To solve our greatest global challenges, we need to accelerate how we use data for good. But to truly make data-driven tools that serve society, we must re-imagine data for social impact more broadly, more inclusively, and in a more interdisciplinary way. 

So, we face a choice. Business as usual can continue through funding and implementing under-resourced and siloed data projects that deliver incremental progress. Or we can think and act boldly to drive equitable and sustainable solutions. 

Accelerate Aspirations: Moving Together to Achieve Systems Change is a comprehensive report on the key trends and tensions in the emerging field of data for social impact.  

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Overview

data.org, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation (PJMF), and Dalberg believe in a future in which people everywhere can use data to solve society’s greatest challenges and improve lives around the globe. But to realize this potential, building the next generation of diverse data talent for social impact is essential. 

Workforce Wanted: Data Talent for Social Impact is a first-of-its-kind report on global data talent in the social sector. Confronting systemic challenges and highlighting both immediate and big-picture opportunities, this report delivers the current landscape and reveals four pathways forward for building purpose-driven data professionals. With the values of inclusivity, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) core to this work, Workforce Wanted  identifies an opportunity to shape and support a pool of 3.5 million data professionals focused on social impact in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) over the next ten years. 

No one can do this work alone, but together, we can build a diverse workforce of purpose-driven data professionals advancing social impact. Join us. Download the report today.  

Dr. Ronda Železný-Green introduces Workforce Wanted: Data Talent for Social Impact

Report

Workforce Wanted: Data Talent for Social Impact

A new report on the current state of data for social impact professionals

Download the report

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Overview

The RECoDE (Rising Equitable Community Data Ecosystems) project team—made up of curious and committed learners from data.org, Data Across Sectors for Health, Health Leads, and the National Alliance against Disparities in Patient Health—set out to better understand how to undo antiquated and dangerous data systems and build in their place an ecosystem that provides all communities power over where, when, and how their data is used to improve individual and community outcomes. 

Inside the Report

Why  

“We need to do a better job of engaging in the communities that we are trying to connect to, about what the purposes are for our own data collection, and how we’re using that to improve services and really drive towards policy change“

– RECoDE Workgroup Member

Across communities, organizations, governments, and industries, data is increasingly looked at as a powerful lever for change. However, data systems built to track housing, health, education, and employment are largely rooted in racist systems and discriminatory assumptions. Platforms and solutions for data collection and distribution have rarely taken deliberate measures to counter those truths, and community voices are seldom at the center of decisions about how data creates value. The RECoDE project sought to center community voices in this work and heard directly from the people who know best how data can be used to create value within the communities they represent.  

How 

“I think that our solutions have to be really paper and pencil, person to person before we build the tech solutions that are actually going to be responsive to the actual day-to-day data needs in our communities.“

– RECoDE Workgroup Member

Through a year-long learning journey built around the principles of trust, humility, and authentic collaboration, the RECoDE team convened a series of conversations focused on answering fundamental questions about how we access and leverage resources to ensure that data ecosystems are accountable to the community – hearing from nearly 500 people representing communities across the United States.

Now 

“If you’re really trying to change people’s way of thinking, if you’re really trying to change the social context, if you’re really trying to change entire paradigms, a two-year project is not going to do it.“

– RECoDE Interviewee

Informed by a national survey, interviews, and working groups, the RECoDE project team shares their key findings. The insights examine the current failure points within the data lifecycle, including who is actively engaged and making critical decisions, the impact of funding requirements on sustainability, and the essential need to invest in developing a more diverse technical workforce.

RECoDE Learning Council Spotlight

“I wake up every day understanding that I am my parent’s daughter and my daughter’s mother; with this comes awesome responsibility to create a more equitable world. We can dismantle racism person-by-person, but more significant impact is created when systems are pro-actively re-engineered and policies amended—that is my aim.”

DeAnna L. Minus-Vincent, MPA, Executive Vice President, Chief Social Justice & Accountability Officer, RWJBarnabas Health

RECODE Learning Council Spotlight

“I enjoyed this process of truthful dialogue and willingness to interrogate our own practices as researchers. On one hand I was thinking like a researcher and on the other hand I felt it necessary to speak up as a Black women (if for no other reason). At the end of the day the taboo and often forbidden act of centering one’s self in consideration of scientific inquiry felt like professional self-care. We need to do it more often. For us, and for everyone else that will be impacted by the work.“

– Jasmine Ward Ph.D., MPH, CHES, Founder of Black Ladies in Public Health

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data.org, with generous support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and The Rockefeller Foundation, issued a $10M Inclusive Growth and Recovery Challenge. The Challenge solicited proposals for scalable and sustainable data science solutions from and for every part of the world, with themes of Jobs for Tomorrow, Access to Capital, and Cities & Towns, as well as an open track. 

