So far we’ve looked at how access to data can empower people and argued that ensuring people have actionable data is even more critical in the ‘trying times’ we find ourselves in.
In this post, we’re diving deeper into the question of how to exercise control over one’s data, which, as you might recall, we view as the second key element of the data empowerment concept: “the process where people, on their own or with the help of intermediaries, take control — or gain the power to take control — of their data to promote their and their society’s wellbeing.” …
For several months, all has been quiet on the data empowerment blog. Like the rest of the world, we were shocked when the pandemic hit. We put down our pencils, paused our publication schedule and spent time rethinking the topics we wanted to cover. COVID-19 changed everything.
We chose to listen, to hear people’s experiences, and to reflect on the role of data during the pandemic. We followed the advice of Herminia Ibarra to “embrace the “liminal” period” and to reflect on the many voices debating how data should be used in these trying times.
We have become used to the daily updates on infection rates and death counts. But as we digest these harrowing statistics, we must remember that these numbers don’t include everyone. As Claudia Wells argues, “the most vulnerable people are the most likely to be missing from the data”. …
In our first two posts we outlined an initial definition of the data empowerment concept and discussed three practical examples of data empowerment. In this post we’re looking at ways to ‘do’ data empowerment. Our aim is to provide those who design, implement, evaluate or fund data for development initiatives with practical guidance on data empowerment.
Some of the practices described below are easy to implement, others require specific expertise. Most of them are currently done by a very few development actors. …
It was a humid December afternoon in Banda Aceh, a bustling city in north Indonesia. Two women members of an education reform advocacy group were busy preparing infographics on how the city government was spending its education budget and its impact on service delivery quality in schools. The room was abuzz with questions and apprehension because the next day, the group would present its analysis on the data that they were able to access for the first time to education department officials. The analyses uncovered inefficiencies, poor school performance, ineffective allocation of resources, among others.
While worried about how the officials would react, almost everyone in the room was cheerful. One advocate told me she found the whole process liberating. She found it exhilarating to use government-published data to ask civil servants why the state of education in some schools was disappointing. “Armed with data, I am no longer afraid to speak my mind,” she said. …
A year ago, an Indonesian artist tweeted that he could give away a car to his fans in exchange for personal information that they needed to enter in an online form. While he probably had good intentions, the act was lambasted in social media for collecting vast amounts of personal data, quite irresponsibly, with no information on how the data would be used, and without asking for consent.
But this is nothing new.
People produce 2.5 billion gigabytes of data per day — while searching for information, writing an email, shopping online or using social media. The platforms we use, arguably ask for our consent, but this hides behind long and unintelligible legalese that most of us do not understand and do not have time to read. Many online companies have grown due to a business model rooted in their ability to sweep up this data, and use it for advertising purposes. As a result, the biggest companies collect and store a tremendous amount of personal data, including users’ location, behavioral patterns, social preferences, political views and more. …
By Andreas Pawelke & Michael Cañares
We’ve spent the last six years figuring out how to empower people using data.
As part of that process, we helped set up a data innovation lab and worked across Southeast Asia to find effective ways for people to access data and use it to advance their interests and promote their welfare. We researched different types of data and how to best harness it for international development. …
