The Data Imperative is Here to Stay

Most in the development sector acknowledge the important role data can play in their effectiveness, responsiveness to real needs, and impact. Yet data deficits remain, unnecessarily burdening development actors with imperfect views of how best to deploy their resources.

In the technological world in which we now live, data is clearly not scarce. Look around and you’ll find it’s pretty much everywhere.

There is also little argument about how powerful it can be for decision makers and informing practice in almost all endeavors in life.

But in the development sector, data remains difficult and challenging to obtain to advance development efforts. To be sure, there are digital divides that create roadblocks to perfect access to actionable data. Those divides exist between the developed and developing world, and between men and women, rich and poor, young and elderly, urban and rural.

Yet, the challenge that is usually framed as “overcoming the complexity and cost of acquiring data” needs a rethink. As mobile phone penetration and literacy as well as the range of tools to access data expand, the challenge of acquiring high quality data in challenging circumstances is better thought of as “overcoming outdated preconceptions and being nimble in response to change”.

As identified in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the development sector does need to report to “multiple masters” and “demonstrate the impact of what they do in terms of multiple bottom lines”.

Data collection for the sector requires more nuance and is more challenging than it is in the for-profit sector. But given there is no longer a paucity of data, simply outdated ways of accessing it, these considerations, while valid, need to be de-emphasized in favor of new ways of thinking about data, access to it, and the ability to collect it.

Organisations that can deploy resources to access data over longer time horizons, in more nimble ways that enable them to use it iteratively and adapt to new information on-the-go, and in ways that listen to the communities they aim to serve are likely to maximise their impact.

The changes relate more to organisational structure and culture than technology. The affordable data era is upon us and the need to be data-driven has never been greater.

Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Medium | Telegram | OpenSea | YouTube