Pedro Crespo Flandoli, an Ecuadorian YLAI Fellow from 2017, recently attended the Open Government Partnership meeting in Argentina. We asked him to share some of his thoughts on transparency, good governance, and the importance of the access to information. These are his words:
Nowadays there are very few tools that allow us to understand in depth the social dynamics and their infinite variables from a clear and simple perspective. Information generated by institutions, departments and public entities is very limited or is presented in ways in which its usefulness is minimal or nil.
One of the main challenges for governments in the coming year will be to design policies, plans and projects that gather relevant information, not only for decision-making, but also for having useful information to design and redesign models or initiatives that can creatively improve the life of the people impacted by limited access to information.
Access to public data must be a right for any citizen or social organization required to carry out projects that complement public management, always keeping strict control over the confidentiality and purpose of such information. For example, nonprofit organizations and companies should guarantee a win-win between the public and private sectors when executing initiatives that could only be accomplished thanks to public data.
Any government that gathers relevant and useful information, which should be used in a creative way to generate projects of public interest with high impact, will be able to innovate and create well-being through public data.
As young leaders we are called to go beyond demanding transparency in public management and ask governments to design policies that, in addition to having a positive impact in our society, will open the door for new generations of social innovators to use this public data to generate creative and state-of-the-art solutions for the always-changing social needs.
Pedro Crespo Flandoli is the Founder and Executive Director of Mikhuna Banco de Alimentos, a food bank in Ecuador. Mikhuna addresses food insecurity and food waste by redistributing excess food to low-income neighborhoods, providing nutritious food for a low price. Pedro is currently a Sales Manager at La Motora and the Founder and General Manager of Observatorio de los Derechos de los Animales.
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