Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are a couple of recommendations on how to best provide citizen-driven data collection that includes traditionally marginalized voices. 

• How can donors support and contribute to inclusive data collection? What are the implications for solving social issues that rely on data that is not inclusive? 

• Learn about philanthropy's role in pursuing data justice. 

Government data should seek to be representative of the array of people they are meant to serve. However, data collection often fails to paint an accurate picture of a population’s most marginalized, vulnerable communities. How might citizen-led data collection correct for this, making national averages more illustrative of the lives of all communities?

This is a question that the International Civil Society Centre, in collaboration with its Indian partners from Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (Don’t Break Your Promise), is seeking to answer. The ICS Centre exists since 2007 to support international civil society organizations in their work of creating more sustainable, equitable societies. Wada Na Todo Abhiyan is an Indian campaign with more than 3.000 local member organisations that seeks to collect ethical, representative data about marginalized communities in India so that their needs can be considered and included in the implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Together, the ICS Centre,Wada Na Todo Abhiyan and more than 50 other organisations and platforms at the international and national level form the Leave No One Behind partnership,  which is working to create equitable community-driven data and leverage it for change. Their joint mission is “Making Voices Heard and Count”.

The ICS Centre and WNTA recently came to the LabStorm to discuss how they might improve their citizen-driven data collection to ensure they are meeting high ethical standards, while  the interviewees feel comfortable being transparent

The LabStorm attendees brought a lot of great ideas to the table. Here’s what they suggested:

  • Create a comfortable interview environment for honest results.
  • Bring communities and governments together.
  •  Make it easy for officials to visualize and share community data.

Read the full article about including marginalized voices by Annie Namala and Peter Koblowsky at FeedbackLabs.