Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

Open Data Going Global

Open Data took another leap forward at this week’s G8 Summit in Long Erne, Northern Ireland, as member countries signed an Open Data Charter to spur the release and use of government-held data to advance economic opportunity, spur innovation, and increase accountability around the world. 

The Open Data Charter outlines principles that member countries—the US, UK, France, Canada, Germany, Russia, Italy, and Japan–will act on, including an expectation that all government data will be published openly by default, and that signatories will work to increase the quality, quantity, and re-use of released data. 

The G8 Open Data charter builds upon recent historic steps the US has taken domestically. On May 9, 2013, President Obama signed Executive Order 13462, Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information, directing efforts to make government-held data more accessible to the public and to entrepreneurs and others as fuel for innovation and economic growth.

When the Federal Government decided years ago to make weather data from satellites and ground stations public, it gave rise to an entire economic sector that has contributed billions to the economy and today includes weather newscasts, weather apps, commercial agricultural advisory services, and new insurance options—in addition to the vast public benefits derived from those activities. And more recently, as demonstrated by the fourth annual Health Datapalooza, we have seen entrepreneurs using open health data to power applications and services that help people throughout the country make informed healthcare decisions. Open government data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other agencies is central to the data-powered revolution underway in health care today.

New Tools to Help the Hungry and Malnourished

Poor nutrition causes nearly half of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children globally each year – and prevents the minds and bodies of another 165 million children from reaching their full potential. In addition, nutrition is a serious economic issue: experts estimate that undernutrition reduces national economic advancement in Africa and Asia by 8% each year.  Thankfully, we know a lot about what works to improve nutrition, including the fact that intervention must occur during the first 1,000 days of life or damage is irreversible. We also know that addressing nutrition is one of the most cost-effective investments available: for every $1 invested in nutrition, as much as $138 is generated in better health and productivity. 

Last week, following the publishing of a new series on maternal and child nutrition in the medical journal The Lancet , governments, donors, non-profits, academia, and the private sector came together to focus on undernutrition at events in London and Washington, DC.  The events provided an opportunity for the United States and other participants to highlight existing and planned actions to address undernutrition.  US Agency for International Development Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah  highlighted the investments the US Government is making in nutrition as part of the Presidential Feed the Future and Global Health Initiatives: over the three-year period of fiscal years 2012-2014, these investments total $1 billion for nutrition-specific interventions and nearly $9 billion for activities in other sectors that also improve nutrition.  

The US and the UK governments also announced they are seeking partners to launch a Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative this fall to increase the quality, quantity, and timeliness of available data that can help support agriculture and nutrition efforts, and also increase the number and diversity of stakeholders who are applying data-based solutions to improve agriculture and nutrition.  This is an initiative that will be tremendously exciting – if you or your organization is interested in learning more, please visit the initiative website.