OPEN DATA
we are development data experts
promoting data openness
and completeness
Open data can be powerful for informing policies, increasing transparency and measuring progress. But making data open takes commitment, organization, and technical capacity. Ahead of the upcoming Data for Policy conference, Open Data Watch offers this guide to common questions, persistent challenges, and progress to-date,
Billions of gigabytes of data are produced daily, but valuable data often pass into “data graveyards” — lost when most needed for evidence-informed decisions on pandemics, climate change, and energy and food insecurity. This report finds best practices to improve data use and impact.
OUR WORK
Open Data Watch is an international, non-profit organization working at the intersection of open data and official statistics. Our work supports the implementation of change in the production and management of official statistical data. Concentrating efforts in three areas — policy advice, data support, and monitoring — ODW seeks to make development data better and more accessible for increased use and impact.
An example of the interaction between these workstreams, 
the Open Data Inventory (ODIN) provides in-depth assessments of data coverage and openness that countries actively use to identify and address data gaps. The ODIN Gender Data Index, for instance, checks for data needed to address gender issues. Only with high-quality and open data can international organizations, governments, and citizens solve the challenges of measuring and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
WHAT’S NEW?
Climate Change Data: Playing by the Paris Rulebook
To make progress on climate change, countries need to know how to measure their goals and spur innovation in both the collection and use of climate change data.
Meet ODW’s Visiting Statistician
Open Data Watch is pleased to welcome our first Visiting Statistician, Luis Gonzalez Morales, who joins us from the United Nations Statistics Division.
UNGA: Investments in Gender Data
The world is behind in collecting and producing the data needed to measure gender equality, slowing progress towards achieving this critical human rights and development goal. Will UNGA act to chart a new course?