Who Decides What and How Data is Re-Used? Lessons Learned from Youth-Led Co-Design for Responsible Data Reuse in Services

Paper by Elena Murray, Moiz Raja Shaikh, Stefaan Verhulst, Hinali Dosh, Romeo Leapciuc, Perizat Mamutalieva, and Mahadia Tunga: “As data-driven service delivery expands, data reuse holds significant potential to improve access to and quality of essential services for young people. However, limited youth involvement in decisions about how their data is reused risks perpetuating mistrust and deepening the inequalities that these services seek to address, particularly if young people choose to avoid seeking services or withhold critical information out of fear of misuse. Responsible data reuse to enhance service delivery must therefore be grounded in methodologies that meaningfully engage youth and reflect their preferences and expectations. This paper presents findings from the NextGenData project, which developed and piloted a scalable methodology for engaging young people aged 19-24 in co-designing responsible data reuse strategies. Conducted as a year-long participatory action research initiative across India, Tanzania, Moldova, and Kyrgyzstan, the approach implemented youth assemblies, deliberative methods, and localized facilitation by national partners to engage young people. The study emphasizes the importance of context-specific, culturally responsive facilitation, and sustained, multi-phase engagement as the foundation for establishing a social license for data reuse. We present recommendations for practitioners to embed youth-centered approaches in data governance and offer a publicly available toolkit for replication. By centering young people in data decisions, this methodology advances ethical, inclusive, and effective service delivery and digital self-determination for young generations…(More)”.