Social Data Democratization: The Third Sector Open Data Space

Evidence-based decision-making remains one of the pending challenges of the social sector. Although public administrations publish massive amounts of open data on housing, poverty, employment, education, and health, this information remains underutilized by the third sector due to its dispersion, overly technical language, and the difficulty of cross-referencing variables to apply them to local realities. To reverse this situation, m4Social has promoted the Third Sector Open Data Space (Espai de Dades Obertes).

The strategic objective of this initiative is to collect, analyze, and provide context and meaning to public administration datasets, turning them into operational tools for qualitative diagnosis, project design, impact evaluation, and political advocacy. The project implementation is structured in two well-defined phases:

Phase 1 — Data Environment Construction (2025): Identification of critical open sources, detection of information gaps in public records, and development of an interactive open-source web portal that integrates filters and visual graphics adapted to social entities.

Phase 2 — Training, Consolidation and Maintenance (2026 onwards): Deployment of specific training plans to capacitate third sector professionals in data analysis, generation of pedagogical resources, promotion of shared practice communities, and updating of portal datasets.

By merging the qualitative experience accumulated on the ground with the robustness of quantitative data, NGOs multiply their institutional representativeness before governments. This allows them to demand public policies with unassailable analytical rigor, accurately identifying territorial imbalances and foci of marginalization that would otherwise remain invisible in traditional macroeconomic statistics.