I am currently attending Festival de Datos in Uruguay.  While my work is more… ‘data adjacent’, it’s a short flight from Peru (my current temporary home) so why not spend 3 days immersed in a world of data for development.  I am sharing a few reflections / questions from the sessions I’m attending here.  Please comment! If you’re interested in following along, livestreams are available here.

Over the last few years I’ve seen a lot of discussion around citizen-generated data. At On Our Radar, we even used the term (slightly uncomfortably) as a more ‘funder-friendly’ way to describe our work amplifying the voices of the unheard.

Some discussions at Festival de Datos got me reflecting on how these two areas relate – citizen-generated data and Digital Citizen Engagement, or meaningful participation and inclusion of populations.

Clearly both of these are important areas of work; but they are not the same, and lately it seems that they are often being conflated.  However…

• Gathering and using data from citizens does not necessarily translate to their meaningful engagement and participation in decisions that affect their lives.

• Using digital tools to engage populations in decision-making does not necessarily translate into useful and usable data to inform government policy, institutional delivery or tracking of progress towards the SDGs

So what might be missing..?

1. For Digital Citizen Engagement programs, can they more comprehensively engage with the data4dev community to ensure that the data they are collecting becomes more useful and usable outside of their immediate goals?
2. For Citizen Generated Data work, can those providing the data be more meaningfully engaged in what happens to it – participatory analysis and interpretation has long been advocated for in Participatory Action Research circles; can we also ensure the citizens providing the data are somehow involved in the development of the narrative that emerges from it – after all the narrative is where the power to change things truly lies.

Is anyone working at the intersection of this Venn diagram?

I’d love to hear more about your work in the comments below!