The recent Financing for Development Conference was a very important moment in the Data Revolution. Many reports and blogs were written about the need for continued commitment to the cause and other related topics. We provide summaries of reports, blogs, and articles on the topic of the data revolution below. If we have missed something, please contact us.
15 July 2015
The Web Foundation writes a blog post titled Web Foundation joins global coalition to tackle the data crisis. The post voices the organization’s support for the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and describes how some of the initiatives of the Web Foundation work to improve development data.…(more)
15 July 2015
The White House issues a press release titled Fact Sheet: Financing for Development — U.S. Government Development Priorities. The briefing discusses US contributions to Addis and includes a passage on the US contribution to the data revolution.…(more)
15 July 2015
Eric Swanson publishes a post on the Open Data Watch website titled Many Questions, Many Answers. The post describes some of the big questions about the data revolution. Questions about the data revolution are not abstract; they matter and will influence policy well beyond the Financing for Development Conference. The post highlights Open Data Watch’s new Frequently Asked Questions on the Data Revolution.…(more)
15 July 2015
The ONE Campaign publishes a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the data revolution in conjunction with the Financing for Development Conference.…(more)
15 July 2015
Michael Igoe writes a post for Devex titled For #FFD3 success after Addis, the devil is in the data. The article quotes several speakers from a side event about the data revolution at the Financing for Development Conference who warned that much more needs to be done to ensure quality data for the post-2015 agenda. The article summarizes the new contributions to the global partnership for sustainable development data which received $3 million from the US and $2 million from the Hewlett Foundation. This partnership was called for in A World That Counts.…(more)
14 July 2015
The US Department of Treasury issues the remarks by Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew at the Plenary Session of the Financing for Development Conference. The remarks address a number of US priorities and includes the following passage, “The United States is working to increase the quality of our own development-related data. And we are pleased to be a founding member of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data that is being launched here in Addis Ababa.”…(more)
14 July 2015
David McNair writes a post for the ONE Campaign website titled Why we need a data revolution to drive development. The post describes the reason for a meeting at the Financing for Development Conference where efforts were made to improve civil registration systems, improve data systems more generally, and increase financial transparency.…(more)
14 July 2015
PARIS21 publishes a two-page note for the Financing for Development Conference about the need to finance country-led data revolutions. The note states “small investments can drive big improvements in developing country data performance.”.…(more)
14 July 2015
Bill Anderson writes a blog post for post2015.org titled Financing the data revolution: is anyone up for the challenge? The blog post discusses the FFD conference, outlining the need for data improvements. He then notes that there has been little new money offered to finance the data revolution in the lead up to the FFD. He notes, however, that the data revolution is not a time-bound intervention, and that it is not optional, but will be necessary for sustainable development.…(more)
13 July 2015
Tony Pipa and Daniella Ballou-Aares publish a post on the Guardian titled It’s not the size of the data; it’s what you do with it that counts. The article says that three objectives are needed to transform the data revolution: 1) Shift our thinking from data as an enabler to data as capital for sustainable development. 2) Strengthen partnerships across public and private actors to solve data gaps and make data-driven government the norm. 3) Mobilize data champions to scale success and lessons learned.…(more)
13 July 2015
Zach Christensen writes a blog post for Open Data Watch titled A Pivotal Moment in Addis Ababa. The blog post discusses a new publication titled Data for Development: An Action Plan to Finance the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. The post discusses the need for policymakers to realize the potential of the data revolution: 1) Provide adequate financing for statistics. 2) Enhance and broaden the data instruments and tools for SDG monitoring. 3) Commit to a data revolution, encouraging innovation, while respecting the leadership of national statistical offices.…(more)
13 July 2015
Jose Alonso publishes a blog on the Web Foundation blog titled Governments must get behind Open Data to achieve the SDGs. The post discusses challenges to data within the post-2015 context and acknowledges that the Financing for Development Conference will not provide enough resources for all data needs. However, countries should commit to opening their data, thereby revolutionizing their data systems.…(more)
13 July 2015
