Public Participation in the Era of Digitalization, IT and Open Data GIFT Stewards’ Meeting Cascais, Portugal - October 15, 2018 Lorena Rivero del Paso Manager for Technical Collaboration & Cooperation lorena@fiscaltransparency.net @LorenaRDP @fiscaltrans

The Potential of Technology for Fiscal Openness Technology for technology sake is not useful to enable public participation, but used correctly it is our most powerful tool for fiscal openness, understood both as transparency and participation. Elements of e-participation measured by the U.N. are: the provision of information on the internet, online public consultations, and involving citizens directly in decision processes. Reimagining public conversations in terms of who is involved and how they can participate.

Tools of e-participation The ever changing nature requires both curiosity and data analysis to help define what works, and what can be done better next time. Websites, SMS, Open Data Social media, Apps Artificial Intelligence

Building bridges through fiscal transparency portals Document availability Open Budget Survey 2017: Of the 920 documents that should have been published online in a timely manner, only 561 were. Of the 561, 203 documents are produced, but are internal in hard copy or released too late.

Building bridges through fiscal transparency portals: Mexico Open Fiscal Data Package: Budget allocations and expenditures Open Contracting Extractive Industries Performance indicators Citizen budget Public works

Building a bridge through Open Data While Open data might sound specialized, it is one of the most important enablers of fiscal information use.

Building a bridge through Open Data Open data is NOT only for IT specialized users. Open data is useful for internal and external users. Different topics, interests and forms of analysis. Budget Revenue Construction Contracting Extractives Performance

Building a bridge through Open Data Digital data of a public nature that is accessible online and that can be used, reused or redistributed by any person. Open Data Barometer Open Budget 9/35 Australia Germany Mexico New Zealand Paraguay Russia South Korea United Kingdom Uruguay Open Spend only 4/35 Canada Mexico United Kingdom Uruguay

Building a bridge through Open Data: Open Fiscal Data Package Open Fiscal Data Package allows to have easy access, comparable and updated information.

Building a bridge through Open Data: Open Fiscal Data Package Basis to connect other relevant data.

Building a bridge through social media Apps and Portals have a tendency to try to take the user away from the platforms they already use in daily life. +2.2 Billion active +336 Million active

Building a bridge through social media Social media stopped being just a one way communication tool that goes from government to citizen. Public participation spectrum

Building a bridge through social media: Observatorio del Gasto Fiscal Chile Tool for governments and civil society organizations. Create engagement with information. Go beyond the “usual suspects”.

…Building a bridge through Artificial Intelligence AI is, by far, not only for robots. …Building a bridge through Artificial Intelligence

Building a bridge through Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence allows us to understand better our user and connect the information with the users own terms of search. It surrounds our daily life Big Data analysis E-assistants Chatbots Translation services It is not futuristic as it sounds. There are tools out that allow us to implement: RapidPro - UNICEF Core NLP- Stanford Dialogflow – Google Google Cloud Natural Language API Watson – IBM

Building a bridge through Artificial Intelligence Open Data Bring analytics to government domains where it’s currently underutilized. Improve the performance of existing analytic technologies, like computer vision and time series analysis. Break down barriers, including language barriers.

Building a bridge through Artificial Intelligence

Engage with us! @fiscaltrans @fiscaltransparency www.fiscaltransparency.net