An Action Plan Towards a “New Deal on Data” in Africa

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Blog by Charlie Martial Ngounou, Hannah Chafetz, Sampriti Saxena, Adrienne Schmoeker, Stefaan G. Verhulst, & Andrew J. Zahuranec: “To help accelerate responsible data use across the African data ecosystem, AfroLeadership with the support of The GovLab hosted two Open Data Action Labs in March and April 2023 focused on advancing open data policy across Africa. The Labs brought together domain experts across the African data ecosystem to build upon the African Union’s Data Policy Framework and develop an instrument to help realize Agenda 2063.

The Labs included discussions about the current state of open data policy and what could be involved in a “New Deal on Data” across the African continent. Specifically, the Labs explored how open data across African countries and communities could become more:

  1. Purpose-led: how to strengthen the value proposition of and incentives for open data and data re-use, and become purpose-led?
  2. Practice-led: how to accelerate the implementation of open data and data re-use policies, moving from policy to practice?
  3. People-led: how to trigger engagement, collaboration and coordination with communities and stakeholders toward advancing data rights, community interests, and diversity of needs and capacities?

Following the Labs, the organizing team conducted a brainstorming session to synthesize the insights gathered and develop an action plan towards a “New Deal on Data” for Africa. Below we provide a summary of our action plan. The action plan includes four vehicles that could make progress towards becoming purpose-, practice-, and people-led. These include:

  1. A “New Deal” Observatory: An online resource that takes stock of the the current state of open data policies, barriers to implementation, and use cases from the local to continental levels
  2. A Community-Led Platform: A solutions platform that helps advance data stewardship across African countries and communities
  3. “New Deal” Investment: Supporting the development of locally sourced solutions and nuanced technologies tailored to the African context
  4. Responsible Data Stewardship Framework: A framework that open data stewards can use to support their existing efforts when looking to encourage or implement grassroots policies…(More)”

How civic capacity gets urban social innovations started

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Christof Brandtner: “After President Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords, several hundred mayors signed national and global treaties announcing their commitments to “step up and do more,” as a senior official of the City of New York told me in a poorly lit room in 2017. Cities were rushing to the forefront of adopting practices and policies to address contemporary social and environmental problems, such as climate change.

What the general enthusiasm masked is significant variation in the extent and speed at which cities adopt these innovations…My study of the geographic dispersion of green buildings certified with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, published in the American Journal of Sociology, suggests that the organizational communities within cities play a significant role in adopting urban innovations. Cities with a robust civic capacity, where values-oriented organizations actively address social problems, are more likely to adopt new practices quickly and extensively. Civic capacity matters not only through structural channels, as a sign of ample resources and community social capital, but also through organizational channels. Values-oriented organizations are often early adopters of new practices, such as green construction, solar panels, electric vehicles, or equitable hiring practices. By creating proofs of concepts, these early adopters can serve as catalysts of municipal policies and widespread adoption…(More)”.

How to decode modern conflicts with cutting-edge technologies

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Blog by Mykola Blyzniuk: “In modern warfare, new technologies are increasingly being used to manipulate information and perceptions on the battlefield. This includes the use of deep fakes, or the malicious use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies).

Likewise, emerging tech can be instrumental in documenting human rights violations, tracking the movement of troops and weapons, monitoring public sentiments and the effects of conflict on civilians and exposing propaganda and disinformation.

The dual use of new technologies in modern warfare highlights the need for further investigation. Here are two examples how the can be used to advance politial analysis and situational awareness…

The world of Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology took a leap with a recent study on the Russia-Ukraine conflict by Uddagiri Sirisha and Bolem Sai Chandana of the School of Computer Science and Engineering at Vellore Institute of Technology Andhra Pradesh ( VIT-AP) University in Amaravathi Andhra Pradesh, India.

The researchers developed a novel artificial intelligence model to analyze whether a piece of text is positive, negative or neutral in tone. This new model referred to as “ABSA-based ROBERTa-LSTM”, looks at not just the overall sentiment of a piece of text but also the sentiment towards specific aspects or entities mentioned in the text. The study took a pre-processed dataset of 484,221 tweets collected during April — May 2022 related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and applied the model, resulting in a sentiment analysis accuracy of 94.7%, outperforming current techniques….(More)”.