The World Bank Statistical Capacity Building program publishes a new page titled Harnessing the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. The page describes the World Bank’s efforts to support the data revolution by: 1) Scaling up support for civil registration and vital statistics; 2) Funding to fill key development data gaps for social and economic indicators; 3) Fostering innovations in development data production and use; and 4) Deepening partnerships with other multilateral institutions…(more)
13 July 2015
Jamie Drummond writes an article for Devex titled At #FFD3 factivists can and must disrupt development’s ‘data crisis’. The post discusses the need for better data and the need for a new partnership on development data to recruit “factivists” to help fill data gaps and hold policymakers accountable for their actions…(more)
12 July 2015
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Open Data Watch publish Data for Development: An Action Plan to Finance the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. The publication provides guidance at an international level and on the level of national governments to finance the data revolution. The report highlights data needs, the impact of data, and other information about the potential for data for development…(more)
10 July 2015
Open Data Watch publishes The Data Revolution FAQs. The report includes 20 questions and answers about the data revolution, including: “What is the Data Revolution?” “Is the Data Revolution just about new technologies and statistical methods?” “What are the risks of the Data Revolution? How can these risks be managed?”.…(more)
9 July 2015
Open Data Watch publishes a report by Bapu Vaitla titled Data impacts: How the data revolution is making a difference. The report provides analysis and policy recommendations related to the 17 case studies published on dataimpacts.org. The report provides several suggestions for increasing impact in the data revolution: 1) Stay the course; 2) Analyze the politics; 3) Build trust; 4) Match needs and competencies; 5) Emphasize data use, not only data generation.…(more)
9 July 2015
The World Bank releases a video titled My Favorite Number: 77 Reasons We Need Poverty Data. The video features World Bank economists discussing the 77 countries that lack data on poverty levels and what should be done to improve data in these countries.…(more)
9 July 2015
Miguel Luengo-Oroz writes a blog post for the UN Global Pulse titled Big Data for Development in Action: The Global Pulse Project Series. The report lists case studies about the data revolution.…(more)
9 July 2015
Jonathan Gray publishes a discussion paper on the Open Knowledge Foundation titled Democratising the Data Revolution: A Discussion Paper. The paper asks a broad range of questions about the data revolution on measurement, open data, civil society, and public institutions.…(more)
8 July 2015
Open Data Watch publishes research conducted by a team lead by Bapu Vaitla, titled Data Impacts: Case studies from the data revolution. The research is released as a website highlighting 17 case studies of data use. The cases range from using cell phone data to reduce malaria incidence in Namibia to using pollution data in China to reduce smog to price data sharing resources for farmers in Ethiopia.…(more)
8 July 2015
The Royal Statistical Society publishes a post National strategy best when building statistical capacity, says ODI. The post describes the recent report from the Overseas Development Institute analyzing statistical capacity development in South Africa, Mexico, and Pakistan.…(more)
8 July 2015
Development Initiatives publishes a blog post titled KODI reaches out to data users. The post discusses an event that the Kenya Open Data Initiative held with Development Initiatives and civil society groups. The groups discussed open data issues in Kenya including the data revolution and identified challenges.…(more)
7 July 2015
The DevPolicy Blog publishes a post by Amanda Watson titled Remote data collection in Papua New Guinea: an aid to policy deliberations. The article discusses the difficulty of data collection in Papua New Guinea and the potential for data to be collected through new methods, such as phone interviews and SMS.…(more)
6 July 2015
The United Nations releases The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015. The report discusses progress toward the MDGs and provides some suggestions going forward. The report contains several pages about the need for better data for the post-2015 development agenda.…(more)
2 July 2015
Pat Schied writes What the Data Revolution Looks Like on the Ground on the Hewlett Foundation blog. The post discusses a group of people in Senegal sharing data about school performance to community members. This example provides a good example of the data revolution at work…(more)
June 2015
PARIS21 publishes an article titled Digital breadcrumbs to measure literacy in Senegal. The report discusses an effort in Senegal to estimate literacy rates using call data records.…(more)
June 2015
Amina Khan, Joseph Wales, and Elizabeth Stuart publish a report for the Overseas Development Institute titled Country priorities for data development: What does history tell us? The report provides case studies of South Africa, Mexico, and Pakistan. The report explores what role country priorities and donor priorities should play within the context of the data revolution.…(more)
29 June 2015
Open Data Watch publishes a report titled Aid for Statistics: An Inventory of Financial Instruments. The report looks to provide guidance on the financial instruments that can be used to finance the data revolution. It provides detailed descriptions of seven types of funding instruments, and gives information about thirty-one instruments that have been used to finance statistical capacity building.…(more)
