavily biased toward terrestrial vertebrates and vascular plants (535). Similarly, the IPBES, as part of a larger overview of knowledge gaps, in the category of “data, inventories, and monitoring on nature and the drivers of change” identified gaps in four key data inventories: the World Database on Protected Areas, the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas™, red lists of threatened species and ecosystems, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (2019: 55).

The global red list of endangered species that the International Union of Nature (IUCN) publishes has been used around the world to understand biodiversity and prioritize conservation goals. However, meaningful action at national and sub-national levels often requires significantly more local information; and while biodiversity data resources continue to grow, many are not created in conjunction with national ministries of environment, making them difficult to use. In analyzing a user needs assessment of more than 60 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity with regard to using spatial data for conservation and sustainable development purposes, the UN Biodiversity Lab noted that “This ‘data gap’ takes a toll on national efforts to protect and restore nature and related ecosystem services. Regardless of how much data is generated at the global scale, countries need a mechanism to assess its relevancy to their country, supplement it with local data, prioritize areas essential for protection and restoration, and engage with diverse stakeholders to demonstrate the importance of nature to society.” (2018, concept note 2) The IUCN itself calls for standardized national and regional red lists to complement their global list and facilitate international conservation treaties and legislation. This indicator thus investigates whether national-level information on endangered species and ecosystems is available as open data.

Availability: Vulnerability

To what extent is climate vulnerability information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Data about climate vulnerability should integrate or otherwise address the two major strands of vulnerability approaches: the risks and hazards approach, which focuses on responding to natural hazards and extreme weather events; and the entitlements and livelihoods approach, which focuses on preventing undesirable outcomes by identifying where people have too few resources to withstand or recover from disaster—for example, in conjunction with poverty, gender, and marginalization.

Further, climate vulnerability data should include granular local data and be available in user-friendly outputs; any projections should draw on transparent, open models. To support collaborative data collection work across actors, the data repository should have a mechanism to support contributions from additional actors.

Examples of relevant vulnerability data* include but are not limited to:

• Data on urban water quality, access, and scarcity;
• Data on the use of agricultural practices and crop varieties that are resistant to extreme temperatures, rains, and pests;
• Data on population access to early warning systems for disease vectors and extreme weather events;
• Data on the scope of coastal protection or rollback programs;
• Demographic data, including sex- and/or gender-disaggregated data on livelihoods, access to public services, etc.;
• Population and infrastructure density in risk-prone areas (e.g., areas vulnerable to storm surges or landslides).

*Drawn from the Open Up Guide: Using Open Data To Advance Climate Action.

Among other functions, it should be possible for individuals to use climate vulnerability data to easily and accurately assess the climate vulnerability of their neighborhood, the neighborhoods of their loved ones, and neighborhoods they might consider for relocation; to identify specific needs for adaptation tools and services; and to propose and track government responses.

In some countries, governments may rely on proprietary sources to generate some or all of their climate vulnerability data; alternatively, in some countries, the available climate vulnerability data may draw from government-generated data (e.g., meteorological data, poverty data) but be published by organizations or businesses, either openly or in proprietary forms. If either case applies to your country, please be sure to explain in the justification and relevant answer boxes.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The Open DRI Index can be useful for locating relevant source data that a country draws from as part of its climate vulnerability data, identifying where the country makes such information available, and, particularly, evaluating whether source data is open, restricted, or closed.
• Search:
  • Websites of the ministry of environment, office of climate action, disaster management, foresight, etc.
  • Websites of organizations or businesses that offer climate vulnerability data specific to your country.
• Consult:
  • Officials in your national or local environmental, disaster management, or foresight office.
  • Scholars or researchers at civil society organizations who research climate vulnerability, resilience, or disaster management in your country.
  • Officers at civil society organizations who work on implementing adaptation or resilience projects in communities vulnerable to climate change.
  • Journalists who report on climate change, disaster management, vulnerable communities, or inequitable access to climate change–related resources.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Does the data contain information not only on vulnerability to hazards, but also vulnerability to undesirable outcomes? On both ecological effects as well as societal effects, particularly on populations with less access to resources?
• Does the data include sufficient granularity to make it an effective tool for local actors to plan actions in the present and future? Or is it primarily large-scale, drawing on satellite data that has not been informed by on-the-ground knowledge?
• Are the models that projections rely on made available to the people using the climate vulnerability data? Are the models sufficiently open and transparent for an external actor to assess their validity?
• Is the data made available in user-friendly outputs that don't require high levels of technical skills to understand or access? For example, an agency might make vulnerability data available as layered maps.
• If you wanted to contribute data, is there a clear means for you to do so?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, data about climate vulnerability may be generated and published at the sub-national level, carried out by individual states, regions, or cities.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where data about climate vulnerability is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• The data contains information on future natural hazards, extreme weather events, and climate variability. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain, with URLs.

