New Chair of the board

Introducing OKFIs new chairperson of  the board  Mehalet Yared

“Mehalet has a long history of engaging in grassroots activism. Throughout her career for over a decade, she worked in global organisations in developing programs and tools that support active citizens’ participation and building more resilient communities.”

It has been a huge privilege to follow the Open Knowledge Finland journey in the past years as a board member and now as a chairperson. In the past years, I have had the opportunity to work with talented and driven people with a common goal of developing a more transparent and sustainable world.

My OKFI journey started in 2018 when I closely followed OKFI’s work advocating for transparency and accountability through the Lobbying Register-initiative in the Parliament of Finland. I was impressed by the movement’s ability to ensure that institutions and decision-making processes are fair and transparent. This role is even more important in times of crisis as it brings to light the challenges in implementing laws such as the publicity law.

The current situation in Europe has deeply shaken many of the certainties we previously had. The need for an open civic society has never been more important than it is today. Individuals and civic societies are at the forefront of amplifying change and ensuring democracy. In the coming year, in Finland OKF will continue to contribute to open science and cultural heritage. In Europe, we will advocate for fair, human-centric and sustainable digital transformation. Globally, we will cooperate with our partners to organize informed and structured multi stakeholder discussions on the future of the Internet and its governance.

Open Knowledge Finland will continue to promote openness of knowledge and the use of open knowledge. It will continue to serve as a platform for like-minded people and organisations to get involved, educate and advocate, and support initiatives and projects for a better future.