Participants spanning government representatives, academics, international organizations, civil society and data activists attended the Cartagena Data Festival. The three-day event was organised by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Africa Gathering, Centro de Pensamiento Estratégico Internacional (CEPEI), Data-Pop Alliance, PARIS21 and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNICEF was among the partners, alongside many other organizations.
Highlights from the festival prepared by Devex
The question on everyone’s minds: “How to harness the data revolution to solve critical gaps in the coverage, accessibility and analysis of data?”— was the focus of numerous panel discussions, presentations and interactive forums. Citizen engagement, counting the uncounted, and the potential uses of big data were just some of the topics discussed. Evening exhibitions and an innovations fair contributed to the fruitful flow of ideas and strategies for propelling the already burgeoning data revolution across the world.
UNICEF co-organized the festival track on ‘Counting what Counts.’ From the MICS Team, Turgay Unalan, Statistics Specialist in the Data & Analytics Section, delivered a presentation during the ‘Gender and Beyond: New Tools for Disaggregated Data and their Impact’ panel session. Jeffrey O’Malley, Director of the Division of Data, Research and Policy, UNICEF, participated in the concluding discussion on ‘Embedding New Ideas in Institutions.’ Claes Johansson, Senior Adviser in the Data & Analytics section, participated in a panel entitled, ‘Vital Registration and Vital Statistics.’
The power of data visualization as a compelling tool to tell stories about human development reverberated throughout the festival. The Cartoon Movement, a global collaborative platform for editorial cartoons and graphic journalism, showcased submissions of artwork relating to data and development which were displayed throughout the venue. The Human Development Report Office (HDRO) drew talent through a data visualization competition which awarded three finalists the opportunity to present their ideas.
The festival included discussions on various types of data, ranging from robust data generated by household surveys and vital registration data, to new types of data, such as data generated through mobile technologies and real time data. In navigating the big data landscape, characterized by an unprecedented quantity and type of data available, UNICEF takes a step back to question the respective roles that individual data sources will play and if in this context, all data are created equal.
In the ecosystem of data sources ranging from traditional census and survey data, to citizen-generated data, all sources provide a service. Collectively, these varied sources function hand-in-hand to provide us with a complete snapshot of global development. Remove one and we disrupt the careful balance—we miss a key element of the overall picture. While national-level statistics provide governments with a way to benchmark progress at the macro level, citizen-generated data can help to fill gaps and provide insight about specific groups so that none are left behind. To effectively prioritize the needs of children in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the global community will need to rely on a variety of data sources to hold governments accountable, track progress, and ultimately, to facilitate change.
The festival was widely successful in bringing together key players across sectors from governments, NGOs, corporations and the United Nations, to discuss how the data revolution can be harnessed to improve lives. Public & private sectors are joining forces, employing both traditional and innovative methods, to catalyse growth in this area. Echoing the structural framework for sustainable development, across environmental, social, and economic pillars, as part of a large interconnected system, partners in the data revolution too are acknowledging their role in the greater whole. In this time of change, an air of inclusion underpinned by trans-sectoral collaboration will propel the data revolution forward for development.
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ODI conducted interviews with Shaida Badiee, Sabina Alkire, Bitange Ndemo and Eric Swanson. Watch them below.