Ghana has been rated among the highest-ranked Sub-Sahara African countries on the continent in this year’s Open Data Barometer Report released by the World Wide Web Foundation.
Ghana and Rwanda tied in third place on the list with a score of 46, followed by Kenya with 49 and Mauritius with 54. South Africa was ranked first on the list as being the country with the highest open data initiative.
According to the Report, although African countries lag behind other developing countries in regions such as Asia and Latin America, few countries including Ghana have established open government data initiatives but was quick to reveal that these remain highly dependent upon a limited network of leaders and technical experts.
Ghana was also mentioned alongside with Kenya in the area of government spending as doing well in publishing its data on government spending which could go a long way to help uncover corruption and enhance service delivery; except that this data is not provided in a format that can be easily used by members of the public.
“Similarly, only Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya, and Ghana publish data that could help improve health outcomes, although these are also in formats that are hard for members of the public to make use of. The study cited limited government, civil society or private sector capacity; limits on affordable widespread Internet access; and weaknesses in digital data collection and management in Africa as the main challenges that must be overcome,” it stated.
The rankings (out of 86 countries surveyed in 2014)
Highest-ranked Sub-Saharan African countries
- South Africa -- 41
- Rwanda -- 46 (tie)
- Ghana -- 46 (tie)
- Kenya -- 49
- Mauritius -- 54
The Open Data Barometer aims to uncover the true prevalence and impact of open data initiatives around the world. It analyses global trends, and provides comparative data on countries and regions via an in-depth methodology combining contextual data, technical assessments and secondary indicators to explore multiple dimensions of open data readiness, implementation and impact.
The first edition of the Open Data Barometer showed that 55% of countries surveyed have open data initiatives in place, yet less than 10% of key government datasets across the world are truly open to the public.
