On Tuesday, December 16th from 8:30am-12:30pm, Abt Associates will be hosting an interactive session on the fifth Principle for Digital Development, Be Data Driven. Please RSVP now to join us, either in person or online.
This event is part of our effort to promote the Greentree Consensus, a concerted effort by donors to capture the most important lessons learned by the development community in implementing ICT4D projects. These 9 Principles for Digital Development seek to serve as a set of living guidelines that are meant to inform, but not dictate, the design of technology-enabled development programs.
At this next session, we’ll be focusing very concretely on challenges and solutions in being data driven. By the end of the event, we’ll all have a list of the major barriers holding us back and tangible solutions to break through those barriers. We’ll start with a panel discussion that covers three specific projects and how they managed to successfully embrace data:
- Brooke Cutler, Deputy Director, MAMA (Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action)
- Michael Rodriguez, Director for International eHealth Initiatives, Abt Associates
- David McAfee, President/CEO, Human Network International
We’ll then have engaging group discussions with a focus on real world solutions, driven by your peer practitioners and their experience in embracing data in development. The vent will finish with an update on how the Principle for Digital Development movement is progressing and guidance on how you can play a role.
All participants must RSVP via Eventbrite to join us in-person near Abt Associates offices in Bethesda or virtually online.
Will these sessions be recorded and available online? I’d love to attend, but the time change makes it difficult as I am in Australia.
The idea of development “being data-driven” makes me feel uncomfortable. I believe that is reveals and reflects the managerialist and technocratic priorities of donors, which would not be set by grassroots community actors. I prefer the language and the aim of “being community driven”. Technocratic models of development rely in part on the idea of data extraction for analysis by external experts. This is something that Bill Easterly rails against in his latest book on international development “The Tyranny of Experts”. Data is not truth. It is not neutral. Data must be processed by humans in order to produce knowledge and that knowledge must be critically analysed and actioned by community members themselves if they are to be the arbiters of their own development. I understand and respect that people will have different views on this subject but for what it is worth, this is my own opinion.
Tony,
I don’t think there is a conflict between being community driven and being data driven. I would say we should have communities lead us to their problems and potential solutions and use data to make sure those solutions are truly effective. A great example is cookstoves, where community members over-report usage by 30-50%. This community/data combination can allow for a more nuanced intervention, where just being community driven would not.
Perhaps Wayan the principle should be that the process is community-driven and that any data is owned and interpreted by community members themselves as part of their self-determination of their development directions?
You could argue, with some justification, that refusing the descriptor ‘data-driven’ is just semantics. However in my experience development is often driven by external logics of funders and INGOs hidden behind technocratic exigenses.
I should know; I was that technocratic CEO.