The Open Knowledge Foundation is happy to announce the list of organisations from all over the world who have been awarded mini-grants to help them celebrate Open Data Day on Saturday 6th March 2021.

Thanks to the generous support of this year’s mini-grant funders –Microsoft, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Mapbox, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, Latin American Open Data Initiative, Open Contracting Partnership and Datopian – the Open Knowledge Foundation will be giving out a total of 61 mini-grants to help organisations run great online or in-person events on or around Open Data Day.

We received hundreds of mini-grant applications this year and were greatly impressed by the quality of the events being organised all over the world.

Learn more about Open Data Day, discover events taking place online or in your country and find out how to connect with the global open data community by checking out the information at the bottom of this blogpost.

Here are the organisations who will receive mini-grants for each of this year’s four themes:

Environmental data

• Code for Pakistan
  • A hack day to open and publish the block coordinates of the plantation conducted during the billion tree tsunami in Pakistan
• DRM Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Preventing vulnerable communities from river floods through risk data collection, analysis and communication
• Escuela de Fiscales (Argentina)
  • Our goal is to show the community and other civil society organizations the importance of open data in preserving and caring for the environment, and the urgency of taking action against climate change and pollution, and how open data can improve public politics with the participation of citizens
• Government Degree College Bemina,J and K Higher Education (India)
  • Make the community aware about the availability and benefits of environmental data for addressing environmental concerns in Kashmir Valley
• Future Lab (Mexico)
  • Engage with the local community and enable citizen participation through the use of open data for the proposal of cleaner and more sustainable public policies
• IUCN (Switzerland)
  • We will talk about the PANORAMA initiative and web platform, which allows conservation practitioners to share and reflect on their experiences, increase recognition for successful work, and to learn with peers how similar challenges have been addressed around the globe
• Mijas Multimedia (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Strengthen the community resilience to the rapid rise of Lake Tanganyika through the use of open data
• Niger Delta SnapShots (Nigeria)
  • Use open data to uncover hidden threats damaging Nigerian mangrove and demonstrate the necessity for urgent action to save Nigerian Mangrove
• Open Knowledge Nepal
  • Organise a datathon that will bring open data enthusiasts to work on the real-time air quality data and Twitter bot enhancement, so that people can use the service and get informed with the recent situations of air quality in their surroundings
• PermaPeople (Germany)
  • Present and discuss the importance and challenges of collecting and sharing open source data on plants and growing to assist in the growth of the regenerative movement
• Zanzibar Volunteers for Environmental Conservation (Tanzania)
  • The main goal is to contribute to open data initiatives by helping the students understand more about open data and environmental issues

Tracking public money flows

• Afonte Jornalismo de Dados
  • Brazilian are tired of corruption, and Open Data Day Porto Alegre 2021 will provide relevant and open-access information to show the path to investigate public expenses and how they are connected to politicians and even companies
• Dataphyte
  • Train participants on how to track Covid-19 spending using open government data to unearth malpractices and corruption in the management of the pandemic
• Datos Concepción (Argentina)
  • Show companies and organizations that received contracts related to COVID-19
• Equity Watch Initiative (Nigeria)
  • Using data to ensure that various gender equality and women empowerment projects in Nsukka Local Government Area deliver on promises
• HackBo / Grafoscopio
  • To intertwine mini wikis, chatbots and public oversight of public expenses, starting with a particular project in the neighborhood, to showcase how grassroots developed civic tech and open government could be bridged, as an empowering alternative to the opaque extractivist social media where such interaction is happening (Facebook) beyond the reach and real interest of civic communities
• Ojoconmipisto (Guatemala)
  • Teaching local journalists data visualisation techniques
• Open Knowledge Estonia
  • Estonian procurement registry doesn’t use OCDS, but the common European standard (TED). Our goal is to cross-match the datasets concerning donations and business registries, in order to automatically detect potential conflict of interests
• Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología (ULACIT)
  • Data Challenge: take advantage of the first dataset published under the OCDS in the country and improve the data literacy of university students
• Water With Development Initiative (Nigeria)
  • Increase transparency and accountability discussing the use of existing WASH data

