The Kenyan government announced that it had won the bid to host the sixth International Open Data Conference (IODC) in 2020, to be held in Nairobi
The announcement of the conference, to be held for the first time in Africa, was made at the closing ceremony of the fifth IODC in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The conference is a bi-annual gathering of Open Data champions from government, civil society, academia, innovators and others to share, learn and collaborate on policies, technologies, tactics, tools and platforms to make data more open, accessible, available and interoperable to support development priorities.
The IODC aims to push collaboration and increase the impact of open data activities globally, across different workstreams such as agriculture, health, education, gender and fiscal transparency.
Deputy President William Ruto has previously affirmed the government’s commitment to the creation of an inclusive data ecosystem involving the government, the private sector, academia, civil society, local communities, and development partners that tackles the information aspects of development decision-making.
Rudi Borrmann, undersecretary for public innovation and open government, Argentina's ministry for modernisation, noted, “This will be an excellent opportunity to share lessons learnt on hosting such an auspicious gathering with Kenya, but most importantly, a practical opportunity to strengthen the South-South collaboration. We look forward to advising and working with the Government of Kenya in the successful hosting of IODC in 2020.”
The 2020 conference with the theme “Bridging Data Communities” is expected to bring more than 3,000 participants to Nairobi from more than 100 countries. Additionally, more than 50 international technology companies will participate and exhibit at the conference.
Dr Korir Sing’Oei, legal advisor and head of policy, office of the deputy president, said, “The next International Open Data Conference will be a tremendous opportunity for the African continent to showcase impact on how it has harnessed the power of data, technology and innovation, to respond to the age-old challenges of our populations. With this opportunity to host the next IODC in 2020, we are signalling Africa’s readiness to play a leading role in bridging the different data communities to deliver the benefits of data to our economies and leave no one behind.”
