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Intersectionality Data for Development Impact

Intersectionality is a concept that uncovers the challenges faced by people who have multiple, intersecting group identities. Gathering insights from development, feminist, and identity theories, this concept note translates intersectionality into practical guidance for national development data.

Understanding the Gender-Climate Nexus

Drawing on data from the Gender Data Compass, this issue brief finds six areas where the lack of disaggregated data is having major impacts related to climate change.

Gender Data Compass: Charting Data Availability and Enabling Environment

The new Gender Data Compass looks at national gender data systems and their enabling environment, covering 53 key gender indicators in over 180 countries. Read the full report or see the data online.

Data Action Plan Sets Targets for 2030

Developed by a coalition of partner groups, the Data Action Plan 2030 was presented to the SDG Summit as a way to leverage the data revolution over the next six years to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.

Executive Summary: Open Data Inventory 2022/23

The sixth edition of the Open Data Inventory (ODIN) Report, covering 192 countries, provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of open data around the world in 2022-23.

Gender Equality Demands Gender Data

As the world observes Women’s Day 2023, ODW looks at the numbers and at ongoing efforts to close gender data gaps through smart data financing, strengthened country capacity, and innovative practical solutions.

Harnessing The Power of Open Data

Open Data Days, happening 4-10 March 2023, celebrate how open data is used to benefit communities around the world. Join Open Data Watch in supporting these initiatives to harness the potential of open data in many practical ways.

Open Data Resource Guide

Open data can be powerful for informing policies, increasing transparency and measuring progress. But making data open takes commitment, organization, and technical capacity. Ahead of the upcoming Data for Policy conference, Open Data Watch offers this guide to common questions, persistent challenges, and progress to-date,

Overcoming Data Graveyards in Official Statistics

Billions of gigabytes of data are produced daily, but valuable data often pass into “data graveyards” — lost when most needed for evidence-informed decisions on pandemics, climate change, and energy and food insecurity. This report finds best practices to improve data use and impact.

Advancing Gender Data and Statistics in Africa

What progress has been made since 2019 when the Gender Data Network was created in response to research showing huge gaps in gender data availability in Africa? This report provides an update.

Better Measurement and Monitoring of Data for Development

What are the similarities and differences between existing tools to measure the capacity and outputs of statistical systems? This report compares 12 major indexes and tools, mapping them to the Global Data Barometer and the Data Value Chain.

Solutions to Close Gender Data Gaps

This major report from Data2x and ODW on gender data gaps presents ways not only to identify gaps, but actually to start filling the gaps through ten specific steps using 142 innovative solutions across six development sectors.

UN Statistical Commission Endorses Report on Open Data

The 53rd UN Statistical Commission endorses the Report of the Working Group on Open Data, to which Open Data Watch was a major contributor.  The Report notably establishes the principle of “Open Data by Default.”

Data Dissemination in the Digital Age

There is an increasing number of data portals, but their quality and functioning are uneven, and there is no internationally agreed framework. How can we improve data portals?

Gender Data Gaps: A Comparison of Three Regions

Drawing on the Bridging the Gap studies of 25 countries across Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean, this report compares the gaps in gender data that most impact our knowledge of the status and well-being of women and girls in the three regions.

State of Gender Data Financing 2021

What exactly is the the gap between current resources and the level of financing needed to fully fund gender data systems from now until 2030? This comprensive report runs the numbers, assesses the options and suggests six areas of action for the way forward.

State of Gender Data Financing 2021 Methodology Note

This reference document details the methodology behind the “State of Gender Data Financing 2021” report by Open Data Watch and Data2X.

Bridging Gender Data Gaps in Asia and the Pacific: Technical Report

This study of five countries in Asia and the Pacific assesses the availability and quality of 98 gender indicators from international and national data sources that impact the status and welfare of women and girls and that can support evidence-based policies assuring gender equality.

Country Profiles and Policy Reports: Bridging the Gap in Asia and the Pacific

Offering in-depth assessments for the “Bridging the Gap: Mapping Gender Data Availability in Asia and the Pacific” Technical Report, these Country Profiles and Policy Reports look at the availability, quality and use of data for data-driven policies to promote gender equality and improve the status of women.

