Thursday, March 28, 2024

12 gov’t agencies submit first wave of ‘open data’ inventories

Twelve agencies from the government have already submitted their “Agency Data Inventories” to the open data task force and are currently available to the public.

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Last June, the Open Data Task Force released Joint Memorandum Circular, which outlined specific guidelines to help government agencies implement open data.

The circular serves as an introduction to the Philippines’ open data policy and answers common questions from agencies, such as “How will this affect our work?” and “What do we need to submit?”

To further promote awareness, the Task Force also released an infographic summarizing the JMC’s most pertinent points.

One of the first requirements from agencies — apart from assigning an Open Data Champion to serve as primary liaison between the agency and Task Force — is to submit an Agency Data Inventory (ADI).

Essentially a master list, the ADI serves as a catalogue of all government data held by an agency, containing the title, description, and file type of each dataset.

The exercise of creating an inventory of datasets allows agencies to take stock of what they have and don’t have. The hope is that this will nudge agencies to fully manage datasets as important factors in decision-making and take data as a platform for meaningful engagement with the public.

The 12 agencies that have so far submitted their ADIs to the Task Force are: the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG), Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO), and the Procurement Service – Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PS-PhilGEPS).

Originally, the Task Force had planned to release the first wave of ADIs in September, at the end of the third quarter. But since many agencies submitted early, the decision was made to release this initial wave immediately. Collated into one dataset (.csv), these 12 ADIs are now downloadable from this link.

Examples of some datasets listed in these ADIs are already available on data.gov.ph. For example, the PSA has submitted agricultural statistics, while the DBM and DSWD have submitted datasets on the National Expenditure Program and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, respectively.

Open data has been proven to have many positive effects on society, including increased transparency and improved service delivery.

But the Task Force said a successful transition does not happen overnight; rather, it takes place gradually through the diligence and commitment of all involved parties.

“As such, we applaud these 12 agencies for taking this important step toward the full implementation of JMC no. 2015-01 and the democratization of government data,” the Task Force said.

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