As building capacity of government officials, CSOs and
journalist remains important in the data liberation evangelism, the Follow The Money team focused more on their data
expedition class on Open Data Day held at CODE with 28 participants. They
include government officials from Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
[NEITI], National Space Research and Development Agency [NASRDA], and the FCT Mass
Education Board, participants from the private sector, the media and CSOs. With
Oludotun Babayemi, a data enthusiast taking the participant through basics of
data design, data cleaning and publishing data, participants were thrilled having
insights on how to use data to tell stories “I have been bundle with so much
information today, and I appreciate this session, I now know where to get data
from and how to use spreadsheet for collaboration” explained an excited
Chinyere Opia from HOT FM
Demonstrating
the practical session at the Education Hackathon was quite strategic to use in
complimenting the practical sessions that went into training participants on
sorting, filtering and cleaning data. The Hackathon allowed participants to
filter and sort Nigeria data on Education within datasets downloaded from the
World Bank project sites, and also update mapping of funds from the budget
office on capital expenditures meant for federal education institutions in
Nigeria. [LOOK] how one of the participant
described #ODDAbuja
In
Nigeria, billions of Naira has been spent [through government spending and
international aid] on infrastructures on education that, often wouldn't reach
the community [Please read achieving the MDG goals in Nigeria] that it was
meant for. "Infact we have many challenges, One I will like to say is
government providing books and infrastructures that will make the children to
learn, and also levies on children which at times they might not be able to
afford" says Blessing Hassana [Watch the video], Principal of a secondary school in Nasarawa state
[that's a state just 20km away from the capital city, Abuja], what will happen
in other states? Perhaps, this says much about why there are still about 10
million out of school children in Nigeria.
With
the Education Budget Tracker still being curated for
government spending and international aid, the strategy is to focus on how many
education projects are operational in these communities. This Education Budget
Tracker which allows for education point mapping has huge potential as an
effective monitoring and management tool for planning and decision making. It
can really help government and funding agencies to know where to focus more on.
Some places might need infrastructure, while some its maintenance and others
might be training.
In
this way, the Ministry of Education and other donor agencies will be able to
monitor the impact of its large investments in the education sector. It will
also allow transparent tariff settings that reward good performance and
highlight inefficiencies. Moreover, it is interesting to know that this tool
allows trusted local people to provide information about the education service
delivery in their communities using their mobile phones. “Going forward for us,
the Follow the Money team is seeking partnership with interested entities to
pilot the usage of this tool in one of the states with poor education
performance index in northern Nigeria” says Hamzat Lawal while demonstrating
how we intend to use the tool to participants.
The
Open Data Day evening session started with a brief introduction of the Digital Humanitarian Network and how its members have
been using technologies before, during and after emergencies. How CODE intends to engage organizations and
communities interested in emergency response across the West African region
using technology was highlighted and some government participants were quite
interested and keen in how CODE will integrate crisis mapping into their
situation awareness room. “It is quite interesting to know that CODE is leading
innovative ideas in the region to help in early warning and emergency response,
it will be great to showcase this to the National Emergency Management Agency
[NEMA]” advised Godstime James of the National Agency for Space Research and
Development.
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