NFDN to develop Disability Open Data Portal

National Federation of the Disabled Nepal organized an interaction with stakeholders about the inception of “Disability Open Data Portal” on Feb 09, 2018 in Kathmandu. The program was organized with the motive of sharing NFDN’s vision of creating a portal where data and information on disability can be shared. This program was organized with the support of The Asia Foundation Nepal.

There is no doubt about lack of multi-dimensional data on disability. But what is more frustrating being -even those data that are produced by various government and non-government agencies are scattered all over the places and is not available when necessary. This had created a situation where policy makers can’t make the decisions based on data while designing programs on disability.

To try and eliminate this problem, National Federation of the Disabled Nepal is intending to develop a Disability Open Data Portal in partnership with The Asia Foundation and DFID by end of June 2018 which will collect and publish both qualitative and quantitative data that available nationally and internationally. Moreover, since this portal will follow the principle of Open Data, all the materials published in this portal will be available to anyone without any cost.

The program started with remarks from Ms. Tika Dahal, vice president of NFDN. She said that- the new initiative of NFDN to develop a data and information portal is very important because data is core of every development.

The consultation program was moderated by Mr. Manish Prasai, the Administrative Manager of NFDN. There were two presentations in the program. First one was about the overall concept and principle of Open Data presented by Mr. Krishna Sapkota an open data expert from Freedom Forum Nepal. The second presentation was NFDN’s plan about the Data Portal and was presented by Mr. Sagar Prasai, project coordinator of NFDN.

Around 40 participants from different organizations including government agencies participated in the program and presented their remarks and suggestion about Open Data Portal. overall the participants were excited about the initiation of NFDN and committed to contribute in this process.

Mr. Shudarson Subedi, National President of NFDN, thanked all the participants for their presence in the program and shared his expectation to work with all of them for this project in his closing remarks.