WDR21  cover illustration by Mijke Coebergh

World Development Report 2021: DATA FOR BETTER LIVES

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Main Messages

  1. Forge a new social contract for data. For data to realize its potential to transform lives, new rules of the road are needed - a social contract for data is needed. Such a contract would enable the use and reuse of data to create economic and social value, while ensuring equitable access to the value realized, as well as fostering participants’ trust that they will not be harmed by data misuse. Renewed efforts are required to improve data governance domestically, as well as through closer international cooperation. Moreover, the voice of low-income countries needs to be heard in the global debate on data governance.

  2.  Increase data use and reuse to realize greater value. Using data for one purpose does not diminish their value. Increasing access to more users through open data, interoperability standards and data sharing initiatives, for example, increases the potential of data for positive development impacts. Much of the recent explosion in new data has stemmed from digitization of firm operations. Combining these data with traditional sources such as censuses, national surveys, government administrative data, and data produced by civil society organizations could help fill data gaps, provide timelier and finer-scale assessments of programs and policies, and serve public policy needs. Realizing this increased value calls for changing both mindsets and frameworks guiding data use. 

  3.  Create more equitable access to the benefits of data. Major inequities in the ability to produce, utilize, and profit from data can be found across both rich and poor countries and among the rich and poor people within them. Data systems for public and private intent data alike tend to exclude poor people, and statistical capacity and data literacy remain limited in poor countries. Many lower-income countries lack the data infrastructure needed to speedily exchange their own data traffic over the internet and secure cost-effective access to modern data storage and cloud computing facilities. Their small economic size also limits the availability of data for machine learning and constrains the development of home-grown platform businesses that could be globally competitive. Efforts to improve the fairness of the global data system need to address both types of inequities. 

  4.  Foster trust through safeguards that protect people from the harm of data misuse. The more data are reused, the greater is the risk of data misuse. This risk is evident in growing concerns about cybercrime and the potential for politically or commercially motivated surveillance. The scope for discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, race, gender, disability status, or sexual orientation may be further exacerbated by the growing use of algorithms. Addressing these concerns calls for the regulation of personal data grounded in a human rights framework, supported by policies that secure both people and the data systems on which they depend. 

  5.  Work toward an integrated national data system (INDS). Although a new social contract can rebalance and reset the rules of the game for data governance, implementation of this vision further calls for an INDS that allows the flow of data among a wide array of users in a way that facilitates safe use and reuse of data. A well-functioning INDS explicitly builds data production, protection, exchange, and use into planning and decision-making and actively integrates the various stakeholders—individuals, civil society, academia, and the public and private sectors— into the data life cycle and into the governance structures of the system. Achieving a well-functioning INDS requires proper financing and incentives to produce, protect, and share data. Greater investment in physical and human capital is needed to improve data governance, specialized analytical and data security skills, as well as data literacy of the general public. Dependent on starting points, countries will need to work gradually toward this goal. 

 

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Part I. Advancing development objectives through data
 

WDR 2021 illustration for chapter 1: Harnessing the value of data for the poor--woman in a field
     

Chapter 1. Harnessing the value of data for the poor

Spotlight 1.1. Helping communities gain the ability to collect and analyze their own data

Spotlight 1.2. The importance of good data in helping low-and middle-income countries manage debt during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

 

WDR 2021 illustration for Chapter 2. Data as a force for public good--woman walking with a dog
 

Chapter 2. Data as a force for public good

Spotlight 2.1. Deploying data to curtail violence against women and girls

Spotlight 2.2. The role of international organizations in improving public intent data

WDR 2021 illustration for Chapter 3. The development impacts of data used in the production process of firms--a man carrying packages on a trolly cart
 

Chapter 3. Data as a resource for the private sector

Spotlight 3.1. The huge potential of open data for business applications
 

WDR 2021 illustration for chapter 4. Creative reuses of data for greater value--riding a motorcycle
 

Chapter 4. Creative reuses of data for greater value

Spotlight 4.1. Gathering, sharing, and using better data on weather, water, and climate from low- and middle-income countries

Spotlight 4.2. Making roads safer by repurposing private intent traffic data

Part 2. Aligning data governance with the social contract 
 

WDR 2021 illustration for chapter 5 Chapter 5. Data infrastructure policy: Ensuring equitable access for poor people and poor countries--woman with a baby and a child
 

Chapter 5. Data infrastructure policy: Ensuring equitable access for poor people and poor countries

Spotlight 5.1. How the COVID-19 pandemic has recalibrated expectations of reasonable data consumption and highlighted the digital divide

Spotlight 5.2. Data’s carbon footprint
 

WDR 2021 illustration for chapter 6. Data policies, laws, and regulations: Creating a trust environment--a teacher and a blackboard
 

Chapter 6. Data policies, laws, and regulations: Creating a trust environment

Spotlight 6.1. The evolving social contract on data: Balancing data sharing and data protection to facilitate contact tracing to control COVID-19

Spotlight 6.2. The debate over ownership of personal data
 

WDR 2021 Illustration for Chapter 7. Creating value in the data economy--a man working from home
 

Chapter 7. Creating value in the data economy: The role of competition, trade, and tax policy   

Spotlight 7.1. Understanding the interface between data protection and competition policy

Spotlight 7.2. The role of regional and international cooperation in addressing data governance challenges
 

WDR 2021 illustration for Chapter 8. Institutions for data governance--A woman carrying a basket and walking with her playful child
 

Chapter 8. Institutions for data governance: Building trust through collective action

Spotlight 8.1. The need for a new global data consensus: A call to action

Spotlight 8.2. Promoting citizen science in the Amazon Basin


Part 3. Moving toward an integrated national data system

WDR 2021 illustration for Chapter 9. Creating an integrated national data system--elderly man walking with a dog
Chapter 9. Creating an integrated national data system

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