Actualizing Digital Self Determination: From Theory to Practice

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Blog by Stefaan G. Verhulst: “The world is undergoing a rapid process of datafication, providing immense potential for addressing various challenges in society and the environment through responsible data reuse. However, datafication also results in imbalances, asymmetries, and silos that hinder the full realization of this potential and pose significant public policy challenges. In a recent paper, I suggest a key way to address these asymmetries–through a process of operationalizing digital self-determination. The paper, published open access in the journal Data and Policy (Cambridge University Press), is built around four key themes:…

Operationalizing DSD requires translating theoretical concepts into practical implementation. The paper proposes a four-pronged framework that covers processes, people and organizations, policies, products and technologies:

  • Processes include citizen engagement programs, public deliberations, and participatory impact assessments, can inform responsible data use.
  • People and organizations, including data stewards and intermediaries, play a vital role in fostering a culture of data agency and responsible data reuse.
  • Effective governance and policies, such as charters, social licenses, and codes of conduct, are key for implementing DSD.
  • Finally, technological tools and products need to focus on trusted data spaces, data portability, privacy-enhancing technologies, transparency, consent management, algorithmic accountability, and ethical AI….(More)” See also: International Network on Digital Self Determination.
Four ways to actualize digital self determination, Stefaan G. Verhulst

Design of services or designing for service? The application of design methodology in public service settings

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Kirsty Strokosch and Stephen P. Osborne: “The design of public services has traditionally been conducted by managers who aim to improve efficiency. In recent years though, human-centred design has been used increasingly to improve the experience of public service users, citizens and public service staff (Trischler and Scott, 2016). Design also encourages collaboration and creativity to understand problems and develop solutions (Wetter-Edman et al., 2014). This can include user research to understand current experiences and/or testing prototypes through quick repeated cycles of re-design.

To date, there has been little primary research on the application of design approaches in public service settings (Hermus, et al., 2020). Our article just published in Policy & Politics, Design of services or designing for service? The application of design methodology in public service settings, seeks to fill that gap.

It considers two cases in the United Kingdom: Social Security services in Scotland and Local Authority services in England. The research explores the application of design, asking three important questions: what is being designed, how is service design being practised and what are its implications?…

The research also offers three important implications for practice:

  1. Service design should be applied pragmatically. A one-size-fits-all design approach is not appropriate for public services. We need to think about the type of service, who is using it and its aims.
  2. Services should be understood in their entirety with a holistic view of both the front-end components and the back-end operational processes.  However, the complex social and institutional factors that shape service experience also need to be considered.
  3. Design needs flexibility to enable creativity. Part of this involves reducing bureaucratic work practices and a commitment from senior managers to make available the time, resources and space for creativity, testing and iteration. There needs to be space to learn and improve…(More)“.

Evidence-Based Policymaking: A Path to Data Culture

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Sajana Maharjan Amatya and Pranaya Sthapit: “…The first requirement of evidence-based planning is access to a supply of timely and reliable data. In Nepal, local governments produce lots of data, but it is too often locked away in multiple information systems operated by each municipal department. Gaining access to the data in these systems can be difficult because different departments often use different, proprietary formats. These information siloes block a 360 degree view of the available data—to say nothing of issues like redundancy, duplication, and inefficiency—and they frustrate public participation in an age when citizens expect streamlined digital access.

As a first step towards solving this artificial problem of data supply, D4D helps local governments gather their data onto one unified platform to release its full potential. We think of this as creating a “data lake” in each municipality for decentralized, democratic access. Freeing access to this already-existing evidence can open the door to fundamental changes in government procedures and the development and implementation of local policies, plans, and strategies.

Among the most telling shortcomings of Nepal’s legacy data policies has been the way that political interests have held sway in the local planning process, as exemplified by the political decision to distribute equal funds to all wards regardless of their unequal needs. In a more rational system, information about population size and other socioeconomic data about relative need would be a much more important factor in the allocation of funds. The National Planning Commission, a federal agency, has even distributed guidelines to Nepal’s local governments indicating that budgets should not simply be equal from ward to ward. But in practice, municipalities tend to allocate the same budget to each of their wards because elected leaders fear they will lose votes if they don’t get an equal share. Inevitably, ignoring evidence of relative need leads to the ad hoc allocation of funds to small, fragmented initiatives that mainly focus on infrastructure while overlooking other issues.

The application of available data to the planning cycle is what evidence-based planning is all about. The key is to codify the use of data throughout the planning process. So, D4D developed a framework and guidelines for evidence-based budgeting and planning for elected officials, committee members, and concerned citizens…(More)”.

Digital inclusion in peace processes – no silver bullet, but a major opportunity

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Peace Research Institute Oslo: “Digital inclusion is paving the way for women and other marginalized groups to participate in peace processes. Through digital platforms, those who are unable to participate in physical meetings, such as women with children, youth or disabled, can get their voices heard. However, digital technologies provide no silver bullet, and mitigating their risks requires careful context analysis and process design.  

Women remain underrepresented in peace processes, and even in cases where they are included, they may have difficulties to attend in-person meetings. Going beyond physical inclusion, digital inclusion offers a way to include a wider variety of people, views and interests in a peace process…

The most frequent aim of digital inclusion in peace processes is related to increased legitimacy and political support, as digital tools allow for wider participation, and a larger number and variety of voices to be heard. This, in turn, can increase the ownership of the process. Meetings, consultations and processes using easy and widely available technological platforms such as Zoom, Facebook and WhatsApp make participation easier for those who have often been excluded….

Digital technologies offer various functions for peacemaking and increased inclusion. Their utility can be seen in gathering, analysing and disseminating relevant data. For strategic communications, digital technologies offer tools to amplify and diversify messages. Additionally, they offer platforms for connecting actors and enabling collaboration between them…(More)”.

