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📅 12 July 2022  🕟 13:30-15:00 CEST
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Making Voices Heard and Count
Inclusive data as a strategic tool for building back better after the pandemic

 

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Concept and Agenda

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened inequalities all around the globe and threatens the overall progress of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. The official COVID-19 responses of many countries have overlooked the situation of marginalised communities. In consequence, the chosen mitigation measures have not reached these communities, or even worse: they further increased inequality and the exclusion of these groups. Part of the reason for this negligence is that government policy making is typically based on data that does not adequately represent all communities and their diverse needs, leaving their voices unheard and their specific situation ignored. In fact, a country’s capability to plan an effective response strategy that reaches all of society relies on a profound understanding of what are key drivers for exclusion and marginalisation, how they are interconnected, and in how far the pandemic might have further aggravated these drivers, resulting in ever higher exclusion and inequality. While some progress in the availability of data on marginalised groups has been made, much remains to be done. Also, it is often not feasible for governments to collect all the highly granular data that would be necessary for this purpose.

Community-based and civil society organisations (CBOs / CSOs) have been at the core of local COVID-19 responses, supporting their local communities and generating relevant monitoring data of their situation that could help to address gaps in official statistics. As an example, local associations of people with disabilities are collecting data that is disaggregated by disability status, which supports the comprehensive monitoring of the well-being and inclusion of persons with disabilities. This kind of data – like all data that looks into the situation of marginalised communities – has a key relevance for “building back better” after the pandemic: it can help governments to offer more targeted support to excluded and vulnerable groups within society, thereby increasing the overall effectiveness and impact of their COVID response plans. To be most useful, the same well tested, standard conceptual models and data collections methods should be used in censuses, surveys, administrative systems and in community-driven data collections.  The use of consistent methods will result in a more comprehensive understanding of the situation of diverse marginalised communities and lead to improved policies and programs.

In this virtual side event, the  Leave No One Behind partnership and GIZ will present some insights of their work around inclusive data. The audience will hear inputs from various countries who have worked with inclusive data over the last few years under the impression of the global pandemic. An international donor and expert panel will discuss advantages and limitations of inclusive data sources like “Community-Driven Data”, sharing their perceptions on how such approaches can help to build back better after the pandemic.