Press release
Embargoed until Monday 20th April 00:01 GMTGovernments are blind to their poorest citizens – a data revolution will make them see
Global estimates of how many people living in extreme poverty could be out by more than a quarter, because of a dearth of reliable data.
In a new report from the Overseas Development Institute, researchers say that oft-quoted hard ‘facts’ about global progress are often little more than educated guess-work.
‘The data revolution: Finding the missing millions’ chronicles how
little is actually known about the lives of the poorest. It says more
investment, combined with the application of big data analytics to explore data
gathered by a variety of technologies, including satellite, mobile phones and
drones, is needed if governments are to make informed decisions to help the
poor.
Amongst the gaps highlighted:
• 1.2 billion people ‘officially’ live in extreme poverty,
but surveyors often don’t reach the very poor, so there could actually be 350
million missing from the global total
• Twice the number of women could be dying in childbirth in
Sub-Saharan Africa than the published number
• 600 nationally representative household surveys containing
uniquely detailed data on income poverty and inequality languish in a World
Bank private database
Report author Elizabeth Stuart said, “Even when people are counted, the counting
is not good enough. We need better surveys, better use of the data we have,
underpinned by more investment so governments know the size of the problem, and
how well they are tackling it”.
Amongst the promising big data technologies highlighted:
• Use of satellite technology to track proxy poverty levels,
through recording patterns of settlements’ light emissions
• Smartphones; already being used to upload data about
working water-points in Liberia
• Drones: usually associated with controversial surveillance,
but could be used harnessed to map land rights, track disaster relief efforts,
or gather information on nomadic communities
The report says that policy-makers are often working in the dark, making major
spending decisions – like building new hospitals - without hard facts to base
them on.
It says global investment in
data for the developing world would more than pay for itself. Kenya’s
open data initiative around government procurement – the first in Sub-Saharan
Africa - could save £1bn annually.
“Using data to hold political leaders to account, as
well as to empower the poor, could be game-changing, “ said Elizabeth Stuart,
“From Columbia, Kenya, to India, we’ve heard of data being
harnessed, to help citizens with everything from growing
crops, to mobile banking, to claiming land rights. The data
revolution isn’t in the future, it’s already here.”
For more information please contact Arron Merat, Development Progress Media Officer on [email protected] or call +44 (0)20 7922 0432