The brief: Edo State Government and the World Bank set out to develop Nigeria’s first open data services as part of their commitment to greater transparency.
The World Bank approached Whythawk and the Open Knowledge Foundation to support the development of a standard open data management platform based on CKAN in a collaborative project with local government. Edo State Government required that comprehensive knowledge transfer take place so that they would have full responsibility for the support and development of the data service.
Our solution: The main objective of the open data project was to ensure that a local team had sufficient training and support to both manage open data release and process, as well as for a technical team for develop custom applications for the site.
The Whythawk team conducted site visits, capacity assessments, as well as the creation and delivery of both administrative and technical training to a local, Edo-based, team to ensure skills transfer and the eventual local management of the software. We completed the first phase of the project with development of training materials, released under Creative Commons license, and delivery of training and consultation services on-site in Benin City.
The result: Edo State’s open data service went live in July 2013 at a digital government conference presented by the State Governor. More than 70 people were trained in open data techniques, and – from a low base – new datasets are added regularly. The state budget is now published and available for the first time, including historical data. The service is also being used as a reference project for future initiatives elsewhere in Nigeria.