Country
ranking of Congo, Democratic republic is 158/165 according to the
Sustainable Development Report 2021. The country is not progressing at all in
achieving sustainable development, particularly No poverty (SDG1) and Industry,
Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9)
1.
Importance of data
Improving
data quality and reusing and re-purposing data can and have led to improved
development outcomes in terms of monitoring public health, including outbreaks
and spreads of disease, disaster response, (earthquakes, floods ).
Improved poverty mapping can lead to improvements in targeting and service
delivery, road safety, monitoring depletion of natural resources through for
example deforestation and illegal fishing activities.
In
agriculture, combining data from satellite imagery with data from other sources
produces timely more granular estimates of area under cultivation, agricultural
productivity, and yields and thus a more reliable and complete picture of food
security in a region.
Through
the top pathway, data can foster transparency enabling individuals, civil
society, and academia to hold governments accountable for policies and
programs. Through the middle pathway, data produced, collected, and received by
governments and international organizations can enable them to improve
policies, design better programs, and improve service delivery.
Data
facilitate decision-making and help the matching of buyers and sellers, which
increases productivity and generates growth for firms. In addition, data
collected for commercial purposes could potentially be reused and repurposed to
inform policy and improve development outcomes
Data
on average speeds on roads segments and road obstacles, Google maps data on
land use, and weather data on driving conditions are being used to further
pinpoint and understand the crash location and to modify roads, signage,
and traffic rules to prevent fatalities events.
However,
the data can have potential negative development linkages and that if misused
data can harm people.
For
example, through the top pathway data can also enable individuals in organized
groups to cause harm through cyber-crime, steal, and manipulate sensitive
personal information. Through the middle pathway citizens, data can also be
abused by governments for political ends to rig elections, for politically
motivated surveillance, or to discriminate against segments of the population.
A well-functioning data system
requires people to produce, process, and manage high-quality data; people to
populate the institutions that safeguard and protect the data against misuse;
and people to draft, oversee, and implement data strategies, policies, and
regulations. The system also needs people to hold the public and private
sectors accountable and people capable of using data from the production
process of private firms to improve policies in the public sector. All this
requires robust data literacy so that a wide cross-section of people benefit
from an Integrated National Data System (INDS)
2. Barriers of data production
and demand in D R Congo
- Low levels of data literacy.
- Lack of incentives for and
interest in data use
- Low trust in the quality of
public intent data
- Lack of infrastructure to access
and use the data.
3. Recommendations
Following are six
recommendations I would like to propose to the prime minister of D R Congo and
provincial governors to overcome the horrible effects of poverty and our people
left behind as we proceed into the technological age:
1. Emphasize policy initiatives and
investments in building the data skills of public institutions
leaders and decision-makers;
2. Expanding tertiary education
to encompass data science and analytics;
3. Promoting partnerships with
universities and private companies in higher-income countries;
4. Strengthening the data
literacy of senior government leadership;
5. Creating institutional
environments that encourage the use of sophisticated data and evidence in
policymaking and
6. Revamping national statistical offices to
perform nontraditional roles with private intent data.
References :
1.
https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/profiles/congo-dem-rep
2.
World
Bank. 2021. World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives. Washington,
DC: World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-1600-0.