Open Data for Official Statistics: History, Principles, and Implentation

For data in national statistical offices to fully benefit society, they must be available to the public as open data. This report reviews the evolution of standards for open data, how standards are implemented, and what tools and models can guide NSOs in their new, expanded role as data brokers and data stewards.

ODIN Open Data Inventory 2020/21 Annual Report

Open Data Watch launches the Annual Report of the 2020/21 Open Data Inventory (ODIN). Assessing the coverage and openness of official statistics in 187 countries, ODIN monitors the progress of open data that are relevant to economic, social, and environmental development.

ODIN Open Data Inventory 2020/21 Executive Summary

The latest edition of the Open Data Inventory (ODIN) has just been released. ODIN 2020/21 provides an assessment of the coverage and openness of official statistics in 187 countries across 22 data categories. Despite the pandemic and with still some data gaps, great progress has been made in open data.

Understanding Women’s and Girls’ Vulnerabilities to the COVID-19 Pandemic

This in-depth report identifies lower-income countries where women and girls are most exposed to and most at risk from the COVID-19 pandemic and assesses countries’ capability to respond, based on a gender vulnerability data dashboard.

Understanding Usability of SDG National Reporting Platforms

Monitoring several national Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) reporting platforms and portals, Open Data Watch reports a number of search and access problems and makes recommendations for potential improvements.

Bridging Gender Data Gaps in Latin America and the Caribbean: Technical Report

This study of five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean assesses the availability and quality of 93 gender indicators from international and national data sources that impact the status and welfare of women and girls and that can support evidence-based policies assuring gender equality and opportunity for women.

Country Profiles: Bridging the Gap in Latin America and the Caribbean

In-depth country profiles for the “Bridging the Gap: Mapping Gender Data Availability in Latin America and the Caribbean” report that looks at the availability and quality of data for 93 gender-relevant indicators concerning the status and welfare of women and girls.

Bridging the Gap: Methodology Report

This publication details the Open Data Watch research methodology behind the series of reports on “Bridging the Gap: Mapping Gender Data Availability” in Africa, in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Asia and the Pacitic.

ConVERGE 2020: Outcome Report

The conference Outcome Report of ConVERGE: Connecting Vital Events Registration and Gender Equality spotlights renewed global commitment to strengthening Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) through integration of gender analysis.

Country Profiles: Bridging the Gap in Africa

This set of 15 country profiles presents country-specific findings from Bridging the Gap: Mapping Gender Data Availability in Africa that examines the availability and quality of data for 104 gender-relevant indicators across six key domains: health, education, economic empowerment, political participation, human security, and environment.

Navigating the Politics of Open Data

This report highlights the main takeaways from a multi-stakeholder high-level political forum on navigating the challenges and maximizing the opportunities of making data open, accessible and properly disaggregated.

Reference Guide: Mapping the Gender Dimensions of CRVS

In support of good practices to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS), the authors of a paper in the latest Knowledge Brief have created a reference guide identifying key gender barriers to registration of birth and deaths, and mapping supply-side issues to needed demand-side research.

State of Gender Data Financing 2019

Spanning the 17 goals, 169 targets and 232 indicators of the SDGs is a promise “to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.” Advancing that goal touches many domains – from labor opportunities to reduced maternal mortality to increased representation in political life. This paper finds that the current gap in financing the needed core data on gender in lower-income countries is between $170M-$240M a year between now and 2030. It suggests a way to increase total funding and improve existing funding flows for higher impact.

Brochure: Bridging Gender Data Gaps in Africa

This brochure summarizes the key findings of the full “Bridging the Gap: Mapping Gender Data Availability in Africa” technical report and efforts to understand, identify, and respond to the challenge having policy-relevant data about the lives of women and girls in Africa.

Bridging Gender Data Gaps in Africa

Focused on 15 Sub-Saharan African countries, this in-depth study looks at 104 gender-relevant indicators needed to assess the status and welfare of women and girls. The aim is to offer those who measure and monitor progress a clearer view of where gender data gaps exist, why gaps occur, and what can be done.

Maximizing Access to Public Data: Striking the Balance

How can access to publicly held data be maximized while protecting privacy? This in-depth look at public-to-public and public-to-private data sharing finds that opening data should be the default, but provides guidance on taking informed decisions about what and how data should be open to ensure maximum openness, mutual trust, transparency, and protection of sensitive personal information.

Open Data Inventory 2018/19 Annual Report

The 2018-2019 Open Data Inventory (ODIN) is now online with latest assessments of the coverage and openness of official data and statistics in 178 countries. The 2018-19 Annual Report summarizes results and is accompanied by a detailed Methodology Report, and an introductory video.

CRVS Benefit Health, Children, & Governance

With growing interest in big data and data innovations, the value of traditional civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems risks being overlooked. As a key data source to monitor 12 of 17 SDGs  and 67 of 230 SDG indicators, CRVS instead needs more political priority and financial  resources.

Brochure: Measuring Data Use

The effectiveness of websites or data portals maintained by National Statistical Offices depends whether data users are aware of their existence and contents, and whether they are monitored and managed to assure that users can readily find what they are seeking…

Counting on Statistics

A result of a joint project between AidData and Open Data Watch, the Counting on Statistics report examines how official statistics are being used from the perspective of 400 national statistical office officials and 650 government ministry officials in 140 low- and middle-income countries.

Measuring Data Use

The effectiveness of websites or data portals maintained by National Statistical Offices depends whether data users are aware of their existence and contents and, importantly, whether they are organized and monitored so that users can find the information they are seeking…

IODC18 Pre-Event Outcome Report

A major pre-event of the International Open Data Conference (IODC18) examines the intersection of open data, interoperability, and national reporting and dissemination platforms to maximize their combined impact for SDGs.

IODC 2018 Brochure: National Reporting for the Sustainable Development Goals

The International Open Data Conference brings together the global open data community to collaborate on the future of open data. This brochure describes the opportunities for interoperable and open data solutions for the SDGs.

Development Data Funding 2018

The funding environment for meeting the data demands of the SDGs has changed and there is now a better understanding of a couple of options for updating previous cost estimates in order to know the real funding gap for effective SDG monitoring.

Open Data Inventory 2017 Annual Report

The Open Data Inventory (ODIN) measures the coverage and openness of official statistics published on national statistical offices’ websites.

The Data Value Chain: Moving from Production to Impact

Data are the factual currency for evidence-based policy making. The data value chain describes the evolution of data from collection to analysis, dissemination, and the final impact of data on decision making.

Ready to Measure – Phase2 – SDG Gender Indicators

Achieving gender equality – and monitoring its progress – needs a significant improvement in data disaggregated by sex, age, and other important attributes. Access to high-quality gender data are critical to a country’s ability to compile each of the indicators needed to monitor and implement the SDGs; but how many of these indicators are available today?

The State of Development Data Funding 2016

The State of Development Data Funding (SDDF) 2016 report provides updated estimates of the cost of producing the final set of SDG indicators agreed by the Inter-Agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs).

Open Data to Support Sustainable Development Goals

Themed “Global Goals, Local Impact,” the 2016 International Open Data Conference (IODC16) built stronger ties for work on open data between governments, data journalists, policy makers, private companies, civil society, and activists.

Open Data to Support the SDGs

The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data is a global network of governments, NGOs, and businesses working together to strengthen the way that data is used to address the world’s sustainable development efforts.

Aid For Statistics: 2016 Inventory of Financial Instruments

This report summarizes outcomes of a survey by Open Data Watch (ODW) of the principal organizations providing aid for statistics.

Ready to Measure: Twenty Indicators for Monitoring SDG Gender Targets

The fundamental principle of the 2030 development agenda is to leave no one behind. Achieving real inclusion – and monitoring progress – will require a significant improvement in the availability of data.

Data For Development: An Action Plan

The Data Revolution for Sustainable Development is poised to transform the way governments, citizens, and companies do business. This report provides recommendations based on an assessment of the cost of the core statistical tools needed to measure sustainable development.

The Open Data Inventory

Executive Summary: In this article, we describe a new approach to assessing the coverage and accessibility of the datasets most pertinent to managing and monitoring the social, economic, and environmental development of a country.

Partnerships and Financing for Statistics: Lessons Learned from Recent Evaluations

To understand how a partnership can mobilize and coordinate efforts around strengthening statistics, this report offers lessons learned from 27 evaluations of statistical capacity programs.

ODIN Annual Report 2015

Introducing ODIN In 2015 the Open Data Inventory (ODIN) assessed the coverage and openness of of cial statistics in 125 mostly low- and middle-income countries. Data in 20 statistical categories were assessed on 10 elements of coverage and openness.