Digital Nations Data 360° Declaration

Preamble

The Digital Nations Data 360° Declaration (“the Declaration”) arises through the evolving role of government in the digital era. Governments are generating, collecting and processing an increasing volume of data, resulting in the need to enhance government processes, capacities and governance while ensuring appropriate protection of the rights of individuals.

Rooted in the principles of the Digital Nations Charter, the Declaration lays out a common data vision on how governments create, collect, manage, govern, share and use data, with the aim of improving service delivery, better informing decision-making, enhancing operations,  promoting innovative research and development, and fostering trust through transparency and accountability. This vision emphasizes the need for a holistic view of data management.

Members of the Digital Nations recognise and affirm the common data vision and data principles laid out in the Declaration, and will work together fostering collaboration, sharing challenges, and identifying areas for active cooperation (where practical and feasible).

Common Data Vision

We recognise data as an asset that forms the foundation of digital government in the 21st century. We should strive to use data for the public good.

We recognise the potential for data to enable new forms of interaction between citizens and the state and to drive innovation in service delivery, dynamic evidence-based policy making, and public sector efficiencies. We also recognise that human rights, ethics and accountability must be fully considered in the development of data.

We recognise the critical role of data in addressing economic, social, political and environmental challenges, and the use of data as an enabler of economic prosperity and development as well as social well-being.  We recognise the importance of human centric data governance and the harm that could come to individuals from the compromise of personal data, and will ensure to apply appropriate security and privacy mechanisms to avoid it.

We aim to promote international policy discussions to harness the full potential of data for the public good and ensure that considerations such as public trust, privacy, security and innovation are balanced for a sustainable data future. We recognise the importance of supporting data owners in identifying new and innovative public data services that can be shared and used by several countries.

Data Principles

Accessibility: We will seek to make data assets accessible and discoverable, where appropriate, in order to help unlock their full value.

Human Rights, Ethics and Accountability: We will seek to ensure that data is responsibly, legally and sustainably collected, managed, governed and used, consistent with human rights, including in the context of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. We will also seek to ensure that guidelines exist to protect against potentially negative outcomes from the misuse of data.

Fitness for Purpose: We will seek to ensure that data is of high quality, described and used in the context it is intended for, and in a proportionate manner.

Data Flow: We will seek to promote data interoperability within and beyond the public sector, as well as alignment with agreed upon international data exchange standards.

Open by Default Approach: We will seek to work towards making data easily accessible and available for the public to discover, access, and use under an open license, unless there is a specific, legitimate reason why that data cannot be made open, and that reason is clearly communicated to the public as needed.

Privacy and Data Security: We will seek to ensure data is collected, managed, shared, and used, providing an appropriate level of data security, confidentiality, privacy, integrity and availability.