USAID is taking significant steps to make the data generated from its programs open and accessible. It now requires data to be submitted to its Development Data Library in machine readable formats as a contractual obligation. A team of 100 data stewards have been established worldwide to coordinate data collection and sharing best practices. USAID is also researching how to make the data useful to potential users and is sponsoring grants and hackathons to promote data usage. The ultimate goal is to incorporate open data planning from the beginning of any data generating initiatives.

1. USAID’s Evolving Open Data Culture
Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D.1
December 10, 2014
I learned last night at the latest Open Data Leaders Meetup in Washington
D.C. that they really are serious about “open data” at the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID).
Brandon Pustejovsky and Laura Hughes talked about the policy and action
steps the agency is taking to make data generated by USAID programs in
over 50 mission countries around the world available for analysis and
re-use. Data generated by USAID programs must now, as a contractual
requirement, be submitted to USAID’s Development Data Library (DDL) in
machine readable form. The top of the web submission form now says,
● USAID staff, as well as contractors, and recipients of USAID assistance awards (e.g. grants and
cooperative agreements) in accordance with the terms and conditions of their awards must
submit Datasets to the Development Data Library (DDL).
● Please provide the following to register your dataset with the DDL. Upon submitting this form,
you will be contacted by our staff with additional instructions for transmitting the dataset.
● Please do not submit classified data or data containing personally identifiable information,
such as social security numbers, home addresses, and dates of birth. Such information must be
removed prior to submission.
● Datasets must be submitted in machine-readable, non-proprietary formats such as .csv or
.xml.
Behind the scenes there is much work going on in terms of data file inspections, developing data and
metadata standards for different sectors, modifying legacy systems to accommodate new or changed
data formats, clarifying data ownership, and modifying contracting and procurement procedures to
accommodate the shift. A corps of 100 “data stewards” has been developed throughout USAID
locations around the world to coordinate data collection and the agency’s collaboration and
1 Copyright © 2014 by Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D. Dennis is a project management consultant based
in Alexandria, Virginia. He is currently working with Socrata partner BaleFire Global on implementing
open data programs and with Michael Kaplan PMP on developing SoftPMO project management
services. His experience includes consulting company ownership and management, database
publishing and data transformation, managing the integration of large systems, corporate technology
strategy, social media adoption, survey research, statistical analysis, and IT cost analysis. His web site
is located at www.ddmcd.com and his email address is ddmcd@yahoo.com. On Twitter he is
@ddmcd.
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2. communication infrastructure are being used to explain requirements and share best practices.
My hat’s off to USAID for doing this. You don’t overnight “flip a switch” and turn from receiving
reports in .pdf format to building datasets that can be analyzed by many different stakeholder groups,
as those involved in Data Act implementation are well aware. Pustejovsky and Hughes’ in their
presentations just skimmed the surface of the internal deliberations that have been going on, but the
results are definitely appearing as the number of available datasets increases.
USAID is also researching how to make the data useful, starting with the surveying of potential users
about what they would like to see and sponsorship of special grants and “hackathons” to promote
data usage. After all, if the data are never used again after they are generated and submitted to the
DDL, why go to the expense of putting systems and processes in place to make them accessible for
reuse and exploitation?
I look forward to keeping up with how USAID works through the process of making its data “useful.”
One of the common deficiencies of many initial open data portal efforts is that they might provide
extensive data files and tools for filtering and visualization but they don’t necessarily go the “extra
mile” by ensuring that data and data context are useful, available, and meaningful. This extends
beyond the features of the user interface to include accommodation of the user’s data literacy, the
provision of information to help the user interpret the data’s meaning, and -- a really important one,
in my opinion -- information about the stakeholders most concerned with and knowledgeable about
the data.
Ultimately, how open data efforts are managed needs to take into account the fact that the process of
making data open and available must be part of every program that generates the data, not
something that is tacked on after the fact. This means that open data planning needs to start when
any data-generating initiative is planned. It appears that USAID is going that route.
Related reading:
● Compendium: My Guest Posts for the BaleFire Global Open Data Blog
● Data Cleanup, Big Data, Standards, and Program Transparency
● Data Standards and Data Dictionaries Need Data Governance
● A Framework for Transparency Program Planning and Assessment
● Getting Real About “Open Data”
● How To Make Datathon Efforts Sustainable
● Learning from the World Bank’s “Big Data” Exploration Weekend.
● On Measuring Open Data Benefits in International Development Projects
● Open Data and Performance Measurement: Two Sides of the Same Coin
● Recommendations for Collaborative Management of Government Data Standardization
Projects
● The Importance of Audience Research to Open Data Program Success
● Who Will Pay for Open Data?
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