191TH JSPS GAKUSHIN SEMINAR Wednesday, July 19th, 2023. Venue: JSPS Nairobi Research Station Open Science and Open Government: A paradigm shift towards achieving efficiency, effectiveness and accountability Prof Muliaro Wafula PhD.,FCCS, FCSK Associate Professor: JKUAT Chair: CODATA Kenya Lead Scientist: AOSP EA Node Outline • Open Science - three key dimensions of open science namely: open data, open access and citizen science. • Open Government- catalyst for good governance, democracy and inclusive growth • Artificial Intelligence- maximizing benefits of adopting open science and open government. Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 2 Open Data …set data free What is Open Data? • data that is publicly available without any restrictions for usage and distribution and structured in a way that enables it to be fully discoverable, accessible, complete, timely and useable by end users. • Championing for open data means seeking to realize better quality, reliability, management and accessibility of data of importance to all fields • We need open Data polices developed and implemented. Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 3 Kenya Open Data Instruments Constitution of Kenya, 2010 Article 35, gives citizens the right to access information Access to Information Act 2016 AN ACT of Parliament that gave effect to Article 35 of the Constitution Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula JORD Policy Policy to promote ROI, Collaboration, Innovation, Enable Diverse Studies etc 4 Creating Innovative Videos for Learning Mathematics for Primary Schools ODSI: JKUAT To build open data based innovative mobile To encourage scientists to open their research data for public consumption and use. To use open data to offer solutions to societal challenges To engage partners support on the open research data initiative Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 5 Power of Open Data to Create Jobs/wealth Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 6 Characteristics • open to scrutiny • accessible • free • accessible data- except for safety, security and privacy • open to engagement with other societal actors (International Science Council (ISC)’s definition) Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 7 OS-Contribution to Efficiency and effectiveness ➢ more citations, media attention, potential collaborators, job opportunities, and funding opportunities ➢open access journals- more citations ➢ open research awards - incentive. ➢data and research materials stored in independent repositories and preserved for future. ➢easier for researchers to connect with one another, easy access to novel data and software resources. Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 8 Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 9 Best Practices ✓Promote open science culture through training Implementers: and awareness raising Government, Policy ✓Develop cloud computing facilities that provide Makers, Universities, networked computation, data access and analysis Scholarly Societies, tools Publishers, Research ✓Promote science diplomacy Institutes, Research Funding Agencies, ✓Encourage citizen science Repositories, Libraries, ✓Support open collaboration through ICTs Archives, and ✓Support Open Innovation Researchers ✓Promote open software code ✓Adopt Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) Data Principle Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 10 Examples of Open Science Initiatives in Africa Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 11 International Open Science projects in Africa Ref: Mwelwa, J, et al. 2020. Developing Open Science in Africa: Barriers, Solutions and Opportunities. Data Science Journal, 19: 31, pp. 1–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-031 ✓The H3ABionet project ✓South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), a major node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. It hosts biodiversity information to make it freely available on the internet so that policy makers, managers and researchers can make well-informed decisions that contribute to sustainable development. ✓Data First – the only African database that has the CoreTrustSeal of the International Science Council’s World Data System Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 12 ✓African Academy of Sciences (AAS) Open Research – a platform for rapid publication and open peer review for researchers. ✓The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project involves 8 African national partners (South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia) ✓The Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change Adaptation Research Project among the Griqua and Nama peoples in South Africa Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 13 The African Open Science Platform (AOSP) with HQ in SA (https://aosp.org.za/) • It has 3 regional nodes: 1. Egyptian National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS) is the Northern African Node based in Egypt; 2. The African Institute for Capacity Development (AICAD) is the East African Node based in Kenya, and 3. The UbuntuNet Alliance is the Southern Africa Node based in Malawi Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 14 AOSP key objectives • Create a platform, with the potential to be a powerful lever of social, cultural and scientific vitality and of economic development. • put African scientists at the cutting edge of contemporary, data-intensive science as a fundamental resource for a modern society • Enable researchers to access a wide diversity of data streams, which, when integrated, reveal deep patterns in complex phenomena. • Make science a more public enterprise that engages actively with business, policymakers, governments, communities and citizens as knowledge partners • facilitate data-intensive, solutions-oriented research, bringing scientists and non-scientists together as knowledge partners in open networks of collaborative learning and problem solving Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 15 Priority ranking of OS issues that contribute to economic and social development in Africa Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 16 Open Government Open Government: • a culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in support of democracy and inclusive growth. Open State: • when the executive, legislature, judiciary, independent public institutions, and all levels of government – recognizing their respective roles, prerogatives, and overall independence according to their existing legal and institutional frameworks – collaborate, exploit synergies, and share good practices and lessons learned among themselves and with other stakeholders to promote transparency, integrity, accountability, and stakeholder participation, in support of democracy and inclusive growth. Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 17 Shifting trend to open government • Countries are increasingly acknowledging the role of Open Government as a catalyst for good governance, democracy and inclusive growth. Why Open Governance? • To improve: • transparency, • accountability, • effectiveness, • responsiveness, • citizen participation, • prevent and fight corruption, and • increase citizen trust of the public institutions Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 18 Government & Citizens Relationship • Two-way dialogue: In past decades, the relationship between governments and citizens was characterized by a mere sharing of information with citizens. Recent initiatives stress the active two-way dialogue among the government. In this new vision of the public sector, citizens are no longer passive receptors of government information, to the contrary, governments and citizens engage in a joint construction of value. ➢Engaging citizens, civil society organizations and the private sector as partners in the policy cycle helps ensure that their needs are identified and responded to, thereby leading to higher user satisfaction. Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 19 Kenya Open Government Partnership National Action Plan IV (https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Kenya_Action-Plan_20202022.pdf) Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 20 Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 21 Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 22 Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 23 Aspirations of the OGP National Action Plan IV 1. Raise the threshold of ensuring companies’ real owners and their information is available for public strutiny within internationally recognized data standards 2. Government procurement processes remain open, transparent, and accessible to all across Government and in Champion Sub-National Governments 3. Data for developmental decisions-making and action is timely, available, accessible and maintained in open standards 4. Deepening democracy by ensuring the process of law and policy within the legislature is open to public engagement and participation Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 24 Cont… 5. Public servants and duty bearer are held to high-performance standards by citizens 6. Proactive disclosure and access to information by citizens, especially during these challenging time of COVID 19 7. Access to justice remains a high priority, especially for indigents, without delays or denial. 8. The culture of open government is entrenched within public service in Kenya and across the African Continent. (Ref: Extracted from Forward written by then The Deputy President and currently the President of the Republic of Kenya H.E. Dr William Ruto) Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 25 Points to Note • Since public procurement accounts for an overwhelming share of public spending, open and transparent procurement processes increase value for money in public spending. • Open government promotes the appropriate use of public resources. • Tackling corruption is notoriously difficult, but if information is increasingly reaching citizens and the media, and officials are acknowledging its accuracy, that can help fight corruption. • Over time, with a holistic approach tailored to the context, open government may help change behaviors so that public resources are directed not to the pockets of individuals but rather to the common good. Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 26 Artificial Intelligence: maximizing benefits of adopting open science and open government. • If used correctly and used together with human management and decisionmaking, governments can also use AI to address development challenges • AI can potentially contribute $13 trillion to the global economy by 2030, according to a 2018 report by McKinsey & Company. At least 50 governments have developed or are in the process of developing an AI strategy • In most of the World Bank’s client countries, a lack of awareness of the potential of AI, inadequate foundational digital technologies, low availability or quality of data, and low access to digital skills, are the major barriers to AI adoption Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 27 Cont…. • AI policy incorporating legislative foundations, institutional arrangements and a governance framework for the use of AI could provide the necessary enabling environment. • To manage the risks and maximize the opportunities of adopting AI in the public sector, government needs to prepare an AI policy and governance frameworks to help guide the ethical use of AI and to provide clarity about AI principles and priorities, such a framework may also be grounded in legislation so that the rights of data providers are clear and protected, and the ethical use of data for algorithms and machine determined processes are specified in law and regulations. • Three key concepts that constitute the building blocks for adopting AI are: ✓ a whole-of-government architecture; ✓ interoperability; and ✓data standardization. Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 28 Examples of AI use cases in the public sector • Citizen Engagement. • The introduction of AI tools such as chatbots that answer citizen queries, AI was able to analyze citizen sentiments • Robotic Process Automation (RPA) • Cost-Effective • Accuracy & Quality -RPA offers improved services to processes that have a high probability of human error, thereby increasing accuracy • Consistency- Robotics is a safe, non-invasive technology each time and every time • Improved Analytics- Having access to error-free, accurate data • Increased Employee Productivity • Increased Customer Satisfaction - Delivering better quality of work with high accuracy • Faster- Robots handle and execute a larger amount of work in a shorter time than humans Open Science and Open Government- Prof Muliaro Wafula 29 Thank you