Opinion: Ahead of Davos, a message — in (good) data we trust

The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos returns to a more familiar environment next week. Last year global leaders relaxed in shirt sleeves during a mild and snow-free May, but this year’s meeting is back to subzero January. While the temperature at this year’s conference may have dropped, the multiple crises delegates are there to address are decidedly heating up. We see one fundamental tool upon which conversations at Davos around development must be based: good data. Since the last Davos meeting, a series of alarms have been sounded. The World Bank has said that the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030, the first promise of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, can no longer be achieved, and warned this week of a possible global recession ahead. On climate change, despite some progress at the 27th United Nations climate summit, U.N. Secretary-General General António Guterres said that national climate plans are “falling woefully short” amid a widening global emissions gap. And global inequality remains high and is increasing in most countries, particularly after COVID-19 reversed decades of progress on poverty reduction. As the new CEO of Development Initiatives, my team and I are focused on this triple threat of poverty, inequality, and vulnerability to shocks, especially linked to climate change. Against this backdrop, this year’s Davos theme, Cooperation in a Fragmented World, seems particularly apt. Indeed, these issues feature heavily in the WEF’s own predictions of the greatest global risks over the next decade. These challenges can feel overwhelming. How can delegates even begin to grapple with problems of this magnitude and chart a course toward equitable and sustainable development solutions? We are optimistic that these troubling trends can be arrested — but only if decision makers at every level, from discussion rooms in Davos to health care clinics in Kampala, are informed by data they can trust. Good data is not a panacea, but it is a necessary accompaniment to courageous and enlightened leadership, which the world needs now more than ever. What does good, trusted, decision-ready data look like? I think it has five distinguishing features. 1. It describes the true scale of the problem Accurate and timely data can help us understand the true scale of the challenges we face. Data can help us highlight global, regional, and national poverty trends, track where development finance is going, understand how the ebb and flow of funding affects humanitarian crises from Ukraine to Somalia, or investigate how much is really spent on climate finance or funding local humanitarian organizations. To catalyze action to address these challenges, decision makers first need to know what they’re dealing with. 2. It helps us look forward as well as back Too often, gaps, inconsistencies, and delays in the data mean we are looking in the rearview mirror at a partial or ambiguous picture. Donors can help address this issue by publishing high-quality, timely data using common standards such as the International Aid Transparency Initiative, strengthening accountability for how resources are used and how effectively. The more timely and disaggregated data we have, the more robust the evidence we can produce to inform prompt decisions on the allocation of financial resources. During times of crisis when action is needed fast, this task becomes particularly urgent. 3. It enables us to understand that people’s lives are nuanced and complicated As well as broad trends, data can help us build a more nuanced picture of people’s lived experiences. After all, poverty isn’t just about whether a person’s income is above a particular monetary threshold; it’s a multidimensional phenomenon determined by many factors such as access to health care, education, or jobs. Similarly, inequality is about the distribution of power and resources, the rights people can exercise and the opportunities they can access. To investigate this, we need granular data that can be disaggregated by variables such as gender and age, highlighting the ways that discrimination and other factors can hold people back. 4. It is geared toward being used Much progress has been made in making more data open and accessible, but its potential can only be realized if it is actually used. Data systems may be fragmented or produce data that is difficult to analyze. Data may sit unused in so-called data graveyards, eventually being lost and forgotten. In other cases, data collection efforts are duplicated, and a lack of shared standards has led to an excess of usable indicators. Good data is not a panacea, but it is a necessary accompaniment to courageous and enlightened leadership. --— A notable example that I raised at the Effective Development Cooperation Summit last year was Zimbabwe, where national agencies conducted 33 surveys in 10 years supported by 12 different international funders — and only three of the surveys disaggregated data to a district level that allows truly meaningful use in practice. 5. It is legitimate: locally owned and responsibly collected, managed, and used Data disharmony is partly a legacy of underinvestment and lack of donor coordination, which has led to poor data infrastructure and overlapping, competing systems that do not serve national development priorities. While donors must act on commitments to aid effectiveness by improving coordination, the locus of power needs to fundamentally shift. Lower-income country governments need clear national development strategies with locally maintained systems to track progress toward their objectives. They need to own their own data on behalf of their citizens. For this to be sustainable, they need to be able to finance it. Above all, data must be trusted. As the saying goes, “nothing about us without us,” which is partly about putting users at the heart of development solutions and ensuring that local perspectives are integral to the entire data lifecycle. It is also about ensuring that the international engagement of donors and civil society organizations is driven by an understanding of local needs and perspectives. Finally, it is about responsible data stewardship. As users or custodians of data, all stakeholders must hold themselves to the highest standards of data ethics, privacy, and security. To address deepening global divisions, 2023 must be the year to change course. For leaders at Davos, this must include investing in nationally owned data systems that are sustainable, inclusive, and tailored to local needs. Looking to the year ahead, in April, I hope the World Data Forum in China will address all these issues as partners convene from across the global data community. To lead from the front, we must ensure that those most vulnerable to global crises are not left behind.