In the first quarter of 2016, while discussions about the data revolution touched on its implications across different sectors and different countries, much of the focus remained on the challenges of making the SDG indicators useful to local decision makers. We provide summaries of reports, blogs, and articles on the topic of the data revolution below. If we have missed something, please contact us.
30 March 2016
Bitange Ndemo authors “Achieving the SDGs: What gets measured gets done” on Development Progress. The article stresses the needs to improve data used to monitor the SDGs but also notes promising signs where the data revolution could help….(source)
21 March 2016
The Jakarta Post publishes “Indonesia and the data revolution for development” by Yanuar Nugroho and Luis Crouch. The article highlights efforts by the government of Indonesia to improve data for development including better mapping systems….(source)
12 February 2016
“Big data privacy must be fixed before the revolution can begin” written by Danny Palmer for ZDNet discusses the potential of big data in the United Kingdom. The authors call for the creation of a new code of ethics for the use of big data to ensure that privacy rights are respected…(source)
12 February 2016
Neil Merrett writes “Whitehall braces for ‘data revolution’ as parliament mulls key risks” for Kable. The article describes efforts to create a central data registry and data standards to be used in Whitehall….(source)
9 February 2016
Emmanuel Dogbevi writes “Leading African institutions disagree about Africa data consensus” for Ghana Business News. The article reports that the African Union Commission disagreed with the Economic Commission of Africa’s efforts to make the African Data Consensus part of the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA)…(source)
4 February 2016
“Why is Central Africa missing from so many maps?” written by Christopher Groskopt for Quartz highlights how frequently data are unavailable for central African countries and explores the potential challenges of the data revolution in the region….(source)
2 February 2016
The Huffington Post publishes “Citizens, the private sector and SDG implementation: Scale success and scrap the rest” by Johannes Jutting and Till Zbiranski. The article says that to achieve the data revolution there will need to be more public private partnerships, deeper commitments to capacity, and collaboration between actors…(source)
2 February 2016
“Now politicians use data analytics to improve decision-making” by Rica Bhattacharyya and Sachin Dave in The Economic Times discusses data collection efforts using digital tools to provide better information for governance. The efforts are largely being led by specific politicians, inspired in part by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”….(source)
21 January 2016
Ghana Business News publishes “African countries asked to fund, produce own statistics” by Emmanuel K. Dogbevi. The article describes the Meeting of Directors General of National Statistical offices on Data Revolution. The participants emphasize the Africa Data Consensus and efforts to ensure that the data revolution takes place at the country level….(source)
January 2016
The World Bank’s World Development Report 2016 “Digital Dividends” includes several references to the data revolution. The report says that big data and open data can improve productivity but that much needs to be done to ensure that this potential is achieved….(source)
5 January 2016
Vyacheslav Polonski writes “The next decade of data science: Rethinking key challenges faced by big data researchers” on the London School of Economics and Political Science’s Impact Blog. The blog post warns that data scientists may risk studying what is observable rather than what needs to be studied…(source)