Governments that can successfully harness the world’s ongoing digital transformation and the resulting proliferation of new datasets, data types, and data ecosystems can make better informed policy decisions and target their resources more efficiently and effectively. To achieve this goal, they must establish clear rules about how data is collected, analyzed, used, and shared in a way that protects citizens from abuse while supporting innovation, development, and inclusive growth.
Today, there is growing interest among government officials to draw insights from data that are more granular and produced at a higher frequency than traditional official statistics, including administrative data and, increasingly, data collected by the private sector. While integrating data from private and public sources can help governments fill knowledge gaps, it also raises novel ethical, legal, and regulatory concerns for policymakers to contend with.
The “Governing Data for Development” Working Group is composed of experts from government, civil society, development organizations, and the data privacy community, and led by project co-chairs Pam Dixon and Benno Ndulu and CGD policy fellow Michael Pisa. The Group will guide a two-year research program focused on exploring ways governments can use data to support innovation, economic development, and inclusive growth while protecting citizens and communities against harm, with a focus on approaches that best meet the needs, priorities, and capacities of low- and lower-middle income countries.
We will share insights generated by the project through a series of briefing papers, blogs, and online events and in a final report that draws together our findings.
Working Group Members
Co-Chairs
- Benno Ndulu (in memoriam) | University of Dar-es-Salaam (formerly Central Bank of Tanzania)
- Pam Dixon | World Privacy Forum
Participants
- Adedeji Adeniran | Center for the Study of Economies of Africa (CSEA)
- Teki Akuetteh | Africa Digital Rights Hub
- Shaida Badiee | Open Data Watch
- Donatien Beguy | United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat)
- Stephen Chacha | Tanzania Data Lab
- Somsak Chunharas | National Health Foundation (Thailand)
- Vyjayanti Desai | Identification for Development (ID4D), World Bank
- Drudeisha Madhub | Data Protection Office of Mauritius
- David Medine | Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)
- Santosh K Misra | Government of Tamil Nadu
- Tom Orrell | DataReady
- Olasupo Oyedepo | African Alliance of Digital Health Networks
- Michael Pisa | Center for Global Development
- Isaac Rutenberg | Center for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT), Kenya
- Omar Seidu | Ghanaian Statistical Service
- Rachel Sibande | Data for Development at Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)