ADS Chapter 579: USAID Development Data Library

The library is governed by ADS Chapter 579, which outlines the policy directives, required procedures, and roles and responsibilities for managing USAID's data. The primary responsibilities for managing USAID's data are assigned to various offices and committees within the Agency. The Performance Improvement Officer or their designee reports quarterly to OMB on USAID's progress in meeting the objectives of the Cross Agency Priority Goal on Open Government Data. The Management Operations Council (MOC) provides Agency-wide leadership for initiatives and investments to reform USAID business systems and operations worldwide. The Information Governance Committee (InfoGov) of the MOC recommends standards and approaches for managing USAID's information and data and ensures compliance with U.S. Government mandates related to information and data. The InfoGov Permanent Working Group (PWG) recommends to, and takes direction from, InfoGov to implement USAID's approach to open data, including quarterly updates to the Enterprise Data Inventory, Public Data Listing, Data Publication Process, Inventory Schedule, Customer Engagement Process, and Agency Points of Contact for data. Contracting Officers (COs) and Agreement Officers (AOs) are responsible for incorporating clauses and provisions into contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and other implementing instruments to instruct implementing partners that they must submit Datasets created or collected with USAID funding to the DDL. Operating Units are responsible for including Datasets as deliverables in USAID awards, appointing and maintaining a Data Steward, and ensuring that CORs, AORs, and Information System Owners obtain all required clearances and redact sensitive data in accordance with the guidance provided in this policy. The DDL operates and maintains the DDL, responds to requests from the Permanent Working Group to make configuration changes to the DDL, assists with the creation and maintenance of websites relevant to the scope of the PWG, generates machine-readable files for the DDL and for relevant data-sharing pages on the USAID website, and facilitates the creation of machine-to-machine connections between the DDL and relevant Agency information systems. The policy directives and required procedures outlined in ADS Chapter 579 are designed to ensure that USAID's data is made available throughout the Agency and to all other interested stakeholders, in accordance with proper protection and redaction allowable by law. The chapter provides guidance for complying with the requirement in USAID's Evaluation Policy and ADS 203, Assessing and Learning, that all quantitative data collected by USAID or one of the Agency's contractors or recipients for the purposes of an evaluation must be uploaded and stored in a central database. The chapter also addresses USAID's approach to implementing Executive Order 13642, "Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information," and the accompanying OMB Open Data Policy, M-13-13, "Managing Information as an Asset." The chapter establishes the policy directives, required procedures, and roles and responsibilities governing the submission of Datasets to USAID's Development Data Library (DDL). The chapter provides guidance for maintaining the DDL and for contributing to the Agency's knowledge-management efforts by defining the requirements, standards, and roles and responsibilities governing data submission, identifying the types of data to be included in the DDL, detailing the procedures to be followed in making data available through the DDL, and supporting adherence to the Open Government Initiative and OMB Open Data Policy by making data funded by USAID available to the general public, where appropriate and allowable by law.