OECD: Avanza Plan Study report
The Spanish Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Information Society Francisco Ros and the Director for Public Administration and Development, OECD Territorial, Rolf Alter jointly presented the report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Development Plan Avanza Society Information in Spain.
The report titled: OECD Information Society Reviews Good Governance for Digital Policies: How to Get the Most Out of ICT - The Case of Spain’s Plan Avanza (152 pages) states in the Forward:
“At the request of the Government of Spain, specifically from the State Secretariat for Telecommunications and the Information Society (the SSTIS), the OECD has conducted a Peer Review of Plan Avanza (“the Plan”), the country’s strategy for the advancement of the Information Society. The objectives of the review were two-fold:
- Examining the main results of Plan Avanza, specifically, with regards to citizens, businesses and the Spanish public administration;
- Assessing the performance of the strategy in terms of its responsiveness to stakeholders’ needs, the effectiveness of the governance tools used for vertical and horizontal co-ordination amongst government actors, and the alignment of policy instruments with high-level objectives and strategic priorities.
Analysis of these issues has been based on (i) desk research and sub-national and international benchmarking of key information society indicators; (ii) interviews with government officials and staff from several ministries, regional and local governments, and civil society, as well as; (iii) a survey of Plan Avanza stakeholders from several sectors and levels of government.”
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With respect to the public sector information re-use framework (EU Directive 2003/98/CE Spanish transposition Law 37/2007) the report at Box 4.4 states:
“Box 4.4 ICTs for increasing public sector transparency
Although policies aimed at promoting the reutilisation of public data are relatively nascent in Spain, important first steps have been made under the auspices of the national Information Society strategy Plan Avanza 2 (2010-2015). The most prominent example is a project launched in early 2009, Aporta, a user-friendly repository and search engine similar to that of the United States’ data.gov. Aporta (literally meaning to “contribute” or “share” in Spanish) has a budget of EUR 1 million, allocated to the construction and maintenance of an online portal (www.aporta.es). Government organisations can upload data and share with citizens, businesses and other public sector organisations. The project also seeks to stimulate take-up of this tool, by funding informative and capacity-building sessions for citizens, SMEs and civil servants.
Aporta demonstrates Spain’s intentions to follow the trend of other EU countries to encourage open government, with the goals of fostering public sector co-operation and innovation; increasing transparency and interoperability; and generating new opportunities for social and commercial gain. Spurred by the EU law 2003/98/CE, national legislation followed in Spain with law 37/2007 of the 16th of November, which also governs the conditions under which data can be shared and used. Indeed, Plan Avanza 2 includes open government as one of its strategic objectives, though specific initiatives beyond Aporta are in early stages development.
Spain’s 17 autonomous communities are also following suit. Pais Vasco for instance is one of the first regional governments to launch its own website http://opendata.euskadi.net/w79-home/es/. Thus far, some of the solutions developed from re-use of public data have included wikis and geographic information systems that compile tourism and cultural information of interest, as well as customisable widgets.
Though not unique to Spain, challenges remain to increase the exploitation of re-use opportunities. This will require specific measures to:
- foster a culture of information-sharing in the public sector
- increase awareness of the potential benefits of open government and re-use of public data
- ensure that uploaded information shared is of value to users
- help link these initiatives to strategies/procedures for performance management
Source: OECD, based on information provided by the SSTIS.
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A materials from the workshop was held in Madrid on the 18th November 2009 titled: Workshop on Common Challenges and Shared Solutions: Good Governance in Information Society Strategies: The case study of Spain, have been published that contributed to the study.
Spanish Government continues as European leader on PSI
Spanish Aporta Project Bridging the Re-use Cultural Divide
Re-use legal framework in Spain
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