Category Archives: oa.development

Digital Bangladesh: How Research Data Defines Development – The Scholarly Kitchen

Posted on by

“Before the 2008 general election, the political party Bangladesh Awami League proposed a concept called the ‘Vision 2021’ in its election manifesto. As the party assumed power in 2009, the vision was translated into a perspective plan for 2010?2021. Both the vision and the plan envisaged Bangladesh becoming a middle-income country by 2021 – the year the nation will celebrate 50 years of independence. It was further realized that ICT-based economic development would be a crucial aspect of attaining that vision. That insight led into the idea of a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ and allowed plans, resources and execution to make it real.

Ten years on, Bangladesh’s digitalization has now evolved through numerous avenues. Four paths, however, remain at the core. The first is to prepare the citizens to capitalize on the amazing opportunities the ICT sector has to offer, through many capacity development initiatives. Bangladesh has 16% of the world’s online workers, which ranks it second in the world following India (24%). A report suggests there are about half a million active ICT freelancers, together earning US$ 100 million per year….”

UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER)

Posted on by

“[T]he UNESCO OER Recommendation has five objectives: (i) Building capacity of stakeholders to create access, use, adapt and redistribute OER; (ii) Developing supportive policy; (iii) Encouraging inclusive and equitable quality OER; (iv) Nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER; and (v) Facilitating international cooperation….”

Open Data and Open Access – CGIAR

Posted on by

“CGIAR is committed to the widespread dissemination of the results of its research and activities. CGIAR has made a strong commitment to open access and open data (OA-OD), and all Centers have signed CGIAR’s 2013 Open Access and Data Management Policy. The rationale behind OA-OD is to achieve the maximum impact to advantage the poor, especially smallholder farmers in developing countries….”

Health and medical research for all: The challenge remains open

Posted on by

“Five years ago, we commented that “open access to medical research has become more complicated than just choosing an idealistic new journal over regressive old ones”, referring to the labyrinth of hybrid subscription and article processing charge publishing models that exists, often disingenuously crafted so as to protect the business models of for-profit publishers. This unhelpful situation prevails today and prevents access in a fashion that could honestly be described as “open”, for many readers, to a large proportion of newly published research papers. We hope that the ongoing initiative Plan S—supported by the research funder group cOAlition S—will be able to resolve this issue by 2021….”

Contextualizing Openness: Situating Open Science | IDRC – International Development Research Centre

Posted on by

“Contextualizing Openness offers a fascinating look at Open Science and the democratization of knowledge in international development and social transformation with a focus on the Global South. This volume presents contri­butions from the 12 projects that form the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet) organized around four central themes: Defining Open Sci­ence in Development, Governing Open Science, Negotiat­ing Open Science, and Expanding Open Science for Social Transformation. The collective goal is to illustrate how the opportunities and challenges associated with openness vary across regions and, further, to identify the key dif­ferences that characterize the actors, institutions, as well as the infrastructure and governance of knowledge-based resources in highly diverse settings.

To understand the movement toward Open Science and its impact on the thinking and practices that drive development, we must challenge the asymmetry of global knowledge production and of access to this knowledge. Contextualizing Open­ness aims to stimulate further research and debates about how to collectively design a knowledge system that is open and equitable for all….”

Contextualizing Openness: Situating Open Science | IDRC – International Development Research Centre

Posted on by

“Contextualizing Openness offers a fascinating look at Open Science and the democratization of knowledge in international development and social transformation with a focus on the Global South. This volume presents contri­butions from the 12 projects that form the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet) organized around four central themes: Defining Open Sci­ence in Development, Governing Open Science, Negotiat­ing Open Science, and Expanding Open Science for Social Transformation. The collective goal is to illustrate how the opportunities and challenges associated with openness vary across regions and, further, to identify the key dif­ferences that characterize the actors, institutions, as well as the infrastructure and governance of knowledge-based resources in highly diverse settings.

To understand the movement toward Open Science and its impact on the thinking and practices that drive development, we must challenge the asymmetry of global knowledge production and of access to this knowledge. Contextualizing Open­ness aims to stimulate further research and debates about how to collectively design a knowledge system that is open and equitable for all….”

No borders on knowledge? WIPO debates key question | EIFL

Posted on by

“EIFL will join copyright experts, librarians, educators and government representatives in Geneva to debate a key question facing libraries, archives and museums today: will copyright barriers to accessing knowledge be removed?…

In developing countries, where easy access to knowledge is critical for education and socio-economic development, the situation is particularly acute. For example, out of 53 countries surveyed in Africa in the WIPO study by Professor Kenneth Crews, 13 countries have no exception for libraries, only one country allows inter-library document delivery, and no countries permit cross-border exchange. …”

 

Guidelines on the development of open educational resources policies – UNESCO Digital Library

Posted on by

“UNESCO believes that universal access to high-quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue. In 2015, the framework for action for the Sustainable Development Goal focused on education (SDG 4) was adopted with a vision to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.’ …

These guidelines for policy-makers and other stakeholders lay out steps to review, analyse, develop, implement and measure a context-relevant OER policy. They guide but do not determine what governments and involved actors should do in a specific set of circumstances. Instead, they provide a comprehensive framework for governments and institutions to set out their vision and the scope of their policy, then develop a policy masterplan and launch it….”

$100M health initiative aims to democratize data science | Devex

Posted on by

“On Wednesday, the Rockefeller Foundation announced a new effort to prevent 6 million maternal and child deaths in 10 countries by 2030.

Launched on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, and on the heels of the U.N. High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, the $100 million Precision Public Health initiative aims to ensure that frontline health workers have access to data science tools such as predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning….”

$100M health initiative aims to democratize data science | Devex

Posted on by

“On Wednesday, the Rockefeller Foundation announced a new effort to prevent 6 million maternal and child deaths in 10 countries by 2030.

Launched on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, and on the heels of the U.N. High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, the $100 million Precision Public Health initiative aims to ensure that frontline health workers have access to data science tools such as predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning….”