29 June 2015
Open Data Watch releases a report titled Partnerships and Financing for Statistics: Lessons Learned from Recent Evaluations. The report looks at evaluations of previous data partnerships and provides guidance for a future partnership for sustainable development data.…(more)
June 2015
PARIS21 publishes a post titled The data revolution reaching out to Arab countries. The post describes an event hosted by the Government of Qatar in which PARIS21 discussed issues for the data revolution in Arab Countries.…(more)
June 2015
PARIS21 publishes a post by the Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) titled Innovations: Engine of the data revolution in Colombia. DANE developed an innovations competition to select new methods for improving its statistical production and dissemination for its 2015-2018 strategic plan.…(more)
25 June 2015
Paul Ladd writes a post at the UNA-UK New World website about securing the people’s data revolution. The post discusses the need for more resources and the use of new tools to help countries produce good data on the SDGs.…(more)
23 June 2015
Eve de la Mothe Karoubi, Jessica Espey, and Guido Schmidt-Traub write a blog post on the post2015.org website about the development of indicators for the SDGs. They offer four lessons learned from the Inter-agency Expert Group on the SDG Indicators: 1) The number of indicators may be difficult to track, so multipurpose indicators could be used to track several targets. 2) Indicators should be picked to complement a global list. 3) Experts should be used from inside and outside the UN system. 4) The IEAG-SDGs should acknowledge the need for capacity building investments to track the indicators.…(more)
June 2015
Ben Kiregyera is interviewed by PARIS21 about his recently published book, The Emerging Data Revolution in Africa. The book, he says, seeks to “reclaim the African narrative and telling Africa’s own story about complex statistical development issues in Africa.” The interview also touches on financing for statistics, technological tools and statistics in Africa, statistical legislation, and NSDSs.…(more)
22 June 2015
Paul Jasper writes about big data and development for the Guardian Global Development Professionals Network. He provides several issues: 1) You can’t always get access to the data when you need it. 2) Data can be used to spy on citizens and discriminate against consumers. 3) Big data on its own doesn’t provide valuable insights. 4) Millions of people still have no access to digital technology.…(more)
18 June 2015
Mor Rubinstein writes a post for the Open Knowledge Blog about the Open Data Index. She says that the organization is seeking input on modifications to the Open Data Index to make it “a civil society audit of the data revolution”…(more)
17 June 2015
Zain Asher and Chris Borg write a story for CNN titled Africa is not going to be left behind or outside the data revolution. The story features an interview with Strive Masiyiwa who owns Econet Wireless. The article largely focuses on the growth of mobile data in Africa.…(more)
16 June 2015
Cate Sumner writes a policy paper for the Center for Global Development about increasing birth certification in Indonesia. The paper describes two methods to address the problem: 1) Providing integrated and mobile legal services and 2) Engaging with the health system to increase birth certificates. She finds that these programs are complementary and that the health programs need to do more.…(more)
15 June 2015
The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and Brookings host a panel on US priorities for the Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa. The second panel, hosted by George Ingram, discussed data for development. The panel included Shaida Badiee and discussed a range of topics about the data revolution, especially with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals.…(more)
14 June 2015
Bill Orme at BluePass writes about the process of formulating the Sustainable Development Goals. The article outlines the heated contention over the goals and the development of possible indicators. The report describes the next steps in the process of formally creating and approving the SDGs and the accompanying indicators…(more)
12 June 2015
The Web Foundation publishes a post summarizing lessons from the International Open Data Conference. One of their observations is that “There is much work to do to ensure that the ‘data revolution’ will be an ‘open data revolution.'” They point out that there is disagreement about what common goals there should be, what standards are critical, what role national statistical offices should play, and other issues…(more)
11 June 2015
Catalina Escobar writes an article on BeyondAccess.net titled Libraries and Open Data: Lessons from the Cartagena Data Festival. The article makes the case that the data revolution needs to engage more citizen engagement. Libraries have long been hubs of information for communities. As part of the data revolution, libraries should be given resources to become hubs for promoting data literacy…(more)
10 June 2015
Lejla Sadiku writes a post for the UNDP Europe and Central Asia office blog. The post discusses several issues from the International Open Data Conference concerning the data revolution, such as how openness transforms the use and dissemination of data.…(more)
10 June 2015
