FCJMESH-010 : Getting Open Development Right

Zara Rahman the engine room 10.15307/fcj.mesh.010.2015 
 In this article Zara Rahman, from the engine room, explores tensions between the activist motivations that are driving the use of technologies in Open Development and the rights and aspirations of vulnerable people and communities. She discusses how we might and why we must resist the push for new technologies to be adopted too quickly in pursuing an Open Development agenda.
 This article will look at a few issues around the Open Development movement, which is a relatively new agenda within the field of international development. Open Development is centred on the idea that ‘openness’—in different forms—can improve the international development sector. Generally, there are a few broad themes that come up in most definitions of what Open Development includes: • the availability and use of (open) data relating to development programs • participatory decision making and involvement from those affected by the […]