It was an eventful year for open data and the data revolution for sustainable development. The last quarter of 2017 saw the publication of an OECD Development Co-operation Report dedicated to data, the sixth meeting of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators, a evaluation of World Bank support for data and statistical capacity as well as a handful of other key events and reports. Below we provide summaries of other reports, blogs, and articles on the topic of the data revolution below. If there is something else to add, please contact us.
DECEMBER
New humanitarian centre in the Netherlands will put data to work for people in crises (12/22)
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announces the opening of the Centre for Humanitarian Data in The Hague, Netherlands, which seeks to increase the exchange and use of data for humanitarian crises. (source)
A year in the life of the Charter team (12/21)
Ania Calderon of the Open Data Charter shares reflections on the impacts that the Charter’s full-time team has had, as well as challenges and lessons learned throughout their first year of operation. (source)
A new approach to global poverty: Measuring absolute and relative income (12/21)
Martin Ravallion and Shaohua Chen, in this article for VoxDev, discuss their paper in which the authors propose a new poverty measure that shows an increase in relative poverty in the past 25 years, even if absolute poverty has declined. (source)
New report assesses data roadmaps for sustainable development (12/19)
The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data shares a report examining the experiences of their partner countries in the data roadmaps process and explores how it can further improve its engagement with these countries. (source)
Conversations: Strengthening the role of data in policy making-perspectives from the World Bank Group, OECD, and AidData (12/19)
Highlights from a panel discussion hosted by the Independent Evaluation Group at the World Bank share thoughts of speakers from the World Bank, OECD, and AidData on how to strengthen data production and its use for development and policy making. (source)
OECD Report underscores importance of data for development (Dec)
This podcast shares a conversation with Ida McDonnell from the OECD about the 2017 edition of the OECD Development Co-operation Report (DCR), which focuses on the importance of data for development. (source)
Reflections and Next Steps for the Global Partnership (12/18)
Claire Melamed, the Executive Director of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, shares an end-of-year reflection on achievements in 2017 and areas of focus for 2018. (source)
Year in Review: 2017 in 12 Charts (12/18)
Donna Barne and Tariq khokar at the World Bank present 12 data visualizations that show key events and trends of 2017. These included changes in the global economy, environment, education, poverty, and more. (source)
New data gateway helps developing countries collect crucial information (12/18)
This Devex article by Lisa Cornish discusses how the Data for Health Initiative from Bloomberg Philanthropies is helping countries improve civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) with the launch of the CRVS Knowledge Gateway – a platform that will help countries learn more about the process of collecting data on births, deaths, marriages, and more. (source)
Donors must ensure that the data revolution is open by design (12/15)
Tom Orwell of Publish What You Fund argues in this blog post that donors need to take responsibility for ensuring that development data are open, accessible, and joined-up. It highlights initiatives so far that have promoted openness, such as the Cape Town Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data and the Joined-Up Data Standards project. (source)
Data: for the people, by the people (12/14)
Claire Melamend highlights the importance of data in making sure all voices are heard. Data serve as crucial tools for advocates and policy-makers through past and current public challenges. (source)
C4D2-Training: Working with regional statistics training centers to improve household surveys in Africa (12/14)
Shelton Kanyanda, through the World Bank’s The Data Blog reports on the Center for Development Data’s (C4D2) Training Program to build capacity of lecturers from statistical training centers in Africa to design and implement household surveys. (source)
Innovative big data approaches for capturing and analyzing data to monitor and achieve the SDGs (12/14)
The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) shares a report on big data approaches that could assist traditional methods of capturing and analyzing data for the SDGs. (source)
Open data standards will improve public information (12/13)
Rachel Bloom in Policy Options discusses the need for data standards that govern the sharing of data and technologies between the private and public sector and across systems and jurisdictions. (source)
Data Revolution Coming to Rwanda (12/13)
Daniel Sabiiti in KT Press reports on a partnership between the National Institute of Statistics Rwanda (NISR) and the United Kingdom (UK) Office of National Statistics to implement new data revolution policy. Through this policy, NISR will inaugurate a data collection center to compliment traditional statistics facilities. (source)
Better data to improve lives: The LGBTI inclusion indicators will track progress for all (12/11)
This article by Clifton Cortez, Toni Joe Lebbos, and Lucas Regner from the World Bank’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) team argues the need for a set of indicators to measure LGBTI inclusion. (source)
Harnessing the data revolution: Future leaders, future skill sets (12/7)
Nick Ismail for Information Age discusses the growing importance of Chief Data Officers who manage big data in the private sector as well as the challenges they face. (source)
