DataLab – Observatori de Gènere i Dades Obertes

Summary

Gender and Open Data Observatory that collects, opens, and visualizes data on gender inequalities, providing interactive access for the public and institutions to promote transparency and improve public policies with a gender perspective.

Promoting organizations

The initiative was created by the Santa Coloma de Gramenet City Council through La CIBA (the municipal center for women), in collaboration with Iniciativa Barcelona Open Data, an association dedicated to promoting open data. Both organizations drove the development of the platform and the collection/production of data, sharing the goal of fostering social innovation through open data focused on women’s rights. The Observatory also has a presence on social media and aligns with La CIBA’s mission to empower women and promote equality at the local level.

Objectives

The Observatory’s aim is to apply a gender perspective to the analysis of open data in order to make inequalities visible and support evidence-informed decisions in equality policies. It emerged because relevant information (on violence, employment, health, the digital gender gap, etc.) is often fragmented, hard to access, or not disaggregated by sex, which limits public awareness and effective action.

Its purpose is to mainstream a gender perspective in open-data analysis to shed light on inequalities and violations of women’s rights, and to make this information accessible to the public and institutions through clear, understandable visualizations.

The initiative is implemented through three pillars:

Open data: promoting the release of public data and ensuring accessibility as an exercise in transparency and accountability.
Gender perspective: analyzing data by incorporating the sex–gender system to understand living conditions and inequalities.
Community and public policy: building a community through innovative events/actions that generate knowledge and provide a basis for public policies to tackle structural inequality.

The platform was launched in 2019 and is embedded in La CIBA as a strategic project, expanding through new thematic modules and being maintained collaboratively to ensure updates and rigor.

Beneficiaries and stakeholders

The main beneficiaries are the public and, in particular, women, as open data improves awareness and supports equality policies. Key stakeholders include the Santa Coloma City Council (diagnosis and planning), other interested public institutions, feminist groups and women’s organizations, as well as the research community and the open data ecosystem, which can reuse datasets and outputs.

Results

The Observatory has consolidated a pioneering municipal open-data platform with a gender perspective.

Data and knowledge: an interactive website with visualizations and at least 10 subprojects (trafficking/prostitution, porn data-thon, COVID-19 impacts, gender-based violence and COVID-19, sexual violence, Dones Digital, Dones Laboral, appropriation of women’s bodies, women free from violence, women in the textile sector), including thematic microsites (e.g., datalabciba.org). It centralizes previously scattered information and makes it understandable.
Transparency and openness: it strengthens an open-data culture on gender issues, publishes data, and reinforces the demand for greater openness and sex/gender-disaggregated data.
Policy support: it provides indicators for diagnosing, planning, and monitoring equality policies (including identifying emerging gaps, such as during the pandemic).
Awareness-raising: it brings complex data closer to the public through clear visualizations, supports evidence-based public debate, and is disseminated through specialized events.

Challenges

As an open-data observatory with a gender perspective, its implementation and maintenance face challenges related to data availability and quality, continuous updating, and effective uptake by institutions and the public.

Lack of open data and closed formats: much information is locked in reports or unstructured sources, requiring extraction/cleaning and compilation from multiple places.
Underreporting and data quality: in areas such as gender-based violence and trafficking, underreporting and incomplete data are common; it is essential to communicate limitations and uncertainty.
Updating and technical sustainability: maintaining time series, sources, and visualizations requires ongoing coordination and resources.
Use and dissemination: increasing real use by citizens and decision-makers calls for continuous communication and improvements based on feedback.

Evidence of success

As a result, the initiative delivers an operational product: an accessible online observatory, active since 2019. It integrates multiple modules with visualizations and datasets (e.g., prostitution/trafficking, the digital gender gap, COVID-19 impacts) and has added content quickly in response to emerging issues. It has institutional support (La CIBA/City Council) and technical support (IBOD), and publishes content under open licenses.

It is a replicable model for municipalities, regions, or universities: a partnership between a public institution and a data-expert team, combining source compilation with publication on a visual, open website. Reuse is enabled by open licenses and documentation of methods/datasets. Its modular, scalable approach allows starting with 1–2 topics and expanding as resources allow. It requires more coordination and data capacity than infrastructure, with returns in transparency and evidence for policymaking. The “network effect” and accumulated technical experience support adaptation to other contexts.