The 6thInternational Open Data Conference (IODC) will be held in Africa for the first time, in Nairobi, Kenya. The Announcement was made at the closing ceremony of this years’ IODC being held in Buenos Aires, Argentina under the theme “The Future is Open”.
The International Open Data Conference (IODC) is a bi-annual premier gathering of champions on Open Data from Government, Civil Society, Academia, innovators etc to share, learn and collaborate on policies, technologies, tactics, tools and platforms for making data more open, accessible, available and interoperable in support of development priorities;
The IODC exists to accelerate collaboration and increase the impact of open data activities globally, across different work streams such as Agriculture, health, education, gender and fiscal transparency. The Government of Spain, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the World Bank, and the Open Data for Development Network (OD4D) have been the curators of the Conference for the last 10 years. The Fifth IODC held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from September 27 – 28, 2018, was organized by the Government of Argentina, the World Bank, IDRC and OD4D with the support of Google, amongst others.
Dr. Korir Sing’oei, legal advisor to the Deputy President, in receiving the button to host #IODC20, on behalf of Kenya, stated that “We are indeed humbled and honoured to be entrusted with the next International Open Data Conference, which 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 conference, 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.”
Mr Rudi Borrmann, Undersecretary for Public Innovation and Open Government, Argentina’s Ministry for Modernization noted that “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 South-South Collaboration. We look forward to advising and working with the Government of Kenya in the successful hosting of IODC in 2020.”
