1. What are the main challenges to aid effectiveness, and how does open data address these challenges? The main challenges to aid effectiveness are high complexity, enormous transaction costs, lack of strategic and holistic approaches, and lack of country ownership. High complexity involves the coordination between numerous international aid agencies, and within those aid agencies. The United States, for example, has been said to have contradictory, as well as competing, objectives within its aid system. This system, therefore, is said to be “disjointed and increasingly difficult to manage.” Enormous transaction costs are a result of too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak; the saturation of separate aid agreements and …show more content…
Through research and my own knowledge, I am well aware that India is pushing towards more Open Data initiatives. There have been several conferences and platforms that have been developed to support these objectives. Despite this, however, government agencies are not all on board and lack the understanding as to why they need to open up data about their activities. Data collection, processing, and management is also impeded by lack of financial support, personnel, and supportive infrastructure. This can lead to a lack of streamlining of necessary and high-quality data. Aside from the difficulties of this data aggregation, there needs to be more of a push towards standardizing the data. The vast number of languages and cultures within India must be able to easily understand and use the data for their purposes as a whole, and currently, the formats make this facet impossible. These users, likewise, are concerned for their privacy – and data collection has often misused and leaked personally identifiable information within India, making several users wary of the open-data system. Security and privacy measures must therefore me taken, and more of the nation’s budget should be used towards open-data