In 2012, the Ghana government launched an open data policy that aimed to promote transparency, accountability, and innovation in the public sector.
The policy outlined the principles and guidelines for publishing and accessing government data, as well as the roles and responsibilities of data providers and users.
The policy also established a national open data portal, where various datasets from different ministries, departments, and agencies will be made available for public use.
Fast forward to 2023, and it looks like the open data portal is no longer supported. So what happened?
How It Started
Ghana started discussions about open with when the government contacted the Web Foundation project in 2010. An initial partnership was established between Web Foundation and the National Information and Technology Agency (NITA) which served as the agency responsible for the project.
From that partnership, the Ghana Open Data Initiative project was formed.
In 2012, an online web platform was created in addition to a framework to promote the release of government data for public re-use.
The Ghana Government has completed its eGovernment Network Infrastructure (GovNET) project which would help with data collection and dissemination by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
The Open Data Platform
The Web Foundation was contracted and assisted NITA with technical support for the open data portal. A beta version was launched in 2012 with 100 datasets on the web and a mobile version was later launched in 2013.
A beta version of the Ghana Open Data Portal was launched with 100 datasets in November 2012 and a mobile version went live in spring 2013.
Current Status Of The Data Portal
The online portal (data.gov.gh) which housed the datasets is currently unavailable. According to background checks, the project was discontinued due to financial issues by the government at the time with the Web Foundation discontinuing its support for the project in mid-2013.
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