A new journey

ODC’s new Network Director

by Agus De Luca

I have always been a deep believer in the power of data for social change. Only informed societies can monitor public institutions and participate in public matters, and only governments that use data for decision-making processes and programs evaluation can actually deliver better public policies and be accountable to citizens. That has been my premise since I was very young, and what then motivated me to work for my whole professional career in civil society organizations, with a strong belief in the role of CSOs in pushing for better and more accountable public institutions.

After working for almost eight years in Directorio Legislativo, an Argentinean-based CSO which aims for legislative openness in the Americas, I am thrilled to have started a new journey as the Network Director at the Open Data Charter as from November 26th.

My previous experience allowed me to engage with local, regional and global leaders, participate in the design of globals standards for Open Parliament policies, lead Argentina’s CSOs participation in several advocacy projects (OGP action plans, FOIA legislative process, open assets disclosure, among others), deliver a high amount of civic projects to increase openness and public accountability and participate in the strategic design of an organization who has always been increasing its scope and impact.

The Charter has been through a deep strategic refresh through 2018, in order to update it’s principles and re-engage with the open data community. After public consultations, workshops and thorough review, in 2019 we will be implementing the set objectives, and my specific role will be to support the new approach and encourage new partnerships and community building to enhance the impact of the Charter’s strategy. We will seek for more government adopters and endorsers of the Charter, develop more and better support materials to help the Charter’s local implementation, create better connections among our network members, increase our communications and gather success stories, and strengthening the openness community overall.

I am a strong believer of collaboration and peer exchange to deliver better outcomes and achieve real transformation. I am eager to learn from an international environment with outstanding champions, CSOs, governments, researchers and people from different backgrounds and latitudes who are always pushing borders even further, and work tireless for the use of technology and innovation to achieve more accountable and transparent governments and social justice. Hope to enjoy the journey together!