Our global outreach yielded 1,263 applications. We received a wide range of proposals at different stages of development, from a budding idea to an established methodology seeking international replication. The diverse group of applicants—researchers, entrepreneurs, doctors, and government representatives— included and reflected levels of experience from newcomer to household name. Applications addressed many important topics, such as reimagining credit scoring, providing better farming knowledge, and preparing urban landscapes for extreme weather.

A pool of expert and over 400 volunteer judges, coordinated by technical partner DataKind, evaluated applications based on the Challenge’s five principal criteria: their potential impact, replicability, scalability, practicality, and breakthrough ideas. After 3,500 reviews, we selected eight outstanding awardees:  

• Aalborg University, Department of the Built Environment (BUILD) – Denmark 
• Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE) – Switzerland, India 
• Community Lattice – USA  
• Fundación Capital – Panamá, Mozambique 
• GiveDirectly & Center for Effective Global Action – USA, Togo 
• Solar Sister – USA, Nigeria, Tanzania  
• University of Chicago, Center for Data and Computing (CDAC) – USA 
• Women’s World Banking – USA and Switzerland, with partners in Mexico, Nigeria, and India  

Identifying and lifting up these exceptional awardees as an ongoing cohort was the primary Challenge goal. But, as this report reveals, a significant secondary benefit is the unique snapshot of organizations using data for social impact around the globe. A few of the key insights:

Six prevalent topics emerged.

After an expansive review of proposals and analysis of the application trends, data.org and DataKind identified six prevalent topics that are critical to inclusive growth and recovery and that have tremendously exciting applications of data science. Each of these topics addresses a form of inequality, and underscores that inclusive growth issues are shared by different individuals, groups, and communities worldwide – and merit continued exploration.

• Smallholder farmers and agriculture
• Affordable housing and neighborhoods
• Micro, small, and medium enterprises and entrepreneurship
• Gender inequality
• Urbanization and sustainable development
• Youth unemployment

Capacity is unevenly distributed.

Anecdotally, individuals and organizations seeking to achieve social impact with data science frequently identify capacity as an obstacle. In order to learn more about strengths and needs, we reviewed over 100 applicants that scored highest in their data science assessment to understand their capacity for data, talent, technology, and partnerships. We learned that applicants rarely held all the key ingredients to deliver impact. A common thread among university applicants, for example, was higher data capacity and lower partnership capacity: stronger resources for theoretical approaches than for fully-fleshed out plans. While the sample size evaluated is too small for sweeping generalizations, it did reveal that even high-functioning data organizations have uneven areas of capacity, showing the need for tools like data maturity assessments and talent evaluation to know where to double down and where to shore up efforts. This capacity benchmarking, and potential remediation and partnerships will ensure potentially strong players are not hampered by capacity gaps.

Economic growth – and particularly inclusive economic growth – is multifaceted and tied to all sectors.

When launching a global inclusive growth and recovery challenge, we anticipated applications that sought to tackle issues related to economic development. While the largest sector represented was economic development – at one-third of all applications – we also saw data applied to related social issues. For example, we saw applications of AI to support caseworkers in the child welfare system – where early intervention can fundamentally shift the life trajectories and economic outcomes of young people. We reviewed proposals to digitize and map the informal transportation sector, which a large percentage of the world depends on in order to access better job opportunities, yet ride times, reliability, and user experience remain a data black hole. We learned about organizations using data science for waste disposal and sanitation in informal settlements – with solutions that could impact health, the environment, and future investment in communities that have been left behind.  

Alignment with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflected this breadth of solution. Each Challenge application touched on one or several of the SDGs, particularly those regarding the amelioration of poverty and income inequality (i.e., SDG 1, 68%; SDG 8, 74%; SDG 10, 77%).

We ultimately were expansive in our interpretation of inclusive growth – supporting more traditional inclusive growth strategies, like reimagining credit scoring, alongside structural issues like the digital divide, which too many people are experiencing acutely during COVID-19. The applications received and topics covered furthered our understanding that economic growth is inextricable from many other social issues.

There is appetite and incentive for cross-sector collaboration. 
Finally, as we built interest in the Challenge, we saw an outpouring of support from organizations offering technical assistance. Partners across the non-profit and private sectors are providing technical assistance, from pro bono data consulting to the donation of cloud computing credits, to awardees and a number of high-potential projects. Private sector partners recognize the importance of leveling up the use of data for social impact, and the fact that economic growth underpinning business stability relies on healthy, stable communities. The Challenge demonstrates the power of partnerships, and that cross-sector, interdisciplinary collaboration is essential for building the field of data science for social impact.  

We are grateful to our partners, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, The Rockefeller Foundation, and DataKind, for their intellectual engagement, hands-on collaboration, and willingness to extract and share these insights from the Challenge. This report is the first of many – part of our commitment to bring back to the community what we are privileged to see from our vantage point as a neutral platform for partnerships. We hope what we have shared here will inform our collective work of building the field of data science for social impact.

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