BK joins PWYP Data Extractors Program in Jakarta

Bantay Kita, represented by its Communications and Research Officer Marco Zaplan, participated in an open data workshop held in Jakarta, Indonesia last November 24-26.

The Data Extractors Program is a global initiative of the Publish What You Pay International. It is a one-year long project which aims for its participants to learn how to use and take advantage of open data through workshops and peer learning. The program accepted thirteen data extractors coming from Niger, United Kingdom, Mongolia, USA, Indonesia, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, France and the Philippines.

The workshop introduced the participants to the importance of open data and how to use it in their advocacies and campaigns. The participants were also acquainted to various tools in finding, extracting, cleaning, analyzing, and presenting data.

BK shared its experience in using PH-EITI data in its lobbying efforts in the Philippine Congress for the passage of House Bill 5843 last August 2015.

Each data extractor is required by the program to come up with a project and a complimentary case study on how their respective PWYP coalitions use open data in their work. For thsi program, BK is set to initiate projects that would raise capacities of civil society organization in analyzing open data in the extractive industries in the coming months.
​
A second workshop will be held tentatively in the African continent next year.