The road is now winding to Hangzhou in China, and those of us who started the movement, can only bask in the sun and watch the growth of the movement.
Inaugurated in South Africa was the maiden World Data Forum in January 2017, which drew a road map named after the city in which it was birthed, the Cape Town Global Action Plan (CT-GAP) for sustainable development data.
To date, there have been two more rounds after Covid-19 disrupted operations. The World Data Forum was held in Dubai and then in Malaysia.
During Covid, a small World Data Forum was held in Switzerland. From April 24 to 27, 2023, China will be hosting the Fourth Session of the World Data Forum, which is in-person.
Hangzhou will be abuzz with statisticians and data scientists, some of whom, a decade back, had crossed swords to articulate the difference between a chicken and an egg phenomena.
The challenge today, where data can be monetised and become new oil, drew the attention of the then Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon.
To that end, in 2014, he brought a team of 25 of us as an Independent Expert Advisory Group to answer the question of what Data Revolution is.
The assignment lasted just under seven months, and by November 2014, we tabled a report titled “A World that Counts - Mobilising the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development.
The report crafted five areas of action:
– Develop a global consensus on principles and standards: These recommendations were anchored in the deep observation that the worlds of public, private and civil society are drifting apart at an unprecedented speed. These worlds need to be brought together. Through the use of data as a public good, this objective can be realised.
– Share technology and innovations for the common good: This would necessitate the creation of systems through which technology and innovation can be shared for the common good. A “Network of Data Innovation Networks” was conceived as the vehicle for this purpose.
- The focus on new resources for capacity development: In that regard, the task ahead was about improving data as a development agenda in its own right. That means the question of evidence has a seat on the high table in its own capacity.
– The focus would be for establishing leadership for coordination and mobilisation: This idea would be actualised through a United Nations-led “Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data”. The responsibility of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Data is seen as a vehicle to mobilise and coordinate the actions and institutions required to make the data revolution serve sustainable development.
A critical resource for that would be the establishment of a World Data Forum that followed in Budapest, where a technical team consisting of national statistics offices, data scientists and other subject matter specialists created the Forum.
The team recommended that we should exploit some quick wins on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) data, and the establishment of such required a “SDGs data lab”, which would, in turn, support the development of a first wave of SDG indicators.
The team answered the question of what data revolution is by making the following observations that there are two deserved definitions.
One is purely on data revolution, and the other would be data revolution for sustainable development.
The first was about only Data Revolution, which was defined as “An explosion in the volume of data, the speed with which data are produced, the number of producers of data, the dissemination of data, and the range of things on which there is data, coming from new technologies such as mobile phones and the ‘internet of things’, and from other sources, such as qualitative data, citizen-generated data and perceptions data. A growing demand for data from all parts of society.”
The data revolution for sustainable development is defined as: “The integration of these new data with traditional data to produce high-quality information that is more detailed, timely and relevant for many purposes and users, especially to foster and monitor sustainable development.
“The increase in the usefulness of data through a much greater degree of openness and transparency, avoiding invasion of privacy and abuse of human rights from misuse of data on individuals and groups, and minimising inequality in production, access to and use of data. Ultimately, more empowered people, better policies, better decisions and greater participation and accountability, leading to better outcomes for people and the planet.”
The road is now winding to Hangzhou in China, and those of us who started the movement, can only bask in the sun and watch the growth of the movement.
Dr Pali Lehohla is the director of the Economic Modelling Academy, a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
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