Earlier this month on the sidelines of the 50th Session of the UN Statistical Commission, Open Data Watch released the Open Data Inventory to provide an in-depth annual assessment of the coverage and openness of official statistics. Shortly after, the 63rd Session on the Commission on the Status of Women met to discuss social protection systems for women and girls and their access to public services. To incorporate data into the discussion, ODW, together with Data2X released a report titled, Bridging the Gap: Mapping Gender Data Availability in Africa. Below is a list of additional sustainable development data articles and reports published in March. If there is something else to add, please contact us.
March
Revealed: Facebook’s global lobbying against data privacy laws (3/2)
Carole Cadwalladr and Duncan Campbell author an article for The Guardian explaining how Facebook has targeted legislators in an effort to lobby against data privacy laws. They analyze leaked documents which reveal Facebook’s secret lobbying operation and their work with lawmakers around the world. (source)
Striking the Balance Between “Open by Default” and Targeted Data Sharing (3/4)
Open Data Watch publishes a brief for SDSN TReNDS that offers a set of principles and norms to help practitioners understand the benefits and limitations of data sharing. The paper takes a broad approach in understanding public access to data and argues that making data available to the public is already a form of mass data sharing. (source)
Another awesome result of Polish statistics in an Open Data Inventory Ranking! (3/7)
Statistics Poland shares the results of ODIN 2019, a report that examines the openness and coverage of data in countries around the world. They explain that Poland continues to be a leading example in their region and ranks fourth in the world. (source)
Gender data gap and a world built for men – Science Weekly podcast (3/8)
On International Women’s Day, Nicola Davis and Jordan Erica Webber hosts a podcast that examines the repercussions of the gender data gap. They spoke to Caroline Criado-Perez, the author of Invisible Women, to discuss the underrepresentation of women in the tech industry and its consequences. (source)
NSOs tackle geospatial data for population monitoring at the 50th UN Statistical Commission (3/8)
Jay Neuner with Jessica Espey from SDSN TReNDS, offer their takeaways from the POPGRID-hosted side event “Where We Live and Work” at the 50th UN Statistical Commission. The discussion focused on geo-referenced population monitoring and the challenges and opportunities that accompany this data collection method. (source)
Blockchain is Triggering a Wake-Up Call at the United Nations (3/11)
SDG Impact Fund (SDGIF) explains that the Foundation to Support the United Nations and SDGIF have led meetings to bring attention to frontier technology for data collection. Both organizations explain that they have noticed a shift in the attitudes of the more conservative UN officials who are becoming more comfortable using crypto-currency as a solution for tracking donations. (source)
Plugging the data gap: Google, European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and UN Environment unveil freshwater monitoring app (3/11)
UN Environment reveals its new web-based platform along with Google and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centere. They explain that the platform is publicly available and tracks the development of SDG 6.6 which aims to end the degradation and deconstruction of the ecosystem. (source)
SDG Reporting Platforms: New Progress and Priorities (3/13)
The Center for Open Data Enterprise and Open Data Watch analyzed how collaboration efforts enhance the monitoring of the SDGs by reducing the cost and increasing the openness of data. CODE analyzed the 36 SDG national reporting platforms that were available online and reaffirmed that many countries do not have publicly available national reporting platforms. (source)
Leveraging open data for healthier communities in Africa (3/15)
Sam Joe and Jane Doe, author a blog post for Open Knowledge International about two female-led and focused organizations in Africa that used Open Data Day to display why open data is so important for improving the socio-economic conditions of women. They explain that an equal future is only possible with open data systems, especially in areas where strong patriarchal systems persist. (source)
Unpacking the Issue of Missed Use and Misuse of Data (3/18)
Robert Kirkpatrick, the director of UN Global Pulse, explains how data breaches and corporate misuse have led the public to have little trust in big data. He discusses why this growing outrage has led to new data collection regulations and restrictions. (source)
Breakthrough Study Offers New Stats on Abortion and Birth in Prison (3/21)
Melissa Jeltsen from the Washington Post explains the need for data on pregnant women in prison. She explains this by using information from a new first-of-its-kind study conducted by Carolyn Sufrin, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who is working to fill gender data gaps within the prison system. (source)
Understanding How DFID Makes Decisions – Landscape Report on the Role of Data (2/25)
The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID)and Development Gateway release a report on DFID’S key decision-making and data-use strategies by examining 60 DFID staff interviews collected across many country offices and sectors. (source)
New Mali survey data now available! (2/27)
Marco Tiberti, from the World Bank Group, highlights the release of a representative household survey in Mali that covers topics such as agriculture, demography, education, food security, labor, and livestock. He explains that they have also made the surveys, conducted by Mali’s Ministry of Agriculture available to the public so that researchers and policymakers can use the data to plan evidence-based initiatives. (sources)
Experts call for adoption of open data to solve nutrition problems in Kenya (3/27)
Xinhua explains that Kenyan health experts have called for an open data system to help tackle nutrition problems in the country. The article includes two interviews with experts, Esther Omosa and Boniface Akuku who both agree that open data will help diminish malnutrition in Kenya by giving nutritionist real-time information. (source)
Microsoft, Adobe and SAP prepare to expand their Open Data Initiative (3/28)
Frederic Lardinois, a writer for TechCrunch, discusses the Open Data Initiative between Microsoft, Adobe, and SAP. He explains that the companies joined to make it easier to standardize data formats and that this initiative shows a collaborative effort that will pull data from different systems into one to make it usable. (source)
Using artificial intelligence to predict mortality (3/29)
Ana Sandoiu from Medical News Today discusses how artificial intelligence can be used to predict the risk of premature death. She explains that computers use prediction models with a range of demographics to assess the probability of death. (source)
Why Ethiopia has postponed its census (3/29)
The Economist clarifies why the government of Ethiopia postponed the census a third time, making it over a year and a half overdue. The article states that the main concerns are over security risks in the south and west of Ethiopia. (source)