Bill Heisel, director of global engagement at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington, found hope in data on diarrhea. What stood out to him in data from the Global Burden of Diseases on the top five killers in West Africa? Ghana, which had reduced its diarrheal death rate by 80 percent between 1990 and 2010.
“If you are trying to make decisions and set priorities in your community, and you are focused only on things that aren’t working, then you can quickly end up in this cycle of always chasing the most obstinate problems instead of looking to areas where there’s a possibility of progress and trying to mirror that progress,” Heisel told Devex. “The data show there are success stories happening all the time, so it’s about putting a narrative around that and finding out what worked and whether it is replicable.”
The growing emphasis on data driven development presents an opportunity for global development professionals to learn from and perhaps even replicate the successes of the best performers within a data set. But that can only happen once they learn how to take a positive deviance approach, identifying the people or policies that defy the norm and achieve better outcomes as result, as a starting point to determine what is working.
About the author
Catherine Cheneycatherinecheney
Catherine Cheney is the Senior Editor for Special Coverage at Devex. She leads the editorial vision of Devex’s news events and editorial coverage of key moments on the global development calendar. Catherine joined Devex as a reporter, focusing on technology and innovation in making progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to joining Devex, Catherine earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, and worked as a web producer for POLITICO, a reporter for World Politics Review, and special projects editor at NationSwell. She has reported domestically and internationally for outlets including The Atlantic and the Washington Post. Catherine also works for the Solutions Journalism Network, a non profit organization that supports journalists and news organizations to report on responses to problems.
