Tap data revolution for sustainable development

By RAPHAEL OBONYO More by this Author

The role of data in guiding decision-making in all aspects of our lives has become too critical that the

country must embrace the world’s best practices to enhance its integrity.

Kenya should put in place more robust measures to improve the coordination, governance and transparency of data in decision-making.

In 2010, the head of Google argued that the world was creating as much data every two days as had been created between the dawn of civilisation and 2003, reinforcing its inevitability in our daily lives.

Citizens, businesses, and public and private institutions have been central in the data creation processes on just about anything imaginable. Other advanced sources of data include sensors, satellites and many other tools that shape the world by producing real-time data.

Attractive as the volume, velocity, and variety of the data available may be, concerns regarding its veracity, authenticity, and accuracy pose a huge challenge. With meaningful regulatory controls, which Kenya lacks, these challenges can, however, be addressed.

Accurate, timely, disaggregated and accessible data have in recent years been used as essential tools for aiding in the efficient, fair and transparent provision of services and decision-making, especially in the developed world.

Unfortunately, in Kenya, credited with so much progress in information technology, crucial data is not available.

The Open Government Platform launched a few years ago lacks basic data like births and deaths, the size of the labour force, and the number of children in school, which is fundamental to government and other players in serving people to the fullest.

To bridge the existing gaps and create a data-driven development, it will be necessary for all stakeholders — government, the private sector, development organisations, and the public — to work together.

At the core of this revolution is the necessity of the development of a vibrant multi-stakeholder ecosystem that actively engages in closing data gaps and builds the capacity of all data communities such as national statistical offices, other producers and users in Big Data analytics, by leverage existing capability.

The cost of data also raises another concern. While the cost of mobile handset, the main platform for sharing data today, has dramatically gone down over the years, the cost of data has increased, inhibiting technology to revolutionize the country's prosperity.

The government should also work closely with mobile phone operators to identify the necessary measures to bring down the costs of data to enable more Kenyans to interact with each other. Conversely, legislators must also think about how legislation can enhance data reciprocity, enabling individuals to own and monetize their own information.

Government should enhance internet security to manage the risk to individuals transacting through the internet by strengthening cybercrime law and institutional response.

Equally important is the strengthening of Access to Information Law and Data Protection Law, to incentivize the data revolution while safeguarding individual freedom, and securing state responsibility and security.

Additionally, in line with the Africa Data Consensus adopted in Addis Ababa, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) should develop a greater capacity for oversight, audit, standard-setting, and coordination of the multiple players in the data production industry.

In this environment, KNBS should foster integrated and harmonious relations with other data producers and exercise that role, independently.

Mr Obonyo is a Public Policy Analyst. Email: raphojuma@hotmail.com