Data is useless unless it’s used. Everything above is pointless unless governments actually want to use all this data to make decisions. And the last few years have been, ahem, challenging ones for those who think big decisions are best made using good evidence.
So better data after COVID-19 isn’t about any one thing. It’s a slow incremental process of creating a system, based on good law and respect for rights, fully embedded into political cultures and expectations, attuned to market realities, and trusted by the public.
Two levers can help to build those systems: effective advocacy (governments have to want to do it) and good examples of how to do it (they need to know how). That’s what the Global Partnership was created for, and that’s what we’re doing, little by little, around the world...Facts (data processed into information) are the raw material of critical and creative thinking. Logic and mathematics are the methods. Modeling combines facts and thinking about them. Establishing causation is based on theory and hypothesis testing.
This pandemic is showing up the need for rigorous thinking based on observation.
But then this arsenal needs to be deployed effectively. Since this involves politics, it's a challenge.
Oxfam Blogs — From Poverty to Power
Five ways to have better data after COVID-19
Guest post by Dr. Claire Melamed, CEO of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.
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