Recent years have witnessed considerable speculation about the potential of open data to bring about wide-scale transformation. The bulk of existing evidence about the impact of open data, however, focuses on high-income countries.

Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Chapter 1: Introduction; PART I: OPEN DATA FOR DEVELOPMENT; Chapter 2: The Relevance of Open Data for Developing Economies; Chapter 3: The Impact of Open Data on Developing Economies; Chapter 4: The Impact of Open Data in Developing Economies across Sectors; PART II: CASE STUDIES; Open Data’s Impact on Improving Government; Chapter 5: Burundi’s Open RBF; Chapter 6: India’s ESMI; Chapter 7 Open Development Cambodia; Chapter 8: Uganda’s iParticipate; Open Data’s Impact on Empowering Citizens; Chapter 9: GotToVote! Kenya; Chapter 10: Tanzania’s Open Education Dashboards; Chapter 11: South Africa’s Medicine Price Registry; Open Data’s Impact on Creating Opportunity; Chapter 12: Acl.mate Colombia; Chapter 13: Ghana’s Esoko; Chapter 14: Jamaica’s Interactive Community Mapping; Open Data’s Impact on Solving Public Problems; Chapter 15: Nepal Earthquake Recovery; Chapter 16: Paraguay’s Dengue Prediction; PART III: CONCLUSION; Chapter 17: Leveraging Open Data as a New Asset for Development; Appendix A: Input Received.

“An empirically grounded assessment that helps us move beyond the hype that greater access to information can improve the lives of people and outlines the enabling factors for open data to be leveraged for development.”-Ania Calderon, Executive Director, International Open Data Charter. “This book is compulsory reading for practitioners, researchers and decision-makers exploring how to harness open data for achieving development outcomes. In an intuitive and compelling way, it provides valuable recommendations and critical reflections to anyone working to share the benefits of an increasingly networked and data-driven society.”-Fernando Perini, Coordinator of the Open Data for Development (OD4D) Network, International Development Research Centre, Canada. "This book offers practical, evidence-based frameworks to help us understand how open data efforts can be designed, implemented, and measured for meaningful impact. With concise language and clear thoughts, this book is an accessible, relevant, and honest read for a broad audience, including practitioners, policymakers, donors, and implementing partners. Anyone seeking to grasp the current state-of-play of the open data landscape, to ground their understanding in practical use-cases, and to move forward armed with actionable frameworks will find value in this book. The book is an important contribution to understand how Open Data supports economic and social development processes. It does so using real-world examples in multiple domains and geographic areas. By leveraging the power of demonstration effects, it is a highly useful addition to the arsenal of advocacy tools available to both development and Open Data practitioners".