OECD Webinar: From Data Stewardship, Access, Sharing and Control to National Data Strategies

Jeni spoke on the panel: Measures for fostering trust and addressing unjustified barriers to data openness.

Given the benefits of digitalisation and data openness and the legitimate concerns and risks, it is fundamental to build effective and trustworthy data governance arrangements (e.g. regulations, policies and practices). Without effective approaches, stakeholders can face significant barriers when trying to access, share and re-use data within and across organisations, sectors and jurisdictions.

Some of these restrictions are put in place to address the risk of data openness (e.g. the violation of privacy, data protection, and intellectual property rights) and necessary to reinforce the trust needed to enable data openness. However, others may be unjustified and may create unintended barriers that disproportionately limit the social and economic potential of data. This in turn can result in significant social and economic opportunity costs and in some cases even unethical outcomes, for instance, where access to, sharing and re-use of health-relevant data needed to address health crises such as the current COVID-19 pandemic are prevented.

This session will focus on measures for fostering trust and addressing unjustified barriers to data openness. It will address questions such as:

• How can we address common legal, technical and organisational barriers faced by stakeholders?
• How can we effectively incentive and enable responsible data access, sharing and re-use across sectors?
• What lessons can we learn from data access and sharing initiatives across sectors?