Open Data and Subnational Governments: Lessons from Developing Countries

While the discussion on open government data, especially in developing countries, is at the national government level, it is the local is where data is collected and stored, and when published, can generate impact. In this recently-published synthesis paper, Michael Canares and Satyarupa Shekhar bring the focus of discussions of open government data from national to local contexts. They find that there is substantial effort on the part of sub-national governments to proactively disclose data and that local context demands different roles for intermediaries and different types of initiatives to create an enabling environment for open data use and achieve impact.