As we approach the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development in July, significant attention is being placed on eliminating the gender gap in data, using available data to measure and track the SDGs, and promoting country and regional capacity. Below, we provide summaries of reports, blogs, and articles on the topic of the data revolution. If we have missed something, please contact us.
29 June 2016
Oliver Alais authors blog post “The status of open data initiatives in West Africa” on ICTWorks. The post provides a brief overview of open data policies in eight countries in West Africa…(more)
28 June 2016
“Agenda 2030: Challenges and opportunities for better data across all ages” written by Alex Mihnovits on DevEx highlights the data gaps among younger and older populations and offers three recommendations to improve data collection….(source)
27 June 2016
Caroline Stauffer writes an article “Lies, damned lies, and statistics: Argentina data chief pushes reform” on Reuters. In the article Stauffer reports on Jorge Todescar’s – the new director of INDEC – efforts to revamp the country’s data system with focus on inflation, growth, and poverty data….(source)
26 June 2016
Paul Steele of IIED authors blog post “Country progress on putting the sustainable development goals into action” on Measure What Matters. The post reflects on the 21st Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP) meeting and includes a series of short video interviews with representatives from six developing country governments. They share their experiences of rolling out the sustainable development agenda….(source)
24 June 2016
“Queen of Jordan: Better data is key to helping female refugees” written by Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan for TIME Magazine describes the need for reliable and gender-disaggregated data on displaced people worldwide. She urges governments and the international community to work together to meet this need….(source)
24 June 2016
News Track India reports on the gaps in India’s official data in the article “Vice President of India address at the international seminar on ‘social statistics’.” Vice President Shri M. Hamid Ansari urges the country to identify gaps in official data and determine ways on how best to bridge them….(source)
24 June 2016
Sam Otieno authors “Data key to solving Africa’s development challenges” on SciDev.Net. The article highlights the positive role data play not only in achieving the SDGs but also in increasing transparency and improving governance….(source)
22 June 2016
Saudi Gazette reports on Saudi Arabia’s statistical development in the article “Shoura approves national strategy for statistical development.”….(source)
17 June 2016
The Web Foundation publishes “Anti-corruption summit scorecard: Open data winners and losers.” In the post the Web Foundation analyzes country statements of over 40 countries making commitments at the summit and assesses how committed they are to the open data charter, open contracting data standard, and open beneficial ownership register….(source)
14 June 2016
Stephen Abbott Pugh authors “Rwanda takes the next step toward a data-driven future” in the New Times Rwanda. The article says that a final version of a data revolution policy that would commit Rwanda to an open data policy was about to be submitted…(source)
10 June 2016
“What SDGs can we track now?” written by Casey Dunning and Jared Kalow for the Center for Global Development assesses Tier 1 indicators on country coverage and data frequency….(source)
10 June 2016
Devex publishes the post “Is now the moment the humanitarian data revolution begins?” by Elizabeth Dickinson. The article focuses on the increasing role that data are playing in the humanitarian sector…(source)
2 June 2016
The Open Data for Development Network publishes their 2015 Annual Report, “Open data for development: Building an inclusive data revolution” The report focuses to a large extent on the role that open data plays in the data revolution….(source)
17 May 2016
Naila Kabeer and Simeen Mahmud, writing for the World Bank’s Let’s Talk Development blog, publish the post “Measuring women’s work-more vexing than you might think.” The post describes challenges in measuring female labor participation rates in South Asia as a prime example of the challenges to a gender data revolution…(source)
18 May 2016
The Asia Foundation posts “Digital governance in Indonesia: An on and offline battle” written by Aris Huang, Yuandra Ismiraldi, and Andrew Thornley. The authors describe the data revolution in Indonesia and highlight a new initiative around data for better governance…(source)
16 May 2016
Wilbrod Ntawiha and Bill Anderson publish “Uganda’s Data Ecosystem” for Development Initiatives. The authors say that the Uganda Bureau of Statistics is “well placed to build on its existing strengths to lead a data revolution for sustainable development.”...(source)
4 May 2016
The Brookings Institution posts “When development economics undermines development” written by Johannes Jütting. The post highlights the enthusiasm about data in development economics and calls for more to be done to improve the production of those data…(source)
4 May 2016
Dustin Homer and Paige Kirby author “Tracking the global goals: four steps to make data matter” on The Guardian. The article says that to make data use effective we should 1) ensure access to good quality (and relevant) data; 2) Support tools and skills to use data; 3) Collect data to be used; and 4) Do something different…(source)
26 April 2016
Caribbean News Now publishes “CDB supports data revolution for Caribbean Development.” The article describes a data training workshop being produced by the Caribbean Development Bank to boost the ability of officials to monitor data for the 2030 Goals…(source)
18 April 2016
“Data, design, and factivists: The unexpected formula for global progress?” written by Daniella Ballou-Aares on the Foggy Bottom Medium page highlights the scale of the SDGs and emphasizes the importance of the data revolution to achieving the goals…(source)
15 April 2016
Ambassador Deborah Birx authors “Harnessing the data revolution for an AIDS-free generation” on the Huffington Post. She writes about the data revolution and PEPFAR’s efforts to produce disaggregated, frequent data to end the AIDS epidemic…(source)
14 April 2016
Wolfgang Fengler writes a post for Brookings “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: To leverage the data revolution we must accept imperfection. The blog argues that for social and economic data, we need to reach of stage of “managed imperfection” where problems with data can be managed and data are timely….(source)
11 April 2016
“How can Africa prepare for post-2015 digital health investments?” written by Richard Gakuba for Devex discusses trends in eHealth and the future of the data revolution….(source)
7 April 2016
Ruth Levine and Mayra Buvinic write “Leaving women out of development statistics just doesn’t add up” for the Guardian. The article brings attention to the data that systematically misrepresents women…(source)