How a small news site built an innovative data project to visualise the impact of climate change on Uruguay’s capital

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Interview by Marina Adami: “La ciudad sumergida (The submerged city), an investigation produced by Uruguayan science and technology news site Amenaza Roboto, is one of the winners of this year’s Sigma Awards for data journalism. The project uses maps of the country’s capital, Montevideo, to create impressive visualisations of the impact sea level rises are predicted to have on the city and its infrastructure. The project is a first of its kind for Uruguay, a small South American country in which data journalism is still a novelty. It is also a good example of a way news outlets can investigate and communicate the disastrous effects of climate change in local communities. 

I spoke to Miguel Dobrich, a journalist, educator and digital entrepreneur who worked on the project together with colleagues Gabriel Farías, Natalie Aubet and Nahuel Lamas, to find out what lessons other outlets can take from this project and from Amenaza Roboto’s experiments with analysing public data, collaborating with scientists, and keeping the focus on their communities….(More)”

Big data proves mobility is not gender-neutral

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Blog by Ellin Ivarsson, Aiga Stokenberg and Juan Ignacio Fulponi: “All over the world, there is growing evidence showing that women and men travel differently. While there are many reasons behind this, one key factor is the persistence of traditional gender norms and roles that translate into different household responsibilities, different work schedules, and, ultimately, different mobility needs. Greater overall risk aversion and sensitivity to safety issues also play an important role in how women get around. Yet gender often remains an afterthought in the transport sector, meaning most policies or infrastructure investment plans are not designed to take into account the specific mobility needs of women.

The good news is that big data can help change that. In a recent study, the World Bank Transport team combined several data sources to analyze how women travel around the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), including mobile phone signal data, congestion data from Waze, public transport smart card data, and data from a survey implemented by the team in early 2022 with over 20,300 car and motorcycle users.

Our research revealed that, on average, women in AMBA travel less often than men, travel shorter distances, and tend to engage in more complex trips with multiple stops and purposes. On average, 65 percent of the trips made by women are shorter than 5 kilometers, compared to 60 percent among men. Also, women’s hourly travel patterns are different, with 10 percent more trips than men during the mid-day off-peak hour, mostly originating in central AMBA. This reflects the larger burden of household responsibilities faced by women – such as picking children up from school – and the fact that women tend to work more irregular hours…(More)” See also Gender gaps in urban mobility.

3 barriers to successful data collaboratives

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Federico Bartolomucci: “Data collaboratives have proliferated in recent years as effective means of promoting the use of data for social good. This type of social partnership involves actors from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors working together to leverage public or private data to enhance collective capacity to address societal and environmental challenges. The California Data Collaborative for instance, combines the data of numerous Californian water managers to enhance data-informed policy and decision making. 

But, in my years as a researcher studying more than a hundred cases of data collaboratives, I have observed widespread feelings of isolation among collaborating partners due to the absence of success-proven reference models. …Below, I provide an overview of three governance challenges faced by practitioners, as well as recommendations for addressing them. In doing so, I encourage every practitioner embarking on a data collaborative initiative to reflect on these challenges and create ad-hoc strategies to address them…

1. Overly relying on grant funding limits a collaborative’s options.

Data Collaboratives are typically conceived as not-for-profit projects, relying solely on grant funding from the founding partners. This is the case, for example, with TD1_Index, a global collaboration that seeks to gather data on Type 1 diabetes, raise awareness, and advance research on the topic. Although grant funding schemas work in some cases (like in that of T1D_Index), relying solely on grant funding makes a data collaborative heavily dependent on the willingness of one or more partners to sustain its activities and hinders its ability to achieve operational and decisional autonomy.

Operational and decisional autonomy indeed appears to be a beneficial condition for a collaborative to develop trust, involve other partners, and continuously adapt its activities and structure to external events—characteristics required for operating in a highly innovative sector.

Hybrid business models that combine grant funding with revenue-generating activities indicate a promising evolutionary path. The simplest way to do this is to monetize data analysis and data stewardship services. The ActNow Coalition, a U.S.-based not-for-profit organization, combines donations with client-funded initiatives in which the team provides data collection, analysis, and visualization services. Offering these types of services generates revenues for the collaborative and gaining access to them is among the most compelling incentives for partners to join the collaboration.

In studying data collaboratives around the world, two models emerge as most effective: (1) pay-per-use models, in which collaboration partners can access data-related services on demand (see Civity NL and their project Sniffer Bike) and (2) membership models, in which participation in the collaborative entitles partners to access certain services under predefined conditions (see the California Data Collaborative).

2. Demonstrating impact is key to a collaborative’s survival. 

As partners’ participation in data collaboratives is primarily motivated by a shared social purpose, the collaborative’s ability to demonstrate its efficacy in achieving its purpose means being able to defend its raison d’être. Demonstrating impact enables collaboratives to retain existing partners, renew commitments, and recruit new partners…(More)”.