In order to understand the reality on the ground, this resource provides three mini-briefs based on initiatives in developing countries that seek to reach and provide highly localized digital products and services for digitally marginalized populations through a human-centered approach to data governance. 

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An IDEA approach is essential to reflect the wide variety of lived experiences within the use and application of data. Historically, the use of data is centered around strategy for building capital, and large companies can agenda-set language and frameworks due to their extensive reach. By using IDEA as a staple in our proposed terminology, we hope to encourage organizational knowledge-building based on their unique efforts and needs.

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The Open Commons Consortium (OCC) manages and operates cloud computing, data commons, and data ecosystems to advance scientific, medical, health care, and environmental research for human and societal impact. This resource provides the agreements, operating principles, and a typical list of working groups. 

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Social impact organizations need to devote time and resources to classify and certify the different types of analytical jobs they have and need. They can benefit from expanding their talent pools by working with universities directly on educational programs, and by building and nurturing communities within their organizations to develop employees for their data teams. These steps are essential for organizations looking to use analytics to improve both operations and opportunities for digital innovation.

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To become a truly data-driven organization, leadership must work to create a culture that encourages and empowers the entire team to be data-driven. This is even more important in an impact-focused organization, where many team members may not have the training or work experience to understand the importance of data collection and analysis. This resource shares 5 steps you can take to build a data-driven culture at your organization.

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Social impact organizations are increasingly using data to support their mission and their operations. The application of data for social impact spans across sectors; from data analytics for rural development to artificial intelligence for healthcare and agriculture and blockchain for digital identities. 

Despite good intentions, data is sometimes collected, analyzed, and used in ways that can replicate or even amplify existing injustices and inequalities. This happens because data and data-driven technologies are often treated as neutral tools when, in reality, they reflect human biases. In this guide, we’ll examine methods that social impact organizations (SIOs) can use to apply intersectionality and inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA) lenses to their organization’s culture.

What is Intersectionality?

Intersectionality is the idea that all oppression is linked and multifaceted. This concept was originated by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a renowned African-American legal scholar, and Co-Founder and Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum. This concept is defined as the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Intersectionality is the acknowledgment that everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression and therefore, we must consider everything and anything that can marginalize people – gender, race, class, sexual orientation, and physical ability.

What is IDEA?

IDEA is an acronym for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access. IDEA highlights efforts toward underserved communities by addressing structural inequities.

Organizations that embrace IDEA are able to foster cultures that minimize bias and recognize and address systemic inequities, which, if unaddressed, create disadvantages for certain individuals or groups.

• Inclusion: All feel welcomed and valued
  Inclusion is the act of creating environments in which any individual or group can be and feel welcomed, respected, represented, supported, and valued to fully participate.
• Diversity: All the ways we differ
  Diversity includes all of the ways in which people differ, encompassing the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another. While diversity is often used in reference to race, ethnicity, and gender, we embrace a broader definition that also includes age, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, physical appearance, geography, and any other identifiers that make one individual or group different from another.
• Equity: All have the opportunity to fully participate
  Equity encompasses the policies and practices used to ensure fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all people, while at the same time trying to identify and eliminate barriers that have historically prevented the full participation of some individuals or groups.
• Access: Of any and all abilities
  Access refers to the commitment for everyone to be included in all programs and activities.

In this Guide

• Resources to implement IDEA principles in your organization’s culture
• Learn about decolonizing data 
• Additional toolkits to get started

6 Steps to Get Started on Decolonizing Data for Development (data.org)

3 Ways To Decolonize Your Nonprofit As Told By A Black Queer Feminist Organizer (Everyday Feminism)

Abigail Echo-Hawk on the Art and Science of ‘Decolonizing Data’ (Crosscut)

Decolonising Data (Digital Freedom Fund)

Decolonising Data (Data4Good)

Conclusion

Just as the process of colonization took centuries and didn’t end when empires were abolished, the process of embedding the principles of intersectionality and IDEA in organizations’ data practices will take some time. It can sometimes be overwhelming when people look at the sheer amount of change that needs to occur. Social impact organizations can all start by taking small but meaningful steps to educate themselves, be more critical and reflective in their own work, and strive towards outcomes that empower all stakeholders involved in data for development interventions. 

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Change mindsets. Change practices. Change culture. Change outcomes.

These approaches are the bedrock of many diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs—and the pressure to get results from these efforts has never been higher.

In the wake of social unrest, shareholders, customers, regulators, and employees alike are demanding that organizations move beyond lip service and take action. There is no refuting that DEI success and long-term business sustainability go hand in hand.

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For some organizations, simply doing what is right may be enough to spur action. Others may be moved by data showing that diversity can boost the quality of decision-making and that a diverse workplace can encourage people to be “more creative, more diligent, and harder-working.” Studies have also shown that a more diverse staff can foster enhanced innovation. And when board members, employees, donors, and others who shape the values and activities of a nonprofit come from a wide array of backgrounds, they bring unique perspectives that influence how the nonprofit approaches its mission in more inclusive and innovative ways.

The post Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter for Nonprofits appeared first on data.org.

In the realm of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), data disclosure alone is likely not enough to spur meaningful change. This resource shares several real-world examples that show that when done right, the collection, analysis, and disclosure of diversity data indeed holds the promise of being a powerful lever for progress.

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The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Data Standard was created by an independent working group of UK funders who believe that without an effective framework to capture DEI data there can be no effective action to identify and target funding to address structural inequalities.

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The Gen3 platform consists of open-source software services that support the emergence of healthy data ecosystems by enabling the interoperation and creation of cloud-based data resources, including data commons and analysis workspaces. 

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