Spurring innovation through Open Government Data for Africa

Open Government data initiatives form part of e-Government agenda for various countries as they are considered to favour innovation in various sectors, including Education, Agriculture and Tourism, amongst others. In countries with Government data portals, it is observed that there has been an improvement in the e-Government index due to increased interaction with Citizens. This has led to innovation, whereby increased mobile applications have been developed; transparency and accountability have been demonstrated on the part of the Governments. Four African countries have embarked on Open Government Data initiatives and most of them are enjoying economic gains. In this paper, the benefits of implementing Open Government data is demonstrated using the futures thinking methodology, which helps in taking a glimpse into the future. Futures techniques, namely futures wheel and causal layered analysis, are used to explore the benefits with respect to implementation of Open Government Data.