Stories, ideas, and updates from DGers around the world

This blog explores key insights from the DaYTA program, offering practical guidance for researchers on effective data collection, overcoming field challenges, and leveraging local partnerships to enhance tobacco control efforts. This piece is especially timely following DaYTA’s workshop convening all 3 study country stakeholders to review the survey results and strategize on how best to disseminate this data to target audiences. This workshop took place from in Lagos, Nigeria, from November 18-20th.

This blog post gives an overview on our latest paper on interoperability, implementing interoperable solutions in partnership with public administrations. Based on over 20 years of DG’s experience, the paper demystifies key components needed to build robust, resilient, and interoperable data systems, focusing on the “how” of data standardization, data governance, and implementing technical infrastructure.

In honor of this year’s World Stroke Day, observed annually on October 29th, this piece aims to raise awareness of the substantial burden of non-communicable diseases–particularly stroke incidents–using the case study of Nigeria, one of the main tobacco production hubs on the continent, in addition to Kenya.

DG is excited to announce the publication of a research manuscript on Mortality from Tobacco Use in Kenya in Tobacco-Induced Diseases. This research was carried out as part of the Tobacco Control Data Initiative (TCDI).

Although the international community has just now reached consensus on what digital public infrastructure is, there are still a lot of myths and misperceptions around the term, and the open-source technology that often powers it. In this blog, we’ll debunk some common myths we hear about DPI with facts, highlight some successes and failures, and show you some of the open-source DPI tools we’re following.

In episode 4, Season 3 of “Data…for What?!,” host Vanessa Goas and special guest Roshan Paul, Former Director of Leadership Practice & Climate Talent Initiative at IREX, discuss the Climate Talent Initiative, which is IREX’s first in-house climate program.

While all agriculture has an environmental impact, tobacco is unique in that every stage of the tobacco lifecycle–from the production and consumption of tobacco to farming and disposal of the final product–wreaks havoc on the environment. In this piece, we’ll introduce the lifecycle of producing and using tobacco and explore the requisite environmental impact.

The development world is buzzing with excitement over the idea that new and emerging applications of artificial intelligence (AI) can supercharge economic growth, accelerate climate change mitigation, improve healthcare in rural areas, reduce inequalities, and more. But what does this look like in real life? 

In episode 3, Season 3 of “Data…for What?!,” DGer Charlene Migwe-Kagume and special guest Leonida (Leo) Mutuku discusses LDRI’s early warning system, an AI tool that is being used to enable farmers to plan and manage their harvest more effectively by using local and global data on weather patterns, crop yields, etc. 

In episode 2, Season 3 of “Data…for What?!,” host Vanessa Goas and special guests former DGer Joshua Mbai and Gilles Amadou Ouédraogo, Programme Management Officer for the Great Green Wall Accelerator at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, discuss the Great Green Wall Initiative, the Great Green Wall Observatory, and how the the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and DG are committed supporting new and ongoing efforts aimed at combating climate change.