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OECD paper on private-public collaboration on geospatial data

Find out how private geospatial data can be used to inform policy decisions

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently published its 38th Regional Development paper on governance and economics at urban and rural levels. The paper mentions the lessons from OECD countries on private-public collaboration using geospatial data and highlights the potential of combining traditional and unconventional data from both sources to facilitate cooperation between data providers and organisations responsible for public policy.

One of the key findings of the paper is that the private geospatial data is frequently unavailable due to privacy concerns, thus making public and private data partnerships challenging. Barriers also arise from the public's reluctance to share their data and the absence of a systematic strategy to encourage responsible use. Moreover, private sector companies usually share only a subset of a larger data pool, either to capitalize on profit opportunities or because they are unable to see the mutual benefits of data sharing. Next to that, the availability of granular and aggregated geospatial data, especially in uniform units, provides an opportunity to develop consistent statistical indicators to inform policy. Additionally, the paper found out that private organizations are developing open-source tools to facilitate access to data and promote reproducible workflows for complex datasets."

Based on its findings, the paper suggests that governments leverage public-private partnerships in geospatial data to develop regulatory frameworks and to achieve data literacy within their organisations. Governments could also benefit from promoting open data policies that encourage individuals and organisations to innovate and collaborate in new ways.

Open data platforms such as data.europa.eu make public and private data available through data-sharing partnerships to inform data-based policy making. Read the recap of our webinars on geospatial data harvesting and  geospatial trends on our website. Also find our geospatial data and API delivery course material on data.europa academy.

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