  If Yes: Please provide URLs.

• The data contains information on poverty, gender, and marginalized populations. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain, with URLs.

  If Yes: Please provide URLs.

• The data draws on granular local information. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain, with URLs.

  If Yes: Please provide URLs.

• Data based on projections draws on transparent and open models. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain, with examples and URLs.

• A mechanism allows additional actors to contribute to the data repository. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain and provide relevant URLs.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

Understanding climate vulnerability is critical to empowering and supporting climate actors and decision-makers, particularly with regard to adaptation. Consequently, the UNFCCC encourages all parties—and requires Annex 1 countries—to report on actions related to vulnerability assessments. The IPCC defines vulnerability as “The propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected. Vulnerability encompasses a variety of concepts including sensitivity or susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to cope and adapt” (WGII AR5 Annex II).

Similarly, the Sendai Framework calls for disaster risk management that’s grounded in a comprehensive understanding of disaster risk “in all its dimensions of vulnerability, capacity, exposure of persons and assets, hazard characteristics and the environment” (23) and specifically directs governments at national and local levels to “promote the collection, analysis, management and use of relevant data and practical information and ensure its dissemination, taking into account the needs of different categories of users, as appropriate” (24(b)).

This indicator thus investigates what information about climate vulnerability countries make available and how comprehensive it is.

Ended: Climate Action

Health & COVID-19

Availability: Vital statistics

To what extent is civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

To be useful for population health purposes, civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) data should include its level of completeness by province, state, county, or other relevant regional category and list causes of death standardized to at least the 10th version of the International Classification of Causes of Death or other easily interoperable standard.

Birth information should include at least details about the child, the birth, parents, and the registration process. Mortality information should include at least data about age, sex, geographic location, and cause of death. (These correspond to the minimums articulated in WHO's 2012 CRVS Resource Kit, pages 113–114.)

Among other functions, it should be possible to use CRVS data to:

• assess long-term health patterns;
• identify disparities in causes of death with regard to at least sex, age, and location;
• track the progress of efforts to address child mortality, maternal mortality, and mortality related to specific causes of death;
• verify and update mortality data from health monitoring systems;
• provide a foundation for calculating and understanding excess deaths for large-scale disease events such as COVID-19;
• monitor the spread and distribution of noncommunicable diseases.

Note: This indicator focuses specifically on health uses of CRVS systems. However, CRVS systems inform many areas of governance and planning. The birth registration CRVS provides is also fundamental for establishing contemporary legal identities, and CRVS data is key to planning around education, migration, employment, cities and housing, and many other areas.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • The Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems host profiles for 27 different countries around the world, that include detailed information about CRVS systems, what they contain, and what agencies manage them.
  • UNICEF hosts profiles of CRVS systems for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, drawing on information from 2016–2017; while profiles don't link directly to relevant datasets, they offer insights into what data may be being collected in your country and what agencies are likely to be involved.
  • The Africa Programme for Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (APAI-CRVS) assessed the effects of COVID-19 on CRVS systems in countries in Africa in April 2020. A broader technical brief is also available.
• Search:
  • Websites of your country's national statistical office, civil registration authority, center for health statistics, and health department.
  • Websites of civil society organizations focused on statelessness, gender equality and nationality laws, improving identity and birth registration, or issues related to being "undocumented."
• Consult:
  • Officers of civil society organizations focused on statelessness, gender equality and nationality laws, improving identity and birth registration, or issues related to being "undocumented."
  • Academic or policy researchers who study population health, population fertility rates, childhood or maternal mortality, or other types of mortality or morbidity.
  • Officers of civil society organizations dedicated to the eradication of diseases that can cause death.

