Increasing data capacity within an organization is not just about hiring the young person who recently graduated with a degree in data science, said Emmanuel Letouzé, director and co-founder of Data-Pop Alliance. It’s also making sure to employ the right mixture of people who collectively understand the history, politics and ethics of data.
The development community is going to see more focused collaboration between different types of organizations that work with data as well as a huge role for the data intermediary — or the person who knows how to translate data to community groups that might not have the same statistical literacy, according to Elizabeth Stewart, research fellow for the Overseas Development Institute.
There are currently two camps — the quant people who can read a spreadsheet and manipulate it, and the specialists who work in areas like health and education.
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Kelli Rogers@kellierin
Kelli Rogers has worked as an Associate Editor and Southeast Asia Correspondent for Devex, with a particular focus on gender. Prior to that, she reported on social and environmental issues from Nairobi, Kenya. Kelli holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, and has reported from more than 20 countries.