Four key elements of inclusive data systems

Four key elements of inclusive data systems 

From building political will to continuous capacity development, four cross-country insights emerged as foundational elements of making inclusive data the norm, outlining how other countries can replicate these achievements.

• Political will is essential for sustaining and scaling inclusive data projects beyond the pilot phase. This is shown by the commitments highlighted by Ghana’s Vice President’s Office; Colombia Statistical Law (2335, 2023), and Kenya’s strategic integration of inclusive data.
• Interoperability is crucial for data sharing and policy integration. To build trust, NSOs and civil society need to work on their language differences before they can start doing technical work. For example, DANE Colombia noted that, when reaching out to CSOs for collaboration, to build trust and relationships successfully they needed to speak “in the language of activists, not statisticians.”
• Co-ownership with affected stakeholders ensures shared responsibility. Technology solutions should focus on making things easy to use and giving the community control instead of adding complicated features.
• Continuous capacity development enables sustainability beyond foundational training. Likewise, quality assurance frameworks should not be barriers, but rather tools that help communities use data in useful ways while still being statistically sound.

Unique but complementary approaches 

Over the two years of South-South learning, Colombia, Ghana, and Kenya each showed their own unique but complementary approaches to inclusive data practices and systems. 

• Kenya pioneered quality standards by integrating citizen data validation criteria to its national statistical quality framework (KeSQAF). This created an institutional model that balances strict standards with practical utility.
• Ghana used mobile technology, cross-sector coordination, and accessibility-first design to collect sensitive data on female genital mutilation. They developed human-centered digital tools that put people’s experience and data quality first.
• Colombia developed community co-creation methods that built trust through the Datos en Acción initiative, by engaging stakeholders across 11 cities and creating a maturity model that lets organizations see how ready they are to integrate citizen data.

Each country’s innovation in these areas offered practical examples for the other countries to learn from and apply to their own contexts.

The MIDN experience shows that South-South collaboration leads to new ideas that are based on the specific needs of each country, rather than just copying existing models. This is especially helpful for countries that are dealing with similar challenges with inclusive data use and application.