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Does the data include information on the completeness of vital statistics in different provinces, counties, or regions of the country? Or is it presented without any assessment of its various components' completeness?
• Is cause of death standardized to some version of the International Classification of the Causes of Death (ICD) or a related, interoperable standard?
• Is mortality data tabulated separately by at least age, sex, geographic location, and underlying cause of death?
• Does birth data include relevant details about the child and the child's parents at the time of birth?
• Does birth data include relevant details about birth occurrence and registration?
• Does birth data include relevant details prenatal case, delivery, and live birth?

National and sub-national considerations

CRVS data is typically published at the national level, by national statistics offices. Sub-national considerations, however, may arise in relation to the completeness of the data. Some countries, rather than publish incomplete data with guidance about data limitations, instead choose not to publish updated information at all.

To address this possibility, focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where the most up-to-date CRVS data is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality (I):

• The data includes information on data limitations, specifically on the completeness of vital statistics in different provinces, counties, or regions of the country. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If CRVS data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where information on the completeness of the data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Cause of death is standardized to the International Classification of Causes of Death (ICD) or a related, fully interoperable standard. (No, Partially, Yes) Score this as "partially" if a country uses a standard that is only partially interoperable, or if a country uses a version of the ICD prior to ICD 10 (ICD is scheduled to update to version 11 in January 2022), or if only part of the data is standardized.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If CRVS data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where information about cause of death standardization is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data fields and quality (II):

• Mortality information includes data about age, sex and/or gender, geographic location, and cause of death. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If CRVS data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where mortality data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Birth information includes data about sex and/or assigned gender of child, gestational age, and birth weight. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If CRVS data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where the birth specifics of the child are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Birth information includes data about live-birth order and interval between last and previous live births to mother. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If CRVS data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where live-birth specifics are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Birth information includes data about place of occurrence, place of usual residence of mother, and month of occurrence. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If CRVS data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where details about birth occurrence are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Birth information includes data about place of registration and month of registration. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If CRVS data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where details about birth registration are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Birth information includes data about age, educational attainment, and ethnic and/or national group of mother. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If CRVS data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where maternal birth details are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Birth information includes data about age of father and place of usual residence. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If CRVS data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where paternal birth details are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Birth information includes data about site of delivery, attendant at birth, and month in which prenatal care began. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If CRVS data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where delivery and prenatal details are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Untitled section

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

• The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

Understanding and improving population health is fundamental to ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages (SDG 3). More specifically, contemporary civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems serve as key tools for tracking progress on mortality (SDG 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.6, 3.9); CRVS systems also provide basic health information that supports research on vaccines and medicines (SDG 3.B) and strengthens capacities for managing national and global health risks (SDG 3.D). In addition to being critical for understanding population health, CRVS systems also directly support SDG 16.9, "By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration." To support establishing and improving CRVS systems, the UN publishes its Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System.

With their extensive coverage, CRVS systems have been critical to understanding the coronavirus pandemic, particularly but not exclusively with regard to understanding the pandemic's excess deaths. At the same time, researchers have identified a number of clear areas for improving CRVS systems (see, e.g., WHO's 2012 CRVS Resource Kit). One significant problem lies in handling incomplete reporting. Reporting disparities surface notably with regard to gender and location. Although there are accepted principles for working with incomplete CRVS data, some authorities may decline to publish relevant but incomplete data at all—or publish it without noting its level of completeness. A second key problem, specifically with using mortality data to understand and improve population health, lies in a lack of standardization of causes of death.

Availability: Real-time healthcare system capacity

To what extent is information about the real-time capacity of the healthcare system available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

To be useful, real-time or near real-time data about the capacity of the healthcare system should be available at the level of individual facilities and include details such as the number, type, and availability of beds, tests, vaccines, and devices.

Among other functions, it should be possible for different actors to use real-time data about the capacity of the healthcare system in various ways:

• for everyday individuals to locate where to take loved ones for treatment or where to obtain vaccines;
• for journalists, civil society organizations, and government officials to identify disparities in the healthcare system that will disproportionately impact members of marginalized communities;
• for government officials to determine where and when to build surge or overflow facilities;
• for healthcare providers to direct patients with COVID-19 symptoms to facilities with the current capacity to treat them;
• for a wide range of actors to understand where resources are scarce and work to fill gaps in personal protective equipment (PPE), medical devices, vaccines, etc.

