The Open Contracting Data Standard is a standards development initiative issued by the Omidyar Network and the World Bank which commenced in November 2014.
An early version 1.0 was released in July 2015 and version 1.1 is being developed in Q 3 and 4 2015. OCDS was designed with a focus on public procurement of goods, works and services, but can be extended for use in other contexts. Extensions for Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Extractives concessions are under development.
Adoption of the standard requires publishers to release data under an open license. Publishers are encouraged to use a scale of publishing complexity, from basic which features just tender notices, to advanced and extended data, which features contract award notices, contract details and persistent URIs.
Open Contracting claim that the use of the standard will reduce costs, create more competitive contracting and prevent fraud and corruption.
Pilot implementations are underway in the following countries:
Colombia, Costa Rica and Paraguay have also expressed interest in adopting the standard.
Private sector companies using the standard: