The Guardian view on data protection: a vital check on power (Editorial)

“Data is knowledge and knowledge is power. That is why data protection matters in a democracy. The most recent government paper, a statement of intent, is not the detailed legislation that will be needed to harmonise British law with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR], which comes into force next spring, but it gives a clear view of what the government is trying to achieve.”

The Guardian

Germany finally has an Open Data Law

“On July 13, 2017 Germany’s first Open Data law came into effect, finally enabling free access to government data. The Open Data law is part of the change of the German E-Government law (EGovG), which we translated here.”

Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland

Africa’s open data revolution hampered by challenges

“Sub-Saharan Africa has numerous data revolution challenges such as little capacity and investment, thus limiting demands for using data to boost sustainable development.”

Scidev

En 2100, 40 % de l’humanité sera africaine

« La population de la planète passera de 7,5 à 9,8 milliards d’individus en 2050 pour atteindre, probablement, 11,2 milliards à la fin du XXIe siècle, selon les prévisions des Nations unies. »

Le Monde

Economic Watch: New concepts optimize China's economic development

“China's economy has been optimized in both growth and structure guided by the five development concepts of innovation, coordination, greening, opening up and inclusiveness, according to economists.”

Xinhua

Without data equality, there is no gender equality

“As our partners at Data2X rightly remind us, ‘Without data equality, there is no gender equality.’”

GSPDD

Tanzania, Sri Lanka Focus on Coordinating National Data with SDG Indicators

“The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has provided technical training on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) monitoring to participants in Tanzania and Zanzibar, including advice on how to coordinate national monitoring systems with the SDG global indicator framework.”

IISD

Faking it: The Rwandan GDP Growth Myth

“This is a follow up to the blog-post, which was published on roape.net on 31 May, 2017, in which we showed that poverty increased by between 5 and 7 percentage points between 2010 and 2014 in Rwanda, even as the government claims it decreased by 6 percentage points. The blogpost concluded that the information emerging from the household survey data appeared to be incompatible with the official figures on economic growth, and invited researchers to more closely scrutinize the data coming out of the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).”

The ROAPE

Ireland Opens E-Health Open Data Portal

“The portal aims to bring together some 300 different open data sources into one place, making it easier to find data from across the Irish Health Sector.”

Huffington Post

We should let the robots take our jobs - and then pay us all a basic income

“As developments in artificial intelligence and robotics advance, there is going to be a severe and swift disruption of many working classes. Large swaths of laborers are going to lose their jobs, leading to unprecedented levels of unemployment.”

World Economic Forum

Why Facebook should pay us a basic income

“The idea of guaranteeing a basic income for everybody has many obvious flaws but one overwhelming virtue. It enshrines the principle that every citizen is a valued member of society and has a right to share in its collective wealth.”

Financial Times

Les statistiques, une obsession rwandaise

“Taux de scolarisation, construction de latrines… Depuis 2006, des contrats de performance fixent des objectifs à la population. Le culte du résultat a imprégné toute la société.”

Le Monde

Open Call: Open Data Leaders' Network 9-13 October 2017

“The Open Data Leaders' Network (ODLN) calls for applicants working with open data in government to take part in an exciting five-day programme in London full of expert-led training, field trips and peer support.”

Open Data Institute

Why We Should Care About Bad Data

“At a time of open and big data, data-led and evidence-based policy making has great potential to improve problem solving but will have limited, if not harmful, effects if the underlying components are riddled with bad data.”

The Gov Lab

Ghana: Statistics Must Receive Attention in National Development Planning

“Making plans, policies or decisions without the relevant statistical information is as good as pursuing a course of action merely influenced by assumptions while a timely and good quality data is essential for effective and efficient planning to achieve intended results.”

All Africa

In need of authentic data

“Lack of updated -- even absence of -- data in many cases, has for long been one of the key constraints in government's decision-making. It is often alleged that lack of updated data or data mismatch makes macro planning and budgetary exercise difficult.”

The Financial Express

Capacity development in SDG 4 and education data - Syria

“UNESCO in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Syria organized two 3-day training of trainers (TOT) workshops on (1) SDG 4 Targets and Thematic Indicators and (2) Education statistics and indicators.”

Relief Web

Using Non-Standard Units in Data Collection: The Latest in the LSMS Guidebook Series

World Bank

Key facts on household surveys

Development Initiatives