Open mapping

• DIH Slovenia
  • Disseminating existing open mapping solutions, sharing best practices and discussion of possibilities for improving life in communities through open mapping
• Federal University of Bahia (Brazil)
  • Strengthen a global network of community data collectors from communities, organisations, as well as academic institutions by 1) focusing on sharing experiences from specific cases where particular mapping tools were used as part of strategies of community empowerment and 2) using the insights to subsequently co-design a platform to empower data collectors globally
• Geoladies PH (Philippines)
  • Since March is International Women’s Month and 31st March is International Transgender Day of Visibility, we would like to hold an event that empowers and engages women (cisgender and transgender) to map out features and amenities (women support desks, breastfeeding stations, gender-neutral comfort rooms, and LGBT safe spaces) and feature lightning talks to highlight women in mapping
• GEOSM (Cameroon)
  • Host a “geo-evangelisation”, workshop in the use of JOSM (Java OpenStreetMap ) and GEOSM (the first 100% African open source geolocation platform)
• HTW Dresden – University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
  • Explore how to leverage open geodata to create content for virtual worlds in conferencing and collaboration platforms
• iLabs@Mak Project (Uganda)
  • To understand and value the need of Farmers’ Live Geo Map across food value chain in Africa to better food traceability and security
• LABIKS – Latin American Bike Knowledge Sharing
  • To promote and stimulate the sharing of open data about the bike-sharing systems in Latin America and to promote and discuss our online open map, aiming to improve it
• Les Libres Geographes (Senegal)
  • This event which combines outreach, sensitization, demonstration and presentation of results will take place within the Open Science, Citizen Sciences component of the Public Health Geography Cohesion project which studies malaria risk in Bouaké (Ivory Coast) using FOSS Open Data (OpenStreetMap) within an capacity building community approach and with the view of building an Open Geographical Observatory of the city
• Monitor de Femicidios de UTOPIX (Venezuela)
  • Monitoring of femicide cases in Venezuela
• Periféria Policy and Research Center
  • Learn about the relevance of open data in collective/critical mapping of gentrification in Hungary
• PoliMappers (Italy)
  • Host an introductory mapping event on OpenStreetMap so that students and people interested in collaborating gain the basic skills needed to tackle more advanced tools later in the year
• SmartCT (Philippines)
  • Launch the MapaTanda Initiative (a portmanteau of Mapa — which means a map — and Tanda — which can mean an older adult but can also mean remember); which is an initiative that seeks to improve the number and quality of data in OpenStreetMap that are important and relevant to older adults (senior citizens) and the ageing population (60+ years old) in the Philippines
• Society of Young Social Innovators (Thailand)
  • Soft launch ‘Change Maker Community Platform’ to potential user (Changemaker in Thailand)
• SUZA Youthmappers
  • Create awareness on open data data use, and how the students can use the data in developing innovative web and mobile applications to solve existing challenges in the society
• TuTela Learning Network in collaboration with local activists and researchers
  • Start a debate on alternative, community-managed forms of housing in the city of Lisbon based on the model of grant of use and raising awareness on the importance of accessible data on available real estate resources owned by the city
• Unificar Ações e Informações Geoespaciais – UAIGeo – Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei (UFSJ) 
  • Disseminate the use and importance of open data to support the solution of territorial tension points, the use of water and the preservation of cultural heritage, as well as providing participants with contacts with collaborative mapping applications

