Case Study: US/UK open source SDGs National Reporting Platform Philip Ashlock US, General Services Administration Ann Corp UK, Office for National Statistics

Scope & Purpose of NRP National data for global indicator definitions (could expand to include national defined indicators) SDG focused (currently) Institutional ownership Data collection and dissemination (currently)

NRP Background & Features Builds on existing open source collaboration platforms like GitHub Rapidly reusable etc Security, etc Version tracking, provenance

Benefits of the Platform Open source and free – opportunity to collaborate No hardware/software investment Quick to set up Good foundation - met many NRP principles Appropriate platform for experimenting Modular and easily customizable Small feasibility study looked at what was available within ONS, external procurement and at a small number of NRPs from countries in UN NRP task force. ONS undergoing data collection transformation programme – service not yet ready to meet our needs. ONS website primarily for ONS data Little needed to set up initial UK proof of concept – github login and an existing laptop and took matter of hours (takes longer to customise, remove US data etc) Various features that met our needs already – secure login for data edits, audit trail of data changes, metadata, basic visualisations 4

Enhancements by UK NRP Disaggregations – data filtering and visualisations Data format ‘long’ (tidy) not ‘wide’ – more machine readable Meet government service standards eg – accessibility standards – browser standards New features eg search bar, enhanced charts Additional national metadata requirements Input validation to improve quality 5

Development & Maintenance Arrangements Open source intermediaries supporting the platform, e.g. Center for Open Data Enterprise Communities and institutions supporting different modular components. In house developer support Cross-border collaboration on features & fixes Jekyll, Prose, Travis, GitHub, Javascript visualization libraries, etc 6

Benefits of open source Open source helps great collaboration (started in Philadelphia) Shared expertise and code Collaboration means less overall resource required 7

What other lessons did US/UK learn? Iterative development works best Benefits of connecting with other countries Understanding data characteristics makes development easier Github is a great tool for collaboration 8

Next steps for NRP development Review data/metadata input and processing Data feeds: APIs and SDMX Exploring how to expand to sub-national data Use of GIS – users keen to see Geographical breakdowns User research to inform future developments Note US on UN SDMX project] 9

Want to copy the US/UK NRP? It’s open source and free! Online guidance and resources – US training guide, UK wiki pages Some support available through International Development Initiatives Collaboration with US/UK Other countries (e.g. Armenia, and more) International outreach and promotion – now taking forward with CODE 10

What it’s all about… “It is absolutely key that we share what we learn with other countries, and indeed we have benefitted too from sharing, as our open source reporting platform for SDGs has been developed in collaboration with the US and both countries are working with their international development teams to share our experience globally.” John Pullinger UK National Statistician 11

Contacts philip.ashlock@gsa.gov sustainabledevelopment@ons.gov.uk Email: Philip Ashlock philip.ashlock@gsa.gov  email: Ann Corp and Matt Steel sustainabledevelopment@ons.gov.uk websites https://sdg.data.gov/ https://sustainabledevelopment-uk.github.io/ 12