Why is Data a “public good”

Everyone, everywhere including policy makers, acknowledge that data and statistics are important in informing decision processes – one of the most ubiquitous statement in this respect is “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

The United Nation (UN) fundamental principles of official statistics allude that quality data should be made available to citizens in an impartial basis. Data is vital to society at all levels.  Citizens need quality data on weather, transportation, safety, health, education to conduct their daily life.  Data conversation often time takes place at the highest level, particularly at government agencies and companies to formulate policies, measure and monitor development programmes.  Therefore, the public need to demand data at every level of interactions to become an informed citizenry as well as hold governments accountable.  Inevitably, these make data as a primary good like water, air and other common public infrastructure.

Opportunities of making data a public good?

In the past decade, the open data initiative has paved the way for data to be shared for free and made available to all without any impediment. Making data open not only making data a public good but also generate huge economic benefits and maximizes its use. An interesting peculiarly to data from other goods is that data can be given or shared without losing it or getting used. One still holds data in its form with no diminishing quality or size after it is shared. The originality of the data remains intact. The second aspect is that thanks to the advent of the web and communication, data can be shared at almost at no cost.  The discussion here is to build consensus on the premise of its public good status.

Value of data?

Data is regarded as a new currency, new oil, new gold, and much more because of its supreme role in informing any form of decision-making process. Naturally, like any other asset or capital project which attracts investment, data and statistics should be accorded the same priority. Governments have a responsibility to invest in data in the same way they do for capital projects, like roads, schools, bridges, etc. Development partners, including international agencies, play a critical role in providing the necessary support in the development of statistics. This could be through technical assistance, development of methodologies, harmonization, and in some cases, the support includes funding. These should be matched with appropriate counter-part support from governments provisioning of resources both human and financial as well as investing in the infrastructure and regulatory frameworks.

Call for action

Question, how can governments put statistics on their priority list?