More and better financing for data to achieve the SDGs (12/6)
Jenna Slotin of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data discusses how and why governments should finance and implement the SDGs. The article shares insights on these questions from international organizations, country partners, and donors. (source)
The quality factor: Strengthening national data to monitor SDG 4 (Dec)
This report published by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) examines issues pertaining to the quality of data to monitor SDG 4 on education. It examines the SDG 4 monitoring framework, describes the UIS vision for improving the quality of education data, and discusses UIS activities at the national level to improve statistical systems and engage national stakeholders. (source)
NOVEMBER
Opening doors: How national IDs empower women cross border traders in East Africa (11/30)
As part of the World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative and #EveryID has a story campaign, Lucia Hanmer and Jean Lubega-Kyazze co-author a blog post discussing how official IDs have a transformative effect on people’s lives. (source)
We need to solve real-world problems in a joined-up way (11/29)
In this GPSDD blog post, Tom Orrell of Publish What You Fund and Bill Anderson of Development Initiatives look back on the progress of interoperability since the launch of the Joined-Up Data Standards (JUDS) project over two years ago and look forward to the agenda for the new Collaborative on SDG Data Interoperability. (source)
OECD report underscores importance of data for development (11/29)
The PARIS21 podcast reports on the 2017 edition of the OECD Development Co-operation Report on Data for Development in a discussion with Ida McDonnell, OECD team lead for the 2017 report. (source)
Data for development: Perspectives on the World Bank’s role and contribution (11/28)
Experts from the World Bank, OECD, and AidData explore the latest trends, opportunities and challenges in enhancing the role of data in development. (source)
Measuring violence against women in Mongolia: From data to action (11/27)
Carly Teng and Tim Jenkins of UNFPA report on a new gender-based violence prevalence survey in Mongolia. The researchers hope that findings from the survey will “enable key decision makers such as the government and partner organizations to create effective policies and allocate resources to combat gender-based violence.” (source)
Data to leave no one behind and the Washington group (11/20)
Zach Christensen of Development Initiatives writes about the need for disaggregated data on people with disabilities to complete the SDG agenda of “leaving no one behind.” He promotes the use of survey questions developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics, a UN city group established under the United Nations Statistical Commission, to improve data on people with disabilities. (source)
The frontiers of data interoperability for sustainable development (November)
Publish What You Fund and Development Initiatives provide an overview of the state of interoperability and some of the challenges faced by those who want to promote it. They also outline the current initiatives and plans to overcome these challenges, such as Collaborative on SDG Data Interoperability. (source)
He who rules the data, rules the world: A brief history of data governance (11/16)
Michael Hiskey writes how important smart data governance policies are to manage the data that are used for business intelligence. Data governance policies can keep data clean and functional by systematizing different rules for different data sets and giving different capabilities to different departments. (source)
Figure of the week: Africa’s progress on the SDGs and Agenda 2063 (11/16)
Mariama Sow of the Brookings Institute outlines the importance of data to track and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She reports that, though there are a few areas with sufficient data, many of the SDGs do not have enough data available to track their progress. (source)
Open data in developing economies: Toward building an evidence base on what works and how (11/16)
Open Data in Developing Economies features in-depth case studies on how open data is having an impact across the developing world from an agriculture initiative in Colombia to data-driven healthcare projects in Uganda and South Africa to crisis response in Nepal. (source)
Strategies for navigating shifting political winds: Ideas on how to embed open data when facing political change (11/15)
Open Data Charter summarizes the results from their Resilient reform in government: Lessons from open data leaders project, a collection of reflections by officials on how they worked to embed reforms before the recent US, French, Philippine and Kenyan national elections. (source)
Open Burkina selected to coordinate the African Francophone Open Data community (11/14)
Open Data for Development announces that Open Burkina has been selected to coordinate CAFDO (Communauté d’Afrique Francophone pour les Données Ouvertes) and their regional hub for Open Data in Francophone Africa. (source)
It’s time to tax companies for using our personal data (11/14)
Saadia Madsbjerg of the New York Times proposes that corporations should be taxed on the personal data they use. The revenue generated from this tax could be used for improving privacy on the internet, countering identity theft, and improving connectivity and internet literacy. (source)
To measure gender inequality, we need to tap into the promise of data (11/14)
Current methods of tracking our progress on the SDGs are falling short, says Albert Motivans, head of data and insights at Equal Measures 2030, for News Deeply. The solution lies in more inclusive and more creative ways of collecting and understanding data. (source)
