We at the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) are excited to announce the list of organisations that have been awarded mini-grants to help them host Open Data Day (ODD) events and activities across the world.
Our team received a total of 305 applications and was greatly impressed by the quality of the event proposals. In 2024, we are running two separate calls to accommodate the diverse interests in our community. The first call was for the general community, and the second was specifically for activities related to open mapping.
General Mini-Grant Winners
This call was open to any practices and disciplines carried out by open data communities around the world – such as hackathons, tool demos, artificial intelligence, climate emergency, digital strategies, open government, citizen participation, automation, monitoring, etc. A total of 18 events will receive a grant amount of USD 300 each, thanks to the sponsorship of Jokkolabs Banjul (Gambia), Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN), Open Knowledge Germany, Datopian and Link Digital.
Here are the winning proposals by country, in alphabetical order:
“SDGs in the Amazon” – Understanding the impact of open data in the Amazon, the site of COP30 in 2025.
“Open Data for climate risk-informed societies” – Leveraging open data to mitigate adverse effects of lakes and sea level rise in the African great lakes region.
Women for Sustainability Africa
🇬🇭 Ghana
“EcoSolutions: Harnessing Tools for Climate Resilience” – To empower participants with the knowledge and skills to navigate the diverse array of tools available for addressing climate challenges.
“Data and Drinks: Girls at the table” – To “put on the table” the importance of data with a gender perspective to move towards gender equality, contribute to closing gender gaps and overcoming gender stereotypes.
“Village Leaders Conclave: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Open Data” – To empower 100 elected village-level leaders in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu, India, with the knowledge and tools to address the climate emergency through open data-driven decision-making and collaborative local action.
“NoCode-LowCode GeoAI Workshop for Sustainable Climate Action” – To empower participants with tools for low carbon economy and meaningful climate action, fostering innovation and collaboration through multi-modal open data and open source software such as KNIME.
“Mapping Climate Change in 4D: Belvedere Glacier’s Open Geo Data for Education and Research” – To conduct an innovative teaching workshop dedicated at familiarizing students of the GIS course with raster data and point cloud processing using real data from an alpine glacier, which is experiencing an extreme retreat due to climate change.
“Empowering Young Changemakers: Harnessing Open Data & Indigenous Knowledge for Climate Action” – To empower young people from Kenyan pastoralist communities in Marsabit County to address the climate emergency using open data and indigenous knowledge.
“Open Data for Environmental Monitoring” – To celebrate and promote the impact of open data in environmental monitoring, through showcasing the impact of sensors.AFRICA’s citizen science initiative and inspiring participants to explore and innovate with open data for climate-resilient cities in Africa.
“Open Data for Green & Circular Economy” – To discuss and create visualisations/stories regarding the use of open data in green and circular economy. The event is going to be in a workshop style where there will be participants from college/university clubs.
“Let’s Count 4SDGs” – To enhance community awareness and engagement in best practices for Open Data in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Climate-Induced Displacement: Understanding Impacts on African Women through Open Data” – To raise awareness, facilitate informed discussions, and propose data-driven strategies to address the unique challenges faced by African women affected by climate-induced displacement, leveraging open data for better understanding and sustainable solutions.
“Wikidata Loves SDGs Nigeria” – To harness the power of Wikidata to open up and update data related to SDGs, including fields of work, targets, indicators, organisations working on SDG topics, organisations whose field of work encompasses any of the SDGs, and SDG advocates in Nigeria.
“Hacking for Healthy Food & Green Futures: An Open Data Challenge for Ningi Youth” – To empower Ningi youth to use open data to develop innovative solutions for food security, mental health, and climate change, contributing to SDGs 2, 3, and 13.
“Open Data as a Human Right Workshop: Empowering Law Students for Sustainable Development” – Empower law students by framing open data as a fundamental human right, exploring its intersection with digital rights, and highlighting its role in advancing sustainable development.
“Empowering migrant and refugee women to use open data to hold duty bearers accountable for quality sexual reproductive health services” – Mobilize and orient a pool of 60 rural migrant refugee women and girls and 10 women-led community organisations on the concept of open data and how to use open data to hold duty bearers accountable in providing quality SRHR services.
“Neighborhood Data Discovery” – The event will focus on presenting neighborhood-level data on SDG indicators for participants to learn about and explore as well as an opportunity to provide feedback and future direction to measuring SDGs at the neighborhood level.
“Bootcamp INFOTOPIA version 2.0: Learning how to monitor and infographics gender-based violence” – Training for organizations to monitor and visualise open data on gender-based violence in the Capital District.
Open Mapping Mini-Grant Winners
This call was specifically seeking to promote events related to open mapping – such as the use and promotion of geodata, mapathons, environmental monitoring, disaster response, community mapping, land productivity analysis, etc. A total of 8 open mapping events will receive a grant amount of USD 300 each, thanks to the sponsorship of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap (HOT).
Here are the winning proposals by country, in alphabetical order:
“Communities Mapping Communities: Brazil-Africa Connection” – Empower vulnerable communities in Brazil and Africa through the exchange of knowledge facilitated by open mapping data.
“Build a mapping community for kids” – Children’s initiation to mapping and territories geolocalisation.
“Environmental Mapping: Collecting Colombia’s biodiversity data through urban trees” – Introduce new mappers to open data collection applied to urban biodiversity with OSM notes.
“WaterPointMapping” – To produce a participatory map of the areas where agro-pastoralists have access to water in the dry season, in order to improve the OpenStreetMap database quantitatively and qualitatively.
“Forced displacements open mapping” – Identify newly established displaced camps in eastern Congo war-torn regions for humanitarian assistance.
“Bus-friendly: mapping participation guiding blocks & halt for equality of public transportation users and engage disabled voices” – Evaluate the condition of the Non-BRT Trans Metro Pasundan halt in terms of accessibility for people with disabilities and marginalised people (SDGs 11 & 10) using OSM & Wikipedia.
“PedalMap: Engaging Biking Communities in Open Mapping for Sustainable Development Goals” – Through a combination of remote mapping and field sessions, we plan to collaborate with biking communities to collect 360 satellite images through Mapillary and enhance biking-related OpenStreetMap (OSM) data.
“Mapping Nyarugenge High-Risk Zone for Disaster Preparedness” – To map disaster-prone areas and provide training to youth on mapping tools for effective disaster response.
About Open Data Day
Open Data Day (ODD) is an annual celebration of open data all over the world. Groups from many countries create local events on the day where they will use open data in their communities. ODD is led by the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) and this year’s edition is co-organised by Jokkolabs Banjul (Gambia), Open Knowledge Germany, Open Knowledge Ghana, and Open Knowledge Nepal, all members of the Open Knowledge Network.
As a way to increase the representation of different cultures, since 2023 we offer the opportunity for organisations to host an Open Data Day event on the best date between March 2nd and 8th. All outputs are open for everyone to use and re-use.
In 2024, Open Data Day is also a part of the HOT OpenSummit ’23-24 initiative, a creative programme of global event collaborations that leverages experience, passion and connection to drive strong networks and collective action across the humanitarian open mapping movement
For more information, you can reach out to the Open Knowledge Foundation team by emailing opendataday@okfn.org. You can also join the Open Data Day Google Group to ask for advice or share tips and get connected with others.