Research Guidance

This indicator emerges from data practices observed in conjunction with the coronavirus pandemic; the working assumption is that data will be found on COVID-19-related websites, run by the government, academia, or civil society.

In countries where infection counts have significantly decreased, this data may have been available in 2020 but may no longer be being updated in 2021. Many government COVID-19 response sites include archives of past data; we suggest checking the date ranges corresponding to peaks of infection in your country. However, if these peaks happened early in the global progression of the pandemic, we also recommend checking archives several months later, as countries' data-reporting practices have evolved considerably over the course of the pandemic.

Starting points

• Search:
  • National or sub-national government websites about how and where to go for testing and treatment of COVID-19.
  • Websites of civil society organizations or mutual aid societies that provide information about testing or treatment of COVID-19.
  • Websites of your country's national or local public health department, center for disease control, or center for health statistics.
• Consult:
  • Public health officials.
  • Records and analytics staff at healthcare facilities who are likely to know what information is reported, to whom, and how often.
  • Open data experts, programmers, and technologists who have organized data collaboratives or participated in other data-related efforts for COVID-19 response and recovery.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Does the data include information about the capacity of individual facilities that reflects real-time or very recent changes? Or does capacity information only speak to long-term capacity, not how it is currently being used?
• Does the data include specific details, such as the number and availability of beds, tests, vaccines, and devices?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, sub-national departments of health may have different practices with regard to what capacity data they make available. Additionally, in some countries, data may be available only for hospitals in major cities.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where data about healthcare system capacity is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• The data includes information at the level of facilities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If real-time healthcare system capacity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL(s) where facility level data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes detailed information about the number and availability of regular beds and ICU beds. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If real-time healthcare system capacity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where available beds data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes detailed information about the number and availability of medical devices or supplies, such as ventilators or oxygen cylinders. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If real-time healthcare system capacity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where available devices data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes detailed information about the number, type, and availability of COVID-19 tests. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If real-time healthcare system capacity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where COVID-19 tests data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes detailed information about the number, type, and availability of COVID-19 vaccines. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If real-time healthcare system capacity data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where available COVID-19 vaccines data is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data includes dynamic updates. (No, Partially, Yes) A common example of dynamic updating can be seen in displays that change in response to new, real-time or near real-time data, often with a detailed timestamp featured prominently.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

Healthcare system capacity data supports governments and other actors in distributing resources to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages (SDG 3). This is particularly critical in the urgency of a public health crisis like the coronavirus pandemic. As the WHO COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP 2021) notes, "Health care systems and workers...are under extreme pressure in many countries in terms of capacity and capabilities, financial resources, and access to vital commodities and supplies including medical oxygen"(8). Real-time or near real-time data about a healthcare system's capacity can help direct patients to available care and support distributing resources equitably and effectively.

With the rise of highly infectious COVID-19 variants, the continued dynamic and uncertain course of the pandemic, and the uneven global distribution of vaccines, it will be considerable time before the pandemic is contained. In the meantime, real-time or near real-time capacity data can both help public health departments respond to changes in the pandemic, and help ensure the continuity of essential health services, providing a foundation from which to build readiness for other health emergencies.

Availability: Vaccination (COVID-19)

To what extent is COVID-19 vaccination information available as open data?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Data about COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination should be specific and detailed regarding aspects such as number and type of doses available and administered, as well as what percentage of total doses this represents; it should provide basic demographic information about who is being vaccinated, such as age, sex, disability, and membership in a marginalized population; and it should include information regarding where vaccination is taking place and how the process is distributed across the country.

