Author(s): Fujairah Municipality
Resource Type: Case studies
Countries: United Arab Emirates
SDG: GOAL 16. Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
Keywords: Open Data, Local Development, Transparency, Effectiveness
Open Data of Fujairah Municipality
Source in Arabic: ESCWA-OECD Case Study - Open Data of Fujairah Municipality, UAE
The Fujairah municipality has adopted the open data policy as a pioneering practice that reflects its efforts in continuous development. The open data are made available on the municipality’s online portal in a transparent way and can be accessed seamlessly. This contributes to enhancing participation and individuals’ contributions in society, increasing knowledge, and providing research and statistical information that are in line with the strategic objectives and the United Arab Emirates vision towards sustainable development.
Implementation: 2019
Contributor(s)
The Fujairah municipality provides open government data in cooperation with all federal and local authorities, such as ministries, as well as non-governmental bodies and entities among others.
Purpose
Open data contribute to achieving the following objectives:
- Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public services, promoting vital operations and supporting development.
- Enhancing transparency and accountability, reducing complaints, promoting citizens' participation in policymaking and in finding solutions to service-related problems.
- Ensuring environmental sustainability and conserving resources and avoiding their waste.
- Facilitating information sharing within the Government, improving cities and urban infrastructure, achieving smart cities and modern urban planning, and enhancing transportation and communication services.
Functions
The Fujairah municipality provides access to a huge baseline database containing data and information that support the development of transportation and infrastructure as well as the available resources. Additionally, the various display channels on the municipality's portal allow reusing and redistributing data without any restrictions. The available data simulate the institutions organizational units according to their organizational structures, and maintain their sequence and comply with the nature of their work.
Clients
Key beneficiaries of the Fujairah municipality open data are citizens, especially students and researchers, and governmental entities.
Outcome
The implementation of the Fujairah municipality open data project is still at its earliest stages, and is expected to achieve the following results:
- The number of registered users and beneficiaries of the municipality's open data portal would reach 76,000 users.
- Planning to develop a questionnaire methodology for opinion polls and to measure the opinion of users and strategic partners.
- Publishing data and expanding its coverage and availability on all service channels in the Fujairah municipality, and notably on the online portal that represents the first point of contact between beneficiaries and the service provider.
- Displaying data in a user-friendly way and in files that can be cut and uploaded.
Challenges
The adherence to the specifications is among the most prominent challenges faced by the Fujairah municipality in the field of open data. These specifications can be outlined as follows:
- Covering the services and activities of all departments of the municipality.
- Displaying data in a user-friendly way and facilitating requests for data for easy access and use.
- Allowing users to express their opinion on the published data.
- Enabling discussion between users through interaction platforms on social media.
- Organizing users' access and registration on the portal.
- Ensuring users’ commitment to use the published data responsibly.
- Delivering data in "Word" and "Excel" formats, which provide detailed information about the files, as well as enabling users to use other formats for special documents.