Marin Tisne writes an article for Tech Crunch titled In the Information Debate, Openness and Privacy Are the Same Thing. He says that privacy and openness are not opposing forces; they are “different sides of the same coin – and equally important.” At the heart of both the privacy movement and the open movement, is the desire to give citizens more control over the information of their environment. Privacy groups and the open data movement should work together on the data revolution to ensure its success…(more)
9 June 2015
Gail Hurley and Jos Verbeek write for the World Bank Open Data blog about development finance. They argue that more needs to be done to improve data in global comparisons.…(more)
9 June 2015
Yogesh Raj publishes an article for ekantipur.com about the use of data by the Government of Nepal following the earthquake there. The report makes the case that the government must make better use of data…(more)
9 June 2015
The World Bank and partners host the Measurement and Accountability for Results in Health Summit. The summit includes a panel on the data revolution and post-2015 health results. In conjunction with the summit, a Five Point Call to Action is issued. The fourth point is to “Maximize effective use of the data revolution, based on open standards, to improve health facility and community information systems”…(more)
3 June 2015
Elizabeth Stuart evaluates the Sustainable Development Goals Zero Draft in a blog post for the post2015 website titled SDG zero draft: glass three-quarters full. She notes two things of particular interest to the data revolution community: 1) The SDGs seem to have a strong focus on measuring progress through disaggregation of indicators to traditionally marginalized groups. 2) The draft seems to only acknowledge data collected by national statistical systems rather than other sources…(more)
2 June 2015
Neeti Pokhriyal, Wen Dong, and Venu Govindaraju describe a project to measure poverty using call data records (CDRs) in Senegal. In a post on the Brookings Institute website, they describe their methodology and suggest that big data could help provide quicker, more disaggregated data than household surveys.…(more)
1 June 2015
SciDevNet releases a podcast titled Who are the missing millions? The podcast focuses on a report by the Overseas Development Institute by the same title. The podcast looks particularly at the possibility to use technology for data collection.…(more)
1 June 2015
Amy Sweeney publishes an article to Devex titled Improving Ebola response through mobile data. The article highlights the use of mobile polling services to understand the effects of Ebola on communities in Africa. The polls also tracked responses to the epidemic…(more)
May 2015
The Post-2015 Data Test writes a post about a recent study on measuring the Sustainable Development Goals in Turkey. The report highlights a number of challenges that were encountered as researchers sought to collect data on a number of the SDGs. The report finds that some seemingly simple indicators posed significant challenges…(more)
26 May 2015
Cirenia Chavez Villegas and Emma Samman publish a report for the Overseas Development Institute titled Exclusion in household surveys: Causes, impacts and ways forward. The report identified groups that are systematically excluded in many household surveys and censuses–such as the homeless, the transient, the elderly that are institutionalized, and prisoners. The report provides suggestions such as administrative changes and technological tools to include these groups in surveys…(more)
26 May 2015
Gail Hurley and Jos Verbeek write a blog post on the Brookings Institution website titled Can the data revolution transform how we finance development? The post highlights the differences in definitions, methods, and sources that make data about development finance difficult to use. This can and should be changed at the Finance for Development conference and with the SDGs…(more)
26 May 2015
The ONE Campaign publishes The DATA Report 2015: Putting the Poorest First. The report addresses a range of issues but includes a call for a “mutual accountability pact” for the Addis Ababa Conference. Such a pact would include the “[d]elivery of a data revolution to help support a robust accountability framework that sets out clear mechanisms for ensuring that commitments are followed through.”…(more)
25 May 2015
Thomas Roca writes an article for Devex titled Toward data-driven development: Big improvement or big buzz? He highlights the limitations of big data for development and the need to understand the broader context of big data. Big data, he argues, can help open a dialogue that can be useful to empower people to make change. He paraphrases Bill Easterly saying, “Technology does not solve problems; people do.”…(more)
21 May 2015
The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) posts an infographic to their blog labeled 10 things to know about the data revolution. The graphic provides data on the need for a data revolution, current efforts being made in data for development, and projections about the future of the movement.…(more)
16 May 2015
The Tony Elumelu Foundation and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa issue a press release about a new roadmap to initiate a data revolution for Africa. The roadmap came as the result of a three-day meeting including experts from the World Wide Web Foundation, the United Nations, the African Union Commission, and the African Development Bank.…(more)
16 May 2015
