Papua New Guineans are urged to understand the importance of data in the country and what the government is actually doing to address data-related issues.
These issues include cyber-security, data quality and how organizations can be stringent with personal data.
The Department of Information and Communication Technology was put to the test to come up with a policy that will make sure the country’s data is secure, private and under the jurisdiction of the country.
Former DICT Executive Manager for Digital Government and Shared Services Robertson Asari was invited yesterday by the Media Development Initiative to speak to media houses for a better understanding of this topic.
“When Department of ICT started to decide on transforming the government’s information secotr and start addressing corruption, they wanted to show data and know who is transacting what and so forth. There are certain issues that arise such as data privacy, cyber-security issues and many more”, said Asari.
The policy called ‘Data Governance’ sets the foundation to address management and control framework for ensuring data quality, security, availability, and compliance within PNG.
Manager for Research, Monitoring & Evaluation at DICT Jessy Sekere is the man behind the policy and shared that Data Governance is the overseer of data management in the country and ensures that data is accurate, available and accessible in a secure way to those who need it.
“We see data as a pillar of development, based on the data you can make informed policy decisions, address resources etc. This policy ensures that we have data on our hands to know about information we hardly find”, said Sekere.
The policy framework includes policies, procedures, standards, roles, and responsibilities for data management.