Data has the potential to create value and empower citizens but can also concentrate economic and political power if misused. An integrated national data system is needed where high-quality data is produced and shared safely among government, civil society, and private sector to inform policies and decisions. Such a system requires stakeholder collaboration, data literacy, and a social contract to ensure data benefits are equitably shared and risks of misuse are mitigated. A global consensus may also be required to realize data's development benefits while protecting security, privacy, and human rights across borders.

1. THE USE OF DATA FOR DEVELOPMENT PURPOSES
Data are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they offer tremendous potential to
create value by improving programs and policies, driving economies, and empowering
citizens. On the other hand, data accumulation can lead to a concentration of economic
and political power, raising the possibility that data may be misused in ways that harm
citizens. Data are a resource thatcan be used and reused repeatedly to create more and
more value, it is an inexhaustible resource. Unleashing the full potential of data requires
the production of high-quality data that is open for use for policy processes and decision-
making. High-quality data i.e., data that is accurate, complete, reliable, relevant, and
timely is needed to make an informed and better decision. Even when high-quality data
are available and accessible, they must be put to an appropriate use to have an impact
on development. As such, lack of data use is blocking the development path. Potential
data users need to have both a conceptual understanding of how data can inform policy
questions and the technical skills to extract the relevant information from data.

2. Development of a conceptual framework that links data to development through three
institutional pathways (figure O.1). The middle pathway is the use of data by
governments and international organizations to support evidence-based
policymaking and improved service delivery. The top pathway is the use of data by
civil society to monitorthe effects of government policies and by individuals to enable
them to monitor and access public andcommercial services. The bottom pathway is the
use of data by private firms in the production process—use that fuels their growth as
well as wider economic growth. The main conclusion that can be drawn from the
conceptual framework is that data alone cannot solve development problems: people
(in society, governments, and firms) are the central actors transforming data into
useful information that can improve livelihoodsand lives.
Data hold great potential for designing,executing, and evaluating public programs and
policies. A good example is how Nigeria used data to improve and target service
delivery. The 2015 National Water Supply and Sanitation Survey commissioned by
Nigeria’s governmentgathered data from households, water points, water schemes,
and public facilities, including schools andhealth facilities. These data revealed that
130 million Nigerians (or more than two-thirds of the population at that time) did not
meet the standard for sanitationset out by the Millennium Development Goals and
that inadequate access to clean water was especiallyan issue for poor households and
in certain geographical areas. In response to the findings fromthe report based on these
data, the leadership declared a state of emergency in the sector and launched the
National Action Plan for the Revitalization of Nigeria’s Water, Sanitation, andHygiene
(WASH) Sector.
Many countries have used data to monitor, make informed decisions, policies, and
for the next wave in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. At the Africa continent, the
apex public health agency, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
(Africa CDC), a Specialized technical institution of the African Union (AU), gather data
from the official sources of the 55 countries in the continent to make informed
decisions, prepare policies and the guiding documents for the response to the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For more information on COVID-19 cases,
vaccination, and other outbreaks, visit www.africacdc.org. It is always better for each
country especially the developing countries to have their data to make better,
informed decisions and policies that factor in the peculiarities of their geographical
location and the environment rather than solely depending on the data and decisions
from developed countries.
How can people trust that their data will be protected and that they will share in the
value that data can produce? The mounting nature of such concerns suggests the

3. need for a new social contract around data, that is, an agreement among all
participants in the process of creating, reusing, and sharing datathat fosters trust that
they will not be harmed from exchanging data and that part of the value created by
data will accrue equitably. With data reshaping our lives, our societies, and the world
more generally, social contracts for data areneeded both nationally and internationally,
especiallybecause of the cross-border nature of data transactions and flows. Legal
systems, and governance more generally, canbe viewed as instruments for establishing,
facilitating,and enforcing social contracts. Persuading parties toabide by the rules of
a social contract is not an easytask and will hinge on ensuring that the benefits
from using data are shared equitably—thatis, everyone has something to gain.

4. Unleashing the full potential of data requires high-level prioritization of data in the
policyprocess. Governments need to prioritize the production of high-quality data and
the open and transparent use of data for decision-making. Transparencyand reliability
of official statistics can help build trust in government actions. A lack of transparency,
such as not revealing a country’s debt burden, can have harmful economic
consequences and damage the public’strust in government. Fulfilling thepotential of
data requires long-term, stable financingofdata; investments in statistical and technical
capacity; and laws conducive to safe data production andreuse. Other areas that must
be addressed include lowlevels of data literacy affecting the demand for data,policy
makers’ lack of incentives for and interest in using data, low trust in the quality of
data, and lack of infrastructure for accessing andusing the data. These investments
and initiatives relyon one another, and so failure to succeed in one areajeopardizes
the overall value that data can bring to development. Effective use of data can generate
more demand for data, thereby justifying investments to produce more, and higher-
quality, data.
An integrated national data system implies that all participants and stakeholders
collaborate in a system in which data are safely produced, exchanged, and used. It is
all about people. A well-functioning system requires people to produce, process, and
manage high-quality data; people to populate the institutions that safeguard and
protect the data from misuse; and people to draft, oversee, and implement data
strategies, policies, andregulations. A well-functioning system also requirespeople to
use data as a factor of production in both the public sector—for policy design and
implementation—and the private sector—for decision-making and innovations in
products and services. People arealso needed to hold the public and private sectors
accountable. All this requires robust data literacy. It is vital that the public trusts that
data are being safely stored, exchanged, and used to create value equitably while
protecting against misuse. Thus, the social contract for data is built into a well-
functioning national data system and should be recognized in national development
strategies. An integrated national data system serves a number of important
functions; it incorporates various participants from government, civil society, and the
private sector. An integrated national data system enables the production of data
relevant to development; the equitableand safe flow of data among the participants in
the system; and their ability to use and reuse the data while safeguarding against
misuse.

5. Figure O.3 What happens in an integrated national data system?
Source: WDR 2021 team.

6. The data maturity model is used as an organizing framework to help determine the
strengths and weaknesses of the existing data system and identify the sequential
steps that can be taken to establish an integrated national data system. The model
differentiates three stages. At low levels of data maturity, countries should prioritize
establishing the fundamentals of anational data system. Once the fundamentals are
in place, countries should seek to initiate data flows. At advanced levels of data
maturity, the goal is to optimize the system.

7. A successful national data system creates an environment in which the value of data for
development canbe maximized. The impact of data on development increases with
the number of participants safely producing, exchanging, using, reusing, and
repurposing the data. Incorporating the various participants in the national data
system is a central task in buildingan integrated system.
Many stakeholders around the world have concludedthat some sort of global charter
or convention is now required to realize the benefits of data in a safeand secure way
and to avoid destructive beggar-thy-neighbor strategies. A global consensus would
give individuals and enterprises confidence that data relevant to them carry similar
protections and obligations no matter where they are collected or used. It would
effectivelyestablish a social contract that would strike a balance between the use of
data for development and the protection of data in terms of security, privacy, and
human rights of the individual. It would also establish ground rules for the exchange
of data between commercial use and the public good. A global consensus could provide
the basis for promoting open data and data exchange, helping to address public
health crises and other development goals, deal with the weaponization of data, and
thinkabout the trusted use and reuse of data.