Zara Rahman writes a post titled The data revolution needs more than just big data. She argues that–contrary to much of the rhetoric surrounding the data revolution–data is not simply a neutral resource to be harnessed by objective users. Rather, it is capable of holding biases and can be used to discriminate and oppress. Deep contextual understanding is needed for the proper use of data.…(more)
16 May 2015
Saferworld releases a blog post by Thomas Wheeler titled Who should measure the Sustainable Development Goals? The article argues that neither NSOs nor third parties should do it alone and that there is a valuable role for both groups.…(more)
16 May 2015
The Lancet writes an editorial titled CRVS systems: a cornerstone of sustainable development. The article points out that as many as 60% of death and causes of deaths and 35% of births are not registered. Better CRVS systems are needed in addition to data collection efforts by the IHME and WHO.…(more)
14 May 2015
Bill Anderson writes for the blog of the International Open Data Conference 2015. His post, titled Why we can’t take data standards for granted discusses the issues that data users face when joining up data from different sources. Standards are needed to break data silos. Additionally, he argues that the problems with data standards. These standards should be addressed by the data revolution….(more)
14 May 2015
The UNICEF blog posts an interview with Amina Mohammed, the UN Secretary-General Special Advisor on Post-2015 Development Planning. She discusses the trends in the data revolution that are most promising, threats to the revolution, and UNICEF’s role in the data revolution.…(more)
14 May 2015
Elizabeth Stuart writes a post for Eldis Updates titled Data gaps and development goals–counting the missing millions. The post highlights some of the data gaps and discusses some ways to create more inclusive statistics through the data revolution.…(more)
13 May 2015
The three largest global household survey programs-the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), the Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys (MICS), and the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS)-announce the formation of a new collaborative effort. The effort will meet regularly to share information about the scheduling of surveys, harmonizing survey tools, and seeking methodological advances in household surveys.…(more)
13 May 2015
Daily Development publishes a transcription of an interview with Elizabeth Stuart who recently published the Missing Millions report for ODI. The interview covers topics ranging from the scale of data problems to the power dynamics of the data revolution.…(more)
13 May 2015
Alice Hazelton produces a blog for SciDevNet titled ‘Missing millions’ Could impair SDG monitoring efforts. The article highlights the recent report by the Overseas Development Institute about the symptoms and problems associated with inadequate data in developing countries. The article quotes Shaida Badiee and Claire Melamed on the need for a data revolution.…(more)
12 May 2015
Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa writes a book review for the African Development Bank blog titled Are African statistics a tragedy? He reviews Ben Kiregyera’s book, The Emerging Data Revolution in Africa– Strengthening the Statistics, Policy and Decision-making Chain. The article argues that Africa is not experiencing a statistical tragedy but that the data revolution will take place and needs to be fostered by domestic actors.…(more)
12 May 2015
Alex Cobham writes an article for DLP titled Uncounted: has the post-2015 data revolution failed already? He makes the case that many statements about the data revolution have framed the issue as a technical issue, when it should be a political issue. People and indicators go uncounted because of political consideration. Until the data revolution takes the issue as a political matter, there will be no meaningful data revolution.…(more)
11 May 2015
David Pastor Escuredo and Alfredo Morales write a blog for the UN Global Pulse titled Mobile Phone Data Analysis for Disaster Management. The post discusses analysis of mobile phone data in Tabasco, Mexico during flooding in 2009. They find that the data was able to track movements in the areas with the worst flooding. They suggest that similar analysis could be used for future disasters.…(more)
10 May 2015
Carla AbouZhar et al. publish an article for The Lancet titled Towards universal civil registration and vital statistics: the time is now. The authors argue that there is a strong need to develop CRVS systems. They also argue that new technologies cannot replace the need to build the administrative systems necessary to track CRVS.…(more)
7 May 2015
Thomas Roca publishes an article to the Agence Francais de Developpement blog titled Can Big Data serve the poorest? He discusses the differences between data scientists and traditional official statisticians. Both will have a role to play in tracking the Sustainable Development Goals.…(more)
6 May 2015
A draft outcome document of the Financing for Development conference is published. The report calls for improved efforts on a range of development subjects. Two pages are dedicated to improvements in data and monitoring. The report calls for more efforts to create “high-quality, timely and reliable disaggregated data, including by gender.”…(more)
6 May 2015
Development Initiatives, the Open Institute, Hivos East Africa, and the Association of Freelance Journalists develop a new hub, Badili, to track the developing narrative of the Data Revolution in Africa. Badili was created as an effort to maintain engagement on the data revolution following the Africa Data Consensus.…(more)