We are lacking initiatives that identify and convey the stories of impact hidden in the data (11/13)
Interview with Gayan Peiris, Digital Strategist of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Action Campaign, on the importance of using global data sources wisely to identify the needs of local communities and showcase ‘real’ progress made. (source)
Why we should care about bad data (11/13)
Stefaan Verhulst from the GovLab states that at a time of open and big data, data-led and evidence-based policy making has great potential to improve problem solving but will have limited, if not harmful, effects if the underlying components are riddled with bad data. (source)
IATI data use task force launched (11/13)
The International Aid Transparency Initiative announces the launching of the Data Use Task Force to increase the use of data published to IATI on thousands of aid, humanitarian and development activities. At the time of this publication, the taskforce was updating the data use strategy and work plan which will be submitted to IATI’s Governing Board for approval and shared online. (source)
Sixth meeting of the IAEG-SDGs (11/11)
The sixth meeting of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs), was held from 11 to 14 November 2017 in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. The meeting notes, documents, and other important links are hosted here. (source)
Most of the public doesn’t know what open data is or how to use it (11/8)
New survey results from Singapore’s Government Technology agency (GovTech) and the Economist Intelligence Unit show that despite the aggressive growth of open data, there is a drastic need for greater awareness and accessibility. (source)
So you’ve signed the Open Data Charter, what next? Introducing the new adoption and implementation roadmap (11/7)
Leigh Dodds & Fiona Smith from the Open Data Institute (ODI) report on the roadmap that ODI created to help governments that have recently adopted Open Data Charter. (source)
Census ‘could use mobile phone data instead of questions’ (11/7)
A report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that mobile phone data could be used in place of census questions in the future. Preliminary results from a study that compared census data to commuter flows in a south London borough show a strong correlation between the two. (source)
The problems that occur when health data is not used (11/6)
Kerina Jones, a professor from Swansea University, describes how health data could be used to create a big impact on research and health outcomes. The use of this data, however, faces several obstacles to use: late publication of data and inappropriate regulation. (source)
Data interoperability. The next frontier in the data revolution (11/2)
The Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) reports on the challenges that organizations face in dealing with the new flood of data in the world. LDRI claims that the main challenge is how to make meaning of all this new data, a feat that will continue to be difficult without some level of data interoperability being implemented. (source)
Five years of investments in open data (11/2)
Marking the fifth anniversary of the World Bank’s efforts to help countries launch their own open data initiatives, a new report from the bank provides insights into how open data is benefitting countries, what strategies are working well, what could be improved. (source)
Is open data making a difference in Asia? (11/2)
The Open Data Lab answers the question “What has been achieved by publishing government information?” By telling the stories of how the difference that their work has made in three people’s lives. (source)
OCTOBER
Introducing the State of Open Data (10/31)
The State of Open Data is a publication funded by the Open Data for Development (OD4D) and International Development Research Centre (IDRC). It will review the progress of the open data movement over the past 10 years and make recommendations for the future. The article calls on the open data community to engage in the comprehensive review. (source)
Building modern data systems for sustainable development: A high-level roundtable (10/30)
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network reports on a high-level roundtable discussion of the SDSN TReNDS’ report, Counting on the World. During this meeting leaders from think tanks, finance institutions, multilateral agencies, and civil society organizations discussed how to turn the report recommendations into action. (source)
The data on how many new mothers die in the US are in shambles (10/29)
Annalisa Merelli, writing for Quartz, reports on the problems affecting maternal mortality data in the United States, which has far worse maternal health than other wealthy countries. Multiple problems in the data collection process has produced poor-quality data. (source)
Five sure-fire ways to upgrade open data portals (10/27)
Five examples shared by the Apolitical Group Limited show how to encourage use of open data portals. The advice includes events to connect data with users, data maintenance, data visualization, data availability through multiple paths, and the integration of the portal into a wider agenda. (source)
Better data for better policy: Accessing new data sources for statistics through data collaborative (10/26)
Stefaan Verhulst in GovLab Digest argues in this article that statistical offices need to find ways to leverage new data sources to inform public policy. According to the author, leveraging public and private partnerships will facilitate this. (source)
What’s the meaning of the World Bank’s New Poverty Lines? (10/25)
