[OKFN-NP] Preliminary Agenda for Nepal 3 day OGD workshop

Fri Aug 7 16:57:59 UTC 2015

Dear Bibhusan,

thanks for your comments and questions and please accept my apologies for being slow in answering them. Se comments inline.

> On 30 Jul 2015, at 07:58, Bibhusan Bista <bibhusan at yipl.com.np> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for sharing the workshop agenda with me. It looks really great to me. I have some generic feedbcak/queries/comments as below. 
> 
> 1. What are the kind of participants we are looking at (eg. is it only for gov officials or is it also open for larger CSO and Open Data communities, including techhies ?)

We target all relevant stakeholders. With your help we have created this list of CSO representatives that we are considering to be invited:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ObibwC7rukRfQFKYfIxVqQXBDDclQZ9RjEvMpVvT1Oc/edit

Please add if someone is missing!

> 2. What is number of participants we are aiming for (this is important because based on the number certain approach might / might not work)

55

> 3. I see tha NIC is your government counterpart for this workshop. In this context, do you see the relevance of involving other government agenceis as well (eg. National Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of federal affairs and local development, etc.). Also, what about parliamentarians ?

With NIC we have created a list of government bodies we will invite:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a6cpxHshNuEhCA1tpRx8eK-j9mwEW73Lw_VLjwOp6bg/edit#

Please note that this is a preliminary list that will be updated within the next 2 weeks. Again, comments are welcome if you think we are missing someone! 

> 4. Since most of the gov and CSO participants will be pretty naive to the entire discourse of Open Data, it might be good to have some time explaining the basic concepts right at the begining (eg. the difference between Open Data and Open Government Data)

That is absolutely important and already part of the agenda, see session "The context: e-Government, Open Government, Open Data" and "What is OGD - Concepts, principles and best practice of OGD".

> 5. I can see that you have provisions for different sectoral groups (pvt sector, gov, etc. ) speak about opportunities and challenges in different panel discussions. However, I think it would be very contextual if there was an opportunity to share open data journey in Nepal so far in some plenary session itself. This would then help people see how the workshop actually relates to initiatives that are or have happened in Nepal. 

Good point. So far we have two sessions on this: "Status Quo of OGD in Nepal" and "How to make OGD useful for Nepal". So far both to be delivered by NIC. Perhaps we should add an other one on the  open data journey from CSO perspective? Please suggest speaker!

> 6. I can see that the workshop is aimed at helping NIC come up with OGD action plan at the end. For this to happen, there needs to be a lot of preparatory consultation  done with NIC. Also, OGD action plan might not make sense if we do not have ownership from key government agencies (eg. educaiton, agriculture, finance, health, statistics bureau) who hold vital government data. So, my opinion is that they need to be constructively engaged during the workshop. 

This is a very valuable comment. our colleagues from NIC also indicated that they would love to run a series of consultative meetings to prepare before the workshop. The issue is a. short timeline and b. there is no budget for this, unfortunately. So the much I agree with you, I am not sure how this could happen. Perhaps we need to see this first workshop more as a first step, in preparation of the second workshop later this year (and in the bigger picture of other OGD activities in Nepal). 

I also agree on your comment on the commitment and ownership from key government agencies. See list above about agencies we will engage with. Again, perhaps time does not allow for this commitment to be established before the workshop but perhaps after the first and between first and second. At the end OGD is a long run. 

> 7. You've mentioned AGENCY in the agenda. Can you shed more light on who this agency is ?

This is NIC, our main counterpart within the Nepalese government and co-organiser of this workshop.

> I don't know if these make sense to you or not but these are based on my individual observation and experience. I'm happy to discuss more on it if that is helpful. 

Very, very helpful! Thank you a lot for sharing these insists. 

Questions from my side: 

1. What do we need to do to get Civil Society and Private Sector engagement for this event/mission?

2. Do you think Civil Society is sufficiently represented in the workshop? Are we missing someone? 

3. Do you have additional suggestions for the agenda? (Its still open, so please keep them coming). We could for example add a section with short project presentations (5 x 5 minutes) if this helps to showcase some of the work that is been done.

All the best
Daniel

> 
> Best,
> Bibhusan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 10:17 PM, Daniel Dietrich <ddie at ddie.me> wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> I am happy to share an update on the planned national workshop in Nepal on OGD sensitization, gap assessment and strategic planning (3-day long). The dates still need to be confirmed.
> 
> I would like to invite you to have a look at the preliminary agenda and send me your comments.
> 
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wFaeqNJja_pE0J-VW9h4zO1B_lxz0tomKHwvLZ6R-NA/edit
> 
>  It is very important for us to have significant involvement and buy-in from local civil society. So please share with e your thoughts on how to make this operational, if you have ideas how to improve the agenda so its useful to all stakeholders. You can also add comments and suggestions )(e.g. for speakers) directly in the Google doc.
> 
> The workshop is part of the project on Strengthening of capacities of developing countries to provide Access to Information for Sustainable Development through Open Government Data. See http://bit.ly/DPADM-OGDProject
> 
> Kind regards
> Daniel
> 
> 
> --
> 
> Daniel Dietrich
> UNDESA/DPADM consultant, OGD Policy Advisor
> See more: http://bit.ly/DPADM-OGDProject
> www.ddie.me | ddie at ddie.me | @ddie
> Office: +49 30 57703666 0 | Fax: - 9
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> 
> 
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> -- 
> Bibhusan Bista
> CEO
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