The Data Values Project

The past decade of work on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has shown that increased access to and availability of data does not automatically lead to improved data use or better policy outcomes. While more and better data is a precondition for more effective policy making and service delivery, the relationship between data availability and data use is not linear. 

Recently, the data for development community has started analyzing this relationship and questioning what promotes effective and sustained data use in working towards the SDGs. This community includes non-profit agencies, donors, for-profit, and multilateral organizations carrying out projects in participation with  governments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to leverage the potential of data and improve delivery of policies and services. These organizations represent key partners for governments and public authorities from LMICs and have a strong influence through data for development projects on data use and governmental practices. It is worth asking whether these stakeholders are aligned when it comes to identifying barriers and incentives for data use and fostering best practices among public authorities. 

This Data Values Project policy brief focuses on what it takes to embed data use in data for development initiatives in LMICs. It builds on three focus group discussions, co-organized by the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and Athena Infonomics, targeting donors, multilateral organizations, and civil society/NGOs working closely with governments to improve data use. This brief expands on an earlier discussion paper, and illustrates where stakeholders’ thinking converges and diverges in identifying challenges and drivers for sustained data use. It also offers a set of recommendations for each category of stakeholders to strengthen their impact on sustaining data use in development projects. This policy brief focuses on the views of agencies that partner with governments, with the perspectives of public authorities outside the scope of the focus groups.

This discussion paper from Development Initiatives summarizes an approach called "data landscaping," the "scope [of which] covers the political economy of data within a country; the structures and standards that govern the collection, production and sharing of data; the information systems themselves; and the culture that drives the demand for, and use of data."

The Global Partnership and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) hosted a roundtable on September 16, 2021 on the use of private data for public good, exploring how the private sector can contribute to and invest in data sharing, developing data services/products, and data infrastructure to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The definition and research agenda laid out in this article identifies three key pillars of global data justice: (in)visibility, (dis)engagement with technology and antidiscrimination.

The definition and research agenda laid out in this article identifies three key pillars of global data justice: (in)visibility, (dis)engagement with technology and antidiscrimination. 

This paper assesses the past decade of experiences in the field of open data and looks ahead at how initiatives will address concerns surrounding privacy and artificial intelligence, drawing insights into the future of the open data movement.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the risks and benefits of global data as summarized in this paper in which authors analyze technologies used to fight the pandemic and draw lessons in using data to build back better in the future.

This paper proposes building blocks for developing innovative and inclusive data systems based on strong leadership and governance, common principles and standards, an open and user-centric approach and reliable funding models. 

Conversations around open data in Africa employ deficit narratives and are too-often driven by non-African stakeholders. Authors of this conference paper find these “Western-centric policies...are ill-suited to the African context” and discuss issues arising from power imbalances and how to address them.

This report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights offers a set of principles and best practices as part of an inclusive approach to data collection and use to achieve and measure the 2030 Agenda.

This World Bank report proposes a social contract to rebalance and reset the rules of global data governance and calls for an Integrated National Data Systems (INDS) to realize its vision.

This groundbreaking 2014 report launched the ‘Data Revolution’ with concrete recommendations to put data at the heart of efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.