Marc Silver and Malaka Gharib explain the World Bank’s new poverty lines for middle- and upper middle-income countries on NPR. These new figures are closer to national poverty lines for those income groups and represent a fixed benchmark for judging whether poverty is increasing or decreasing. (source)
New research on open government data in developing countries: What we can learn from case studies (10/25)
Abdul Bari Farahi shares findings on R&E Search from case studies on real-world impacts of open data as well as the enabling and disabling conditions that affect the nature of the impact. (source)
With publication comes responsibility: Using open aid data for accountability in Benin and Tanzania (10/24)
Elise Dufief from Publish What You Fund presents a recent discussion paper detailing the findings that emerged from interviews conducted in Benin and Tanzania. These interviews asked about opportunities and barriers for open aid data to serve as an accountability mechanism in those countries. (source)
Research reveals the economic value of open data (10/18)
Writing for the Huffington Post, Adi Gaskell shares findings from two recent studies on open data. A Deloitte study that showed that data from Transport for London (TfL) generated approximately £130 million and a European Data Portal study that examined the level of open data maturity across the 31 EU28+ countries. (source)
The Mis-measure of development (10/18)
Bjorn Lomborg in Project Syndicate discusses a report demonstrating how well each country is doing at implementing the SDGs. The article highlights that countries are prioritizing the SDGs they seek to achieve and argues that the SDGs should be stripped to its core issues so that investments can be most strategically allocated. (source)
The future of open data portal (October)
This analytical report examines what is needed to meet and increase demand and presents ten ways open data portals can be organize for sustainability and increased value. The authors of this report are Elena Simperl and Johanna Walker from the University of Southampton. (source)
Development Co-operation Report 2017 (10/17)
The OECD provides a comprehensive analysis of constraints faced by countries regarding data for development and provides recommendations for policy makers to build on opportunities and fill data gaps. (source)
Better Data, Better Decisions (10/16)
In this YouTube video, Data2X shows how inaccurate data can lead to policies that don’t meet the needs of citizens. Data that captures the paid and unpaid activities of women can lead governments to invest in the activities of women. (source)
The role of official statistics in an evolving communication society (10/15)
This paper summarizes the takeaways from the conference organized by the OECD Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy. The purpose of the conference was to address the challenges of remaining relevant and helping NSOs and ISOs develop new communication strategies. (source)
Data for development: An evaluation of World Bank support for data and statistical capacity (October)
Rasmus Heltberg for the World Bank shares what the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) found through its evaluation of how the World Bank has been able to support development data production, sharing, and use. It concludes that the World Bank has been more effective at promoting production than fostering use and ensuring production. (source)
Measuring open data: A look at the four tools for assessing open data publication (10/11)
Robert Palmer analyzes the key features of five main tools measuring how well national governments share open data. This list includes the Open Data Barometer, the Global Open Data Index (GODI), the OECD OURdata Index, the Open Data Inventory (ODIN), and Open Data Maturity in Europe. (source)
Improving sustainable development data is a task for all (10/10)
Martine Durand for the OECD Development Matters blog shares ways that the OECD has been able to help the world meet the data challenges presented by the 2030 Agenda. (source)
Gender data guides policy efforts to improve women’s lives (10/6)
The conversations from the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data’s UNGA side event, which highlighted the importance of sex-disaggregated data, are shared through this post by Emily Pryor for the UN Foundation Blog, Global Connections. (source)
World Bank launched Somali Poverty Profile: First comprehensive snapshot of welfare conditions (10/5)
The World Bank announces the launch of the High Frequency Survey report, which provides a comprehensive analysis of the welfare conditions of the Somali population. (source)
Funding data for development: Essential to achieve SDGs (10/5)
Ernesto Pernia and Johannes Jutting share findings from the 2017 PRESS report by PARIS21 in this Huffington Post article. The article shares key findings from the report, discusses the context in the Philippines, and argues that greater emphasis needs to be placed on providing more relevant and sustainable capacity development on statistics. (source)
Africa cannot afford business-as-usual approach to statistics (10/3)
The Journal du Cameroun reports on the 6th Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) and shares remarks from deputy UNECA Executive Secretary Giovanie Biha who stresses that the African continent would fail unless it embraces innovation like SDMX. (source)
Opinion: Data for a changing world — satellites for sustainability (10/2)
According Ellen Stofan in her article exploring the role of satellite data in informing the SDGs, partnerships between the public and private sector will be crucial to harnessing these data. (source)
The power of data for women and girls (10/2)
The Asian Development Bank explains the Evidence and Data for Global Equality (EDGE) project, which seeks to integrate gender issues into official statistics to produce better evidence-based policies. (source)
- * * * * * * * * *