Bahrain’s Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) drives digital and statistical transparency through data.gov.bh data marketplace
monthly API calls
datasets
public entities
Company profile
The Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) leads Bahrain’s digital and statistical transformation. It provides the backbone for the digital services provided by public sector entities in the Kingdom, including hosting, operating, and managing the government’s ICT systems.
Sector
Local government
Location
Middle East
Bahrain’s Information & eGovernment Authority aims to meet rapidly increasing demand for digital services, with the government looking to turn the country into the leading digital economy in the region and support the needs of its growing population of more than 1.5 million people.
We understands the importance of open data to digital transformation, and its role in increasing collaboration, innovation, transparency, and data-driven decision-making. To achieve this, iGA realized the need for a central location for all public entities to share data, externally and across government.
"By making public data available to all, we unlock its full potential, and foster more informed and engaged citizens. Increased transparency enables innovation and collaboration with external developers and entrepreneurs to thrive, delivering better insights to support decision-making and creating a data-driven ecosystem that benefits everyone, both within and outside of the governmental sector."
A single data marketplace for all of Bahrain's data
As part of our strategy to digitize Bahrain’s government, the iGA has five key objectives:
- Make information readily available online to all
- Provide user-friendly platforms to ensure data is easily accessible
- Create a central information hub for all services
- Encourage citizens to participate in decision-making
Meet government and United Nations standards on opening public data To achieve these aims, the iGA selected Huwise’s data product marketplace technology to underpin its portal. Launched in June 2023, the Kingdom of Bahrain’s open data portal brings together data from 36 public entities, including the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, and the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA), among others. Available in Arabic and English, the data on the portal is currently organized into 30 themes or topics.
Delivering insight for investors and entrepreneurs
The most popular current datasets focus on population demographics and economics. These are used extensively by investors looking to establish new businesses in Bahrain, enabling them to accurately pinpoint the best locations for restaurants, entertainment businesses and educational facilities, based on the ages of local populations, existing facilities, and their spending habits.
Previously finding this information required investors to speak to the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI), which had to research and provide it manually. Accessing it directly via the data marketplace saves time for investors and increases the BCCI’s efficiency.
Increasing collaboration within the government
Information can now be seamlessly exchanged between government departments to improve collaboration, boost efficiency, and save time. For example, the Ministry of Works, responsible for roads and infrastructure, can now easily
access geospatial and demographic information on population and existing energy, water, and telecoms infrastructure, via the portal, without needing to request it from dierent departments.
This streamlines the process of planning new construction, increasing productivity and reducing time and cost. Members of parliament and the Council of Representatives are able to access relevant data and information via the unified portal in order to evaluate options, make policy decisions, and frame new laws and regulations.
Empowering citizens and residents with data
Citizens and visitors now have access to all government-held information in a single place. This increases transparency and accountability, while also helping them in their daily lives. For example, the data marketplace was extensively used by citizens and residents during Ramadan to find restaurants for their Iftar “evening meal,” with interactive maps showing locations, establishment types, and cuisine.
Transforming data discovery through AI-based semantic searches:
Ensuring that data can be easily and conveniently found by users is essential for the success of data
portals. As well as harnessing the Huwise platform’s intuitive user interface and a range of interactive visualizations, we are looking to advance data discoverability by implementing Huwise’s AI-powered intelligent semantic search feature.
This ensures that people on the portal can quickly find relevant data amongst the growing number of available datasets through deep searches that not only connect them to the right data quickly and seamlessly, but also help discover and suggest additional relevant data assets. This saves time for users, increases eciency, and helps democratize data sharing across Bahrain.
Huwise : The complete data product marketplace solution at Barhain's Information & Egovernment Authority (IGA)
Following a wide-ranging research process, the iGA selected Opendatasoft’s data portal solution,
recognizing three key strengths:
Complete data management solution
Huwise provides all the features and capabilities we require, including data publication, data management, and the ability to make data available via APIs. This means we don’t need to integrate additional applications to create and run our marketplace. For example, thanks to Huwise’s built-in
visualization tools, it is easy for us to create interactive charts and maps, bringing data to life for its audiences.
Built on best practice
The iGA is committed to open data best practices, notably to comply with Bahrain’s Open Data Policy and to align with the United Nations’ requirements for e-government development. Huwise is designed from the ground up to adhere to open data best practice, including through metadata templates, ensuring data quality, discoverability, and accessibility. This leverages the company’s over ten years of best practice experience, which it continuously shares with us and its other clients.
Scalable and easy to use
The Kingdom of Bahrain’s open data marketplace currently contains more than 400 datasets with over 2 million records. It is extensively used by Bahrain’s population of 1.5 million people, as well as investors and government employees. This means it has to be able to deliver high-performance at all times, which Huwise achieves through its SaaS design and scalable infrastructure. It matches performance with ease of
use – for administrators, data publishers and consumers – through a clear, intuitive interface.
Results: Underpinning data-centric government
Bahrain’s Open Data marketplace now provides government employees, policymakers, businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, citizens and residents with a one-stop shop for information about the Kingdom. It is delivering results for the iGA in three key ways:
"The successful launch of our portal was just the start of our program. We are committed to continuous improvement, adding more datasets and new ways of accessing information, and educating users to get the best out of public data. Huwise is a trusted partner, helping us move forward confidently on our data journey."
Providing a central data hub for all
Thanks to its combination of 408 datasets from 36 public entities, easy to use interface and interactive visualizations, the marketplace has established itself as the go-to place for data about Bahrain. Over 6,000 monthly users from across the world visit the platform, making 950,000 API calls and delivering on the iGA’s objectives of making government more digital and accessible for everyone.
A platform for future development
For us at the iGA, data sharing is a journey, with the platform constantly being improved and developed to meet user needs. New features, such as intelligent AI for data discoverability and data stories to help educate and explain data are all planned for the near future, along with the addition of new datasets from across government, especially around geospatial information.
Award-winning platform
The marketplace and iGA’s overall data strategy has been recognized, not just by users, but by the wider ICT sector. It won in the best open data initiative category at the 2023 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Digital Government Awards, demonstrating the strengths of the overall approach and the impact that the portal has had across the region since it was launched.
"The impressive scale of the iGA’s Open Data Bahrain marketplace demonstrates the positive impact that a one-stop shop centralized data marketplace can deliver for everyone. It is powering greater transparency, improved collaboration, increased productivity, and more informed decision-making for a wide range of audiences, including citizens, investors, government employees and policymakers."
About the
Dr. Khalid Almutawah
Deputy CE - Operations and Governance, Bahrain Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA)
Dr Khalid Almutawah est un haut dirigeant du gouvernement numérique au sein de la Bahrain Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA).
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