Last week, the Open Knowledge Foundation had the pleasure of attending the Open Government Partnership conference in Mombasa, Kenya. Participants from all over Africa as well as the rest of the world convened to discuss transparency, citizen engagement and open knowledge – including open data – in this inspiring event to set the course for an open Africa.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder coalition of leading governments and civil society organizations working to advance transparency and accountability in government with the goals of increasing the responsiveness of government to citizens, countering corruption, promoting economic efficiencies, harnessing innovation, and improving the delivery of services.
At the Open Knowledge Foundation we support these principles and attended the conference that attracted over 100 government and civil society leaders from Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Mozambique, Liberia, South Africa, Malawi, Tunisia and other countries. There was also representation from other agencies such as the OGP Support Unit, the Independent OGP Civil Society Coordinator, the World Bank Institute, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, UNESCO, APRM Support Unit and The World Bank.
The meeting secured agreement on several milestones, which are covered in detail in the summary on the Open Government Partnership blog, but most notably the event saw an increasingly visible and trustful relationship between government and civil society representatives – as well as the highlighting of open data in talks across several sessions as a central means to pursue the ideals and goals of the partnership.
To see a photo gallery from the event, visit the Kenya Open Data Facebook-page.
Christian Villum is an open data and open everything advocate, disruptive-technology geek, project bootstrapper & electronic music buff. He lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has a background in media and culture entrepreneurship, community creation and hacktivism.
1 thought on “Open knowledge at the Open Government Partnership conference in Mombasa, Africa”
Comments are closed.