This research article is based on the World Development Report, 2021 published by the World Bank titled “Data for Better Lives”. It has to be accepted that data (used in plural sense) are important for everybody’s life and since his/her birth. When a baby is born, his /her weight is taken; date of birth, time of birth, place of birth etc. are recorded and from time to time records of weight and height are maintained. Similarly if a person visits a doctor, data are collected about age, temperature, blood pressure, etc. So data are part and parcel of every human’s life. In this context, as mentioned earlier, a few points collected from the
World Development Report, 2021 are highlighted about Public Intent Data. Before mentioning the points the President of The World Bank Group, Mr David R. Malpass may be quoted as he has forwarded the Report, “Data are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they offer tremendous potential to create value by improving programs and policies, driving economies, and empowering citizens. On the other hand, data accumulation can lead to a concentration of economic and political power, raising the possibility that data may be misused in ways that harm citizens. Data are a resource that can be used and reused repeatedly to create more and more value, but there is a problem—the more data are reused, the higher is the risk of abuse”.
Important point as observed in the Report is about ‘Public intent data’ which means data collected with the intent of serving the public good by informing the design, execution, monitoring, and evaluation of public policy, or through other activities as these are essential for many Governments. And it is pertinent to mention that, the Government Organisations are the primary producers of public intent data inter alia through censuses, surveys, and administrative data. Also citizens, civil society organizations (CSOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions, and international organizations among others contribute critically to the production of public intent data through surveys, crowdsourcing platforms, and other means. According to the Report, six types of public intent data that all serve the public good and these are
A) Administrative data—such as birth, marriage, and death records and data from identification systems; population, health, education, and tax records; and trade flow data—are generated by a process of registration or record keeping, usually by national authorities. Administrative data also include data used by governments to run projects, programs, and services. The digital revolution has created new types of administrative data—for example, when education and health inspectors’ use of smartphone apps channels data to a central register.
B) Censuses aim to systematically enumerate and record information about an entire population of interest, whether individuals, businesses, farms, or others. Most prominently, population and housing censuses record every person present or residing in a country and provide essential information on the entire population and their key socioeconomic conditions.
C) Sample surveys draw on a smaller, representative sample of the entire population, typically from censuses, to collect detailed information more frequently. These surveys cover many domains such as household surveys, farm surveys, enterprise surveys, labour force surveys, and demographic and health surveys. Key official statistics, such as unemployment and national accounts, rely on survey data, often in combination with administrative data and census data.
D) Citizen-generated data are produced by individuals, often to fill gaps in public and private sector data or when the accuracy of existing data is in question. These data, which can have an important monitoring and accountability function, contribute to solving problems that citizens face. Examples include HarassMap, an Egyptian tool that maps cases of sexual harassment based on citizen reports, and ForestWatchers, a platform through which citizens monitor the deforestation of the Amazon.
E) By contrast, machine-generated data are automatically generated by a sensor, application, or computer process without human interactions. An example is the sensors that monitor air pollution. These data emerge when devices are embedded with sensors and other technologies, allowing them to transfer data with each other, a system known as the Internet of Things.
F) Geospatial data relate multiple layers of information based on their geographic locale. Public intent geospatial data include satellite imagery of the Earth such as that provided by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Lands program and the European Space Agency’s Copernicus program; weather data; and cadastral (property and land record) data.
This article has been prepared based on the Report as mentioned already for the benefit of academicians, researchers and others.
Dr. Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad, dt. 30 May 2021
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