Beyond transparency
Honduras adopts the Open Data Charter
Por Open Data Charter
“Transparency is disseminating public information; open data goes a step further” — Alfredo Cantero, Minister of Transparency of Honduras.
With this statement, Honduras formalized their adoption of the Open Data Charter, becoming the 69th government to join a global network of leaders and reformers that are opening up data following a shared set of principles.
Since 2011, when Honduras joined the Open Government Partnership and after co-creating four National Action Plans, the government has been working to expand the scope of open government policies across three branches of government and oversight bodies. With the Access to Public Information Institute and the Council’s Association, Honduras signed a Declaration to Consolidate Honduras as a Open State, reaffirming their commitment to fight against corruption, promote transparency and citizen participation and build trust in public institutions.
Notably, as part of these commitments, Honduras will“promote access to public information, accountability and use of open data”, including a commitment in the IV NAP: Nº 3 on “Open Data for use and benefit of the citizenry”.
By adopting the Open Data Charter, Honduras is moving this vision forward, committing to passing a participatory Open Data Policy, launching an open data portal by August 2020, together with continuous training for the use of data in benefit of their citizens, .
“The Open Data Charter is a sign of the will of the Honduran government to open data to the public,” Cantero said at the official ceremony. He added: “in the next quarter, the ICF will begin to publish data on the forestry sector and the CEFIN on the use of the budget”.
We are thrilled to welcome Honduras to the Charter network and look forward to working together to prove open data can deliver on its potential and to mitigate the risks we see, such as balancing open data efforts with privacy, commercial interests and security concerns, in order to instil a culture of openness and accountability in how data is collected, shared and used within governments and society more broadly.
