On 7 April 2016, the Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration, Ayanda Dlodlo, will host the South African Open Government Partnership (OGP) Open Data Project Seminar in Pretoria. It is a platform where experts from the UK will share and exchange knowledge with relevant South African stakeholders on open data.
Open data is increasingly seen as an enabler for improving access to services, and service delivery by front-line officials by establishing open data platforms and running focused open data challenges to address specific service delivery needs. Open data is data that can be freely used, shared and built-on by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose.
The data portal, [data.gov.za], will help citizens and civil servants to solve big social and economic challenges in their local context by making relevant data more accessible and useful. The value of this platform will be determined by how widely data is used and applied in solving national and local social, economic and political challenges.
The day’s discussions will include The UK’s experience on Open Data, the open data experiences of South Africa, the challenges opening up data for the public administration and how to overcome them and the benefits of opening up data for the public administration and how to reap them.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an international voluntary effort to improve government performance that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. It achieves this by bringing together governments and civil society organisations as true partners in the process.
The seminar will take place from 9h00 ending 16h00 on Thursday, 7 April 2016.
Members of the media are invited to the address by Deputy Minister as follows:
Date: Thursday, 7 April 2016
Venue: Protea Fire and Ice Hotel, Menlyn, 213 Thys Street Summit Place Precinct, Pretoria
Time: 9h00 to 9h30
Enquiries:
Lebohang Mafokosi
Cell: 082 312 4641
