🌐 Examples

In Indonesia, BPS Statistics signed an MOU with the mobile network operator Telkomsel, which laid the foundation for discussions about ways to set up the project. Later, a public tender was conducted that resulted in a commercial data sharing agreement.

In Oman, discussions by the National Center for Statistics and Information with the regulator and operators led to the point where the legal basis for data access had to be changed. This took several years to complete. After a government decree was issued giving the NSO the right to request data, MoUs were signed with both of the mobile network operators in the country, which was enough to initiate data sharing.

In 2014, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa brought concern in Ghana. Stakeholders, including Vodafone Foundation and the Ministry of Health, initiated conversations to see if mobile phone data could be used to support decision-making. This led to the installation in 2016 of the first server at Vodafone Ghana, using Flowminder’s specifications and funded by Vodafone Foundation. 

In 2017, the regulators of data protection and telecommunication provided a confirmation of non-objections to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) having access to mobile network data. That year, GSS also undertook a Data Roadmap process with the Global Partnership. As a case study on the matter notes, initially the parties had planned to form a non-binding agreement, but the national regulators requested a formal agreement that addressed various data concerns. After 13 months of discussions, the NSO signed a data sharing agreement with Vodafone (now Telecel), Flowminder, and the funder, Vodafone Foundation.

In Uruguay, the regulator issued a resolution to oblige the mobile network operators to share data. This kind of legislative or regulatory mandate is not uncommon and can pave the way for operators to share data for statistics. Under the requirements of such a mandate, the operator then shares the data with the NSO, based on a Memorandum of Understanding. In Uruguay’s case, the NSO signed a collaboration agreement with the regulator to receive the data.

❗Tips

✅ Decide, depending on the level of cooperation between the NSO and operators, if signing an MoU is necessary at this point. Signing one might be more important if you plan on engaging several operators, as coordinating a detailed data sharing agreement will take time. If the operators don’t deem an MoU important, you might save time by moving directly forward to setting up the committees to steer the process and discuss technical details (see next step in Section 3.3).

✅ Use the guides listed in Resources in this section to develop a draft of the MoU that lists all of the points deemed important at this stage.

✅ Prepare the draft MoU ahead of the previous step, executive meeting.

📖 Resources

This guide has been produced as one of the outputs from the Collaborative on Administrative Data (CAD) and can be instructive for thinking about the terms and conditions to include: A guide and template for improving coordination and cooperation within the national statistical system and increasing access to administrative data for statistics production. 

This example MoU has been shared openly by BPS Statistics Indonesia in the Contracts for Data Collaboration‬ database.

Another example can be found here. 

⏩ Next actions

  • Decide whether an MoU is critical to establish dialogue between the parties, and whether one or more than one is needed.

  • Create an early draft of the MoU(s).

  • Have stakeholders (operators, NSO, and other data sharing partners) sign the MOU(s).