Data for Better Live
- 1. I want to share lessons I learnt from participating on an online World Bank open Learning platform which has its topic as “Data for Better Lives: A new Social Contract”. The greatest lesson I learnt is that data generation, use and re-use of data whether for private or public intent are quite important in our different societies especially after the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic. Data facilitates development in all types of economy and consequently data should be made available to government, civil societies, entrepreneurs and private sector in general. Regulations should be made to ensure data availability and protection. Citizens in the private, public sectors as well as civil societies should demand data to equip relevant planning and decision makers in doing their jobs and ultimately hold the government accountable. The sooner we realize the need for the use of data in driving good governance the better for the development of our societies. Government should provide enabling environment that will bring forth an integrated national data system. An integrated national data system implies that all participants and stakeholders collaborate in a system in which data are safely produced, exchanged, and used. Example where machine-generated data have the potential to markedly improve access to services such as water as sited in the 2021 World Bank Group Report on Data for Better Lives. It was said that in Kenya, sensors on water hand pumps, which are inoperable in one-third of rural Africa, provide real time data on their functionality. This systemhelped reduce the average time to repair a broken pump from 27 days to three days and the median time from six days to one day. The example in the above paragraph should be a useful incite in making us see reason why we need to embrace data generation and use for development of our communities.