Among other functions, it should be possible for different actors to use data about vaccines and vaccination in various ways:

• to track the state of vaccination in the country and the degree of presumptive COVID-19 immunity;
• to assess and update public health restrictions such as lockdowns, travel restrictions, mask mandates, or distancing, as appropriate;
• to determine if vaccination is occurring equitably;
• to support analysis of the duration, efficacy, and other aspects of the various vaccines;
• to plan for the eradication of COVID-19.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:
  • Our World in Data provides a list of sources by country for data on vaccinations.
• Search:
  • National or sub-national government websites about how and where to go for vaccination, testing, or treatment of COVID-19.
  • Websites of civil society organizations or mutual aid societies that provide information about vaccination, testing, or treatment of COVID-19.
  • Websites of your country's national or local public health department, center for disease control, or center for health statistics.
• Consult:
  • Public health officials.
  • Open data experts, programmers, and technologists who have organized data collaboratives or participated in other data-related efforts for COVID-19 response and recovery.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Does the data include specific details about vaccine supply and administration, or does it only offer very general information? For example, does it include the number of doses that health authorities possess and of what type; the number of doses administered, broken into partial and complete vaccination; and the percent of total doses administered?
• Does the data include demographic information about the people who have been vaccinated? If so, what kinds? For example, it might include information about age, sex, disability, membership in a marginalized population.
• Does the data include information about the geographic distribution of vaccinations? For example, does it include vaccinations by county, or perhaps by facility?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, data about COVID-19 vaccinations may be generated and published at the sub-national level, carried out by individual states, regions, or cities.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

• National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
• Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where data about COVID-19 vaccinations is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier or an example of widespread practice.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is this data available online in any form?
  • Data is not available online.

    Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g., attending an office to inspect it).

  • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.

    Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

Elements

• Data fields and quality:

• The data includes specific details on vaccine supply and administration, such as number of doses in possession and of what type, number of doses administered (this may be broken into partial and complete vaccination), and percent of total doses administered. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If COVID-19 vaccination data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where details of vaccine supply are located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes information about the geographic distribution of vaccinations. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If COVID-19 vaccination data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where data on its geographic distribution located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes information about the age of the people who have been vaccinated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If COVID-19 vaccination data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where data on age of vaccinated people is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes information about the sex and/or gender of the people who have been vaccinated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If COVID-19 vaccination data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where information about the sex of people who have been vaccinated is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes information about the disability status of the people who have been vaccinated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If COVID-19 vaccination data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where information about disability of people who have been vaccinated is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes information about membership in a marginalized population among the people who have been vaccinated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If COVID-19 vaccination data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where information about membership in a marginalized population among the people who have been vaccinated is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes information about vaccination for residents of long-term care facilities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If COVID-19 vaccination data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where information about vaccination for residents of long-term care facilities is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• The data includes information about vaccination for residents of prisons and jails. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If COVID-19 vaccination data can be found in multiple datasets, please provide the URL where information about vaccination for residents of prisons and jails is located.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data openness, timing, and structure:

• Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

  If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

• Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this against the list of official, national, or in-use languages you provided as part of your response to the governance indicator that asks, "To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance require that data collection and publication processes be available in the country’s official or national languages?"

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes) Answer 'Partially' if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer 'Yes' if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL.

  If Partially : What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

• Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this dataset?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (e.g., start and end dates) is data available?

• Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

  If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

• The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

  If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• Negative scoring:

• This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?), your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries look right?), and any broader research you may have done for this theme (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of the data?).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

Extent

• How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.

    Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?

  • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.

    Supporting questions: Which localities does this data cover?

  • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Indicator Justification

Successfully managing and ending the COVID-19 pandemic is critical for ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages (SDG3). More specifically, SDG target 3.3 calls for combating communicable diseases, with specific attention to epidemics; vaccines and vaccination programs are fundamental to these efforts.

Responding effectively to the ongoing global health crisis requires accurate and timely vaccination data. The manufacture of vaccines is currently limited to comparatively few countries, and several such countries have adopted stances of vaccine nationalism, hoarding vaccines. Consequently, the global vaccine rollout is and will continue to be uneven. At the same time, the virus itself continues to change, producing new variants, and there is still much we do not yet know about the duration and efficacy of the existing vaccines. All of these factors make high-quality vaccination data even more important.

Further, within countries access to vaccines is frequently inequitable. As with testing and treatment, disparities are likely to track the social determinants of health; thus, for example, disparities may be correlated with location or demographic variables.

Ended: Health & COVID-19

Ended: Thematic modules

Ended: Indicators