Open Data Watch (ODW) kicked off 2021 in full force, continuing to monitor available datasets, dashboards, visualizations, and relevant articles on how to combat the spread of COVID-19 on our Data in the Time of COVID-19 site. The page has recently been updated to have a new section on vaccination data and resources to understand its distribution.
Below is a list of additional sustainable development data articles and reports published in January. If there is something else to add, please contact us.
January
Mining Twitter Data to Identify Topics of Discussion by Indian Feminist Activists (January)
Nabamallika Dehingia and Anita Raj author the first knowledge brief of a series for Data2X on how big data can help fill gender data gaps and help understand the pandemic’s gendered effects. They explain that this is especially important when traditional data is lacking or unavailable. (source)
Demand-Side Factors Related to the Registration of Births, Marriages, and Deaths: A Literature Review (January)
Sarah Castle, Elizabeth Ortiz, and Philip Setel author a new paper for the Centre for Excellence of CRVS Systems that summarizes the challenges to civil registration and provides, for the first time, global evidence and analyzes the dimensions of the lack of evidence in program development. (source)
How to create a gender-responsive pandemic plan (January)
Gender and COVID-19 launches a new publication on how to create a gender-responsive pandemic plan. They describe the process of developing a plan, priority areas for action, and critical indicators. (source)
A Continent Where the Dead Are Not Counted (1/2)
Ruth Maclean authors a piece for the New York Times that reports that the number of registered deaths in all 54 African countries are fewer than the COVID-19 deaths registered in France. She explains that coffin salespeople and funeral home directors do see a spike in deaths, suggesting that not all COVID-19 deaths are being recorded. (source)
2020 locked in shift to open access publishing, but Australia is lagging (1/3)
Lucy Montgomery, the Program Lead at Innovation in Knowledge Communication, Curtin University, explains that, for all its faults, 2020 does seem to appear to have locked in momentum for the open access movement. (source)
Timely and disaggregated data: a tool to raise awareness around disabilities (1/3)
Fredy Rodríguez and Margarita Vaca of Cepei discuss why timely and disaggregated data is a tool to raise awareness around disabilities. They highlight that about one billion people worldwide live with some disabilities, so it is paramount that more equitable and inclusive policies are designed to ensure that nobody is left behind. (source)
Our Top 10 Most Read News Stories from 2020 (1/4)
To kick off the year, the International Institute for Sustainable Development publishes the top 10 most read news stories from 2020. Their stories cover various arguments, from global cooperation to address climate change to the pandemic’s impact on international meetings. (source)
Making Everyone Count: An Examination of the Global Census Undercount Issues of Indigenous Populations (1/6)
With more than one trillion dollars of federal funding in the U.S being distributed based on Census data, Maggie Smith and Alyson Marks from SDSN TReNDS urge for indigenous communities in the U.S to be counted. In New Mexico, a state with a high indigenous population, it is estimated that 5,000 USD is lost every year someone is not counted. (source)
Despite the hype, do not expect big data to replace traditional surveys anytime soon (1/7)
Researchers at the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation find that although the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new hype around the potential of big data sources, that these sources cannot replace traditional surveys. They explain that big data systems raise data transparency questions and often require more validation. (source)
A New Year’s Wish: Invest in Data (1/8)
Ranil Dissanayak, a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, tells us his new year’s wish is for governments, donors, and researchers to commit to investing and using national data collection systems. He finds that the very basics are too often out of date, and sectoral data are equally patchy. (source)
Different scenarios for global growth, in five charts (1/12)
Justin-Damien Guénette, Senior Economist at the Prospects Group of the World Bank, depicts five scenarios for global economic growth, depending on the spread or containment of COVID-19, the pace of vaccine dissemination, and the level of global financial stress. He also shows three alternative outcomes to the baseline forecast in the January 2021 Global Economic Prospects. (source)
Behind the numbers: how to make sense of ‘excess’ deaths (1/17)
David Spiegelhalter of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication chair at Cambridge University, discusses how to use ‘excess’ death counts to understand COVID-19 better. He explains that merely looking at deaths recorded as “COVID-19” is inconsistent and does not capture deaths that occurred during lockdown measures or disruption to health services. (source)
Increasing Data Quality at the Clinic to National Level in Côte d’Ivoire (1/19)
Lindsey Fincham of Development Gateway explains the work of Murielle Ettiene, a DCDJ Data Fellow, who supported the National AIDS Control Program and worked to improve data quality through clinic-level training in Côte d’Ivoire. (source)
Tools Improve Data Availability in Pacific for Decision Making and Environmental Reporting (1/20)
The International Institute for Sustainable Development authors a piece on the Pacific Environment Portal and the Indicator Reporting Tool. They explain that this new data tool will be critical for addressing the shortage of historical and current environmental data and inadequate information management in Pacific island countries. (source)
Disaggregating Data Illuminates a Path to Equitable Policy (1/27)
Jessica Schieder, a Federal Tax Policy Fellow, discusses the Biden administration’s move to establish an interagency working group to understand how data is broken down, or disaggregated, within public sector data sources. (source)
Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition: A Literature Review and Proposed Conceptual Framework (1/28)
The Institute of Development Studies publishes a literature review of open data for agriculture and nutrition and a proposes a conceptual framework. They identify several significant gaps and limitations in existing literature. (source)
COVID-19 Death Rate Rising in Africa (1/29)
John Campbell explains that Africa’s COVID-19 death rate is rising and warns us that statistics concerning COVID-19 in Africa should be treated with caution. He explains that due to inadequacies in the public health infrastructure and the dearth of COVID-19 testing, COVID-19 mortality rates might be higher than we think. (source)
What are data institutions and why are they important? (1/29)
Jack Hardinges and Jared Robert Keller of the Open Data Institute explain the concept of data stewardship, what data institutions are, and the vital roles they play in their new paper. (source)
