Posts focused on Global Data Policy

Our work is at the intersection of open data, technological development, and strategic advising to improve data use. We see growing questions about how we as a global community manage, share, reuse, and store data that is integral to our existing and future work. This blog is the start of a conversation we want to have.

In 2020, we sought to answer a pivotal question: what are the good practices and lessons learned from the many existing women’s, children's, and adolescent’s health data visualization tools? In partnership with UNICEF, DG worked to identify good practices, as well as to determine any differences for emergency-focused data visualization tools, using COVID-19 as a test case.

As we review our strategy, we plan to share here much of what we’ve learned through programming in more than a dozen countries – from our work and from our excellent partners – about the state of data in agriculture, tobacco control, open contracting, and the extractive industries. For each theme, we’ll explore who are the key data users, the decisions they make, the most important data gaps, and the crucial risks of data (mis)use. Here we share previews from some of our flagship programs.

DG is pleased to announce the publication of our latest white paper, Designing Data Strategies: A Playbook for Action. This work aims to distill lessons learned from our research and collaboration, designing data strategies with development and humanitarian agencies. In the current ‘data revolution’ era, data and digital are both a strategic asset and a source of institutional risk.

On October 15 at 9:00-10:00AM EST, DG is hosting a conversation on the sidelines of the 2020 Virtual UN World Data Forum, focused on strengthen local data and statistical capacities moving forward.

Through dozens of implementations across a variety of sectors, countries & contexts, DG has seen firsthand what makes data, technology & evidence effective, and what can contribute to dormant systems filled with incomplete and unused data. Based on our history, relationships, and perspectives, we realized that DG had a lot to say.

As the world continues to face the effects of Covid-19, policymakers are turning to data more than ever to understand the scope of the crisis, anticipate its spread, and formulate policy decisions; but gender-disaggregated data are missing from the picture. Knowing what information is being captured and what is not could impact decision-making.

Yesterday USAID launched its first-ever Digital Strategy, which aims to bring coherence and direction to programs and approaches already employed by the agency. We found a lot to like, but also some key misses that could limit the impact on USAID’s work. Here are five highlights recommendations for improvement.

From our experience understanding data use, the primary obstacle to measuring and organizational learning from feminist outcomes is that development actors do not always capture gender data systematically. What can be done to change that?

March is International Women’s History Month. Throughout the next weeks, DG will be publishing a series of blogs that highlight and honor the work that we and others are doing to support the vital role of women. We’re kicking off the series with this post, highlighting the importance of gender data.