THE SPARKS FOR IGNITING THE
DATA REVOLUTION
The data revolution should
include a universal legislation requiring states to provide open, good
quality data
Ever since the release of
the High Level Panel
report on the Post 2015 development agenda in 2013, the concept of a
data revolution has gained significant traction in conversations at the global
level. Nonetheless progress towards actualising the revolution in practical
terms remains hamstrung by data sourcing and a myriad other challenges that can
potentially be dealt with by an internationally-led consensus and sustained
momentum to bring multiple stakeholders on board, and work closely with
governments on issues of accessibility and usability of good quality, timely
and relevant data and information.
I have participated in forums
discussing the idea of the data revolution. I have also engaged in related
conversations that seek to leverage the use of data and information for better
policy making, governance and service delivery like the Open Government Partnership (OGP),
the International Aid Transparency
Initiative (IATI) and the Open
Data movements. A lot has been achieved towards outlining what is meant by
the data revolution, of course with diverse and sometimes divergent views, what
we want to achieve with it, and what obstacles remain on the way towards
realising it.
The World Bank has
sponsored elaborate conversations on the data revolution both in international
forums and within localised national level facilitated processes. The Oversees Development
Institute (ODI) as well through the Post 2015 blog has sponsored a
series of research work and literature on the nature and impetus behind the
data revolution. The PARIS 21facilitated
an event on the sides of the UN General Assembly in 2013 on engineering
a development data revolution. Elsewhere Civil Society Organisations are organising
a broad range of stakeholders in many countries to make sense of the data
revolution and what developmental ends could be achieved from it. In East
Africa Development Initiatives is
engaging an ecosystem of data handlers to discuss how to make sense of and
utilise the data revolution to end poverty.
There is near consensus that the
data revolution must be underpinned by a focus on providing open data, that is
of good quality – available in machine readable formats and up to date.
However, the common narrative
about what impedes the data revolution seems to rest on source challenges
emanating from the supply side. These apply both in developed and developing
countries. The argument is that even before discussing what to do with the data
and how to make it relevant to poverty reduction in order to resonate with
lives of common citizens, we need to locate the data. Data providers on the
other hand lament that whatever is made available, no matter how little, is not
being used. So where do we stand?
I am persuaded that unless these
sourcing and usability of currently available data issues are resolved there
will be significant challenges in realising the data revolution.
Across the globe, the approaches
to data sourcing and tackling usability challenges vary, with similarities in
certain instances. Some are using national level legislation or policies to
compel custodians of development data to make it available to the public, while
some are using laborious and expensive processes of purchasing and digitising
data that is not available in machine friendly formats. But these approaches
have achieved very little since, governments - custodians of the largest
proportion of development data either lack the incentive, political will, or
legal frameworks to make data available.
We now know that many
interventions and programmes being implemented globally and at national levels
are based on poor quality data or statistics that make them tenuous and
contestable. Yet for over a decade, enormous resources have been
allocated and programmes implemented to tackle development challenges. African
economies are suddenly leaping into middle income status due to revisions in
national statistics and introduction of data previously not considered in
calculating important national development indices.
The current development data
isn’t good enough. Nearly 40% of developing countries cannot measure their
poverty trends over the last decade due to inadequate data. The HLP report on
post 2015 development agenda and UN Secretary General’s report on poverty both
call for pioneering approaches to improving quality, timeliness and relevance
of development data and a fundamental rethinking of the way we use data for
social good” – Dr Jim
Yong Kim, World Bank President.
I am of the opinion that now more
than ever, the data revolution requires an international level facilitated
process, to require national governments to make good quality data available to
the public. Such a process could drive country level action by multiple
stakeholders to invest in producing data and translating it to usable
information.
This has been achieved in other
spheres, for example the declaration on human rights was ratified globally
compelling states to abide by and guarantee a minimum set of rights for all
their citizens.
Through diplomacy and
international driven consensus, development practitioners can lobby for a
similar international declaration, or better yet, a standalone goal in the post
2015 framework to guarantee access to information to all citizens across the
world. This could provide the much needed leverage that actors at national
levels pushing for increased access to development data can use to further the
agenda of the data revolution