Data for equal development

• 254 Youth Policy Cafe (Kenya)
  • Undertake a webinar via the Zoom Platform themed “Leveraging Open Data as an Asset for Inclusive & Sustainable Development in Kenya”
• ACCESA (Costa Rica)
  • Explore, map, visualize and disseminate key data about the projects being implemented by the Territorial Councils of Rural Development, the main participatory bodies for fostering rural development in Costa Rica, and assess their progress, the money being spent on them, the results obtained, and their impact in narrowing the many social gaps that currently affect the different rural regions of the country
• Afroimpacto
  • Discuss the importance to the black community of the open data discussion
• CoST Honduras
  • Present how we can promote sustainable infrastructure by using data disclosed under the Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard and engage citizens and civil society organisations to demand government accountability by using a tool called InfraS
• Dados Abertos de Feira (Brazil)
  • Promote and discuss the open data knowledge to our local community (city of Feira de Santana, countryside of Brazil), bringing together the academy, government agents and the society itself
• DataFest Tbilisi (Georgia)
  • Highlight and promote the use of data and data-driven products as an effective way to tackle pressing social issues and inequality
• Demokrasya (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Raise awareness of the Congolese community especially the women’s rights community on the use of open data in defending the women’s accessibility to employment
• Fundación Eduna (Colombia)
  • Develop activities to address the issue of strengthening the capacity for creative thinking of children and young people in the central region of Colombia making use and taking advantage of open data
• Gênero e Número (Brazil)
  • Explore open data to get a comprehensive landscape on the labour market for women in Brazil during the pandemic
• Girls’ Tech-Changer Community (Cameroon)
  • Show the benefits of open data (such as an increase in efficiency, transparency, innovation, and economic growth) and to encourage the adoption of open data policies in various government bodies, businesses, and civil societies
• Hawa Feminist Coalition (Somalia)
  • Advance the production, dissemination and openness of sex-disaggregated data in Somalia in support of evidence-based planning and policy-making as well as tracking of progress by the government and other stakeholders to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania
  • Teaching community about the benefit of using data for development
• Intellectual Property Hub Zambia
  • Promote innovation through instilling the value of creativity and protection of ideas in young creators, originators, writers and inventors in Zambia
• International Youth Alliance for Family Planning- TOGO (IYAFP-TOGO)
  • Develop an open map of contraceptive methods and service availability in Agbalepedo area
• IPANDETEC (Panama)
  • Train Panamanian women on their current position, role and future in the world of open data
• iWatch Africa
  • Demonstrate how equal development within the digital ecosystem in Africa can be improved by leveraging data on online abuse and harassment of female journalists
• Jokkolabs Banjul (Gambia)
  • Show the benefit of open data to the Gambia community and what we as an organisation have been doing with open data through our involvement in the International Open Data Charter
• Kiyita Foundation
  • Encourage local women to get access to data about economic development
• Madagascar Initiatives for Digital Innovation
  • Make participants understand the value of data for development
• Nepal Open Source Klub
  • We will create a glossary of technical terms and words that are commonly used on websites/in software and translate those into Nepali
• Nukta Africa (Tanzania)
  • Maximizing the use of open data to increase accountability through data journalism
• Programming Historian (Chile)
  • Walk participants through the process of visualising qualitative and quantitative development open data for equal development in Latin America, using open access tools
• Punch Up (Thailand)
  • Emphasise what would be lost if we don’t have open data in our country
• Rausing Zimbabwe
  • Create a platform and outlet for information distribution, updates and discussion with communities on the issues surrounding peace and security in the age of the pandemic
• Vilnius Legal Hackers (Lithuania)
  • Implement more transparency into funeral business of Lithuania

About Open Data Day

Open Data Day is the annual event where we gather to reach out to new people and build new solutions to issues in our communities using open data. The eleventh Open Data Day will take place on Saturday 6th March 2021.

If you have started planning your Open Data Day event already, please add it to the global map on the Open Data Day website using this form. Our new events listing pages on opendataday.org will help you to discover online and in-person events by country, theme or region.

You can also connect with others and spread the word about Open Data Day using the #OpenDataDay or #ODD2021 hashtags. Alternatively you can join the Google Group to ask for advice or share tips.

To get inspired with ideas for events, you can read about some of the great events which took place on Open Data Day 2020 in our wrap-up blogpost.

Need more information?

If you have any questions, you can reach out to the Open Knowledge Foundation team by emailing opendataday@okfn.org or on Twitter via @OKFN.