Views from Research – No. 8 | Five podcasts and videos on the importance of more and better data in the Global South

Dr. Johanna Choumert Nkolo

Data are key tools for the design, implementation and evaluation of development policies. Accurate data are indeed a powerful instrument to inform policy choices, monitor policies and programmes, and evaluate impact and progress. Of course, data should not dictate decision making, but having reliable and accurate data is a step toward better development policies. The benefits of having high quality, publicly available, micro-data and macro-data are enormous. In fact, data should be thought of as a public good. Survey practitioners and researchers should clearly continue to sustain their efforts toward better data and data innovations.

Data itself will not solve development challenges, but they should inform decision making and enhance development policies. Here are some insightful, publicly available, videos and podcasts on how to collect, process and make use of data:

——————————————————————–

CAPI versus Paper: Evidence from a Randomized Survey Experiment

Dr. Joachim De Weerdt, Associate Professor of Development Economics at the University of Antwerp, Senior Research Fellow at LICOS (KU Leuven) and Co-Founder & Non-Executive Director at EDI.

For readers, Caeyers, B., Chalmers, N., De Weerdt, J., 2012. Improving consumption measurement and other survey data through CAPI: Evidence from a randomized experiment. Journal of Development Economics 98, 19–33.

——————————————————————–

Africa’s Data Revolution

Amanda Glassman, Chief Operating Officer, Senior Fellow, and Board Secretary at the Center for Global Development, responding to “Why should we care about data in Africa?”

For readers, “Delivering on the Data Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa” (Center for Global Development & The African Population and Health Research Center, 2014).

——————————————————————–

Let my dataset change your mindset

A particularly intriguing presentation from the late Dr. Hans Rosling, Global health expert and data visionary.  Recorded at US State Department in 2009 that still resonates today.

——————————————————————–

Measuring up: How open data could spur drive to meet global goals

Delegates at the Africa Open Data Conference in Dar es Salaam

Data Drives Better Decisions

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF
Louis Marc Ducharme, Director, Statistics Department, IMF

——————————————————————–

* Copyrights of pictures can be found by clicking on images.

NB: Through this blog post you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of EDI. EDI has no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites.