Kathmandu, March 23 

A workshop on ‘Data for Development in Nepal’ was organised here today.

During the programme, various government officials, information access experts and youth entrepreneurs talked about the importance of right to information and open government data for making the government accountable and transparent.

Addressing the programme, Chief Information Commissioner Krishna Hari Baskota said open government data would help monitor government’s activities and promote good governance. “We are working on the implementation of the right to information more effectively.

Following the constitution promulgation in 2015 and successful completion of three levels of elections, Nepal is in the process of implementing federalism.

The constitution have guaranteed the right to information as a fundamental right. It recognises the right of citizens to demand and obtain information held by public agencies on any matter of public importance.  The Right to Information Act require public organisations to disclose 20 different types of information, including essential information about government agencies, their functions, services, and decision-making processes and share information about its activities every three month in open data format through any medium.

In the context of federal Nepal, access to reliable and timely information will be critical for citizens to participate effectively in local-level decision-making and to hold their locally elected leaders to account. “The government must stay closer to citizens. This can be possible if the government is more open. RTI plays an important role in making the government accountable,” said Kiran Pokhrel, National Information Commissioner.

Similarly, chief executive officer at Bikash Udhyami Santosh Ghartaula has been working to record government data on nepalindata.com for a year now. “We have been recording the government data. All these data are the property of the government and we want support from the government in this regard, he added.