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Making Informal Settlements ‘Visible’ Through Datafication: A Case Study of Quarry Road West Informal Settlement, Durban, South Africa

October 17, 2019

Authors: Catherine Sutherland, Bahle Mazeka, Sibongile Buthelezi, Duduzile Khumalo and Patrick Martel

Can datafication increase the ‘visibility’ of informal settlements in South Africa, in the context of a national and local state that holds both progressive and repressive approaches towards informal settlements?

This case study explores a datafication process that has been in place for five years in an informal settlement in Durban, which has been established through an inclusionary, participatory data collection and production process. It examines how and when the data moves in the information value chain, and the implications this movement has for achieving rights-based, instrumental, structural and distributive justice. It argues that procedural and rights-based justice can be achieved to a certain extent through the construction of an inclusionary datafication process. However, instrumental, structural and distributive justice is dependent on how the interventionist and developmental state of South Africa engages with the data, and whether it takes it up in a meaningful way, thus enabling it to lead to fundamental shifts in discourses, approaches and practices towards informality.

The results reveal that the ‘governance and knowledge platforms’ that are built through the datafication process are more important and powerful at first, than the actual data itself. However, informal settlers and other data intermediaries, who have learnt how to engage data to secure the ‘right of informal settlers to the city’, have begun to use the data in interesting ways, acting as champions, and re-shaping citizens’ relations with the state. While this does not secure tangible changes in informal settlements, it begins to shift discourses and power relations, which is critical to informal settlement upgrading.

Click here to read more.

Filed Under: Big Data, Big Data Highlights, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Research Papers, Topic Blogs

Big Data for Social Good Toolkit (GSMA, 2018)

March 17, 2019

Backed by 20 operators accounting for over two billion connections in over 100 countries, the GSMA’s Big Data for Social Good initiative is developing a consistent approach and processes mobile operators can use to share insights with public agencies and NGOs, while building an ecosystem to support timely planning and response.

The Big Data for Social Good online toolkit, is a comprehensive guide to the key components needed to implement mobile data-driven solutions. It has been designed so that it may read from start to finish or with direct access to the subjects of particular interest. There are a number of ways to navigate the toolkit, based upon interest area within the Big Data for Social Good topic.

Click here to access the full toolkit.

Filed Under: Big Data, Big Data Highlights, Brazil, Health, Humanitarian, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), India, Japan, Publications (published in print and/or online)

Can big data be used for evaluation? A UN Women feasibility study (UN Women, 2018)

October 1, 2018

The objective of the study was to investigate the feasibility of leveraging big data sources—particularly Twitter, Facebook, and radio data—to improve the evaluation of gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives. In particular, this study seeks to understand the role of big data to evaluate the contribution of UN Women to women’s political participation and leadership (WPP).

Taking Mexico and Pakistan as two case studies, which present different challenges to access of big data sources and distinct barriers to WPP, processes of accessing, analysing, and triangulating big data sources were documented with traditional data as a feasible means to provide more credible and robust insights about the effectiveness of UN Women interventions.

Click here for full study.

Filed Under: [E] C4D Monitoring & Evaluation, Big Data, Big Data Highlights, Case Studies, Gender, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Innovations, Mexico, Pakistan, Publications (published in print and/or online), Social Media Tagged With: Facebook, Political Participation, Twitter

Using Social Media Data in International Development Research, Monitoring & Evaluation (DFID Practice Note 2016)

September 25, 2016

Abstract: The global adoption of social media has seen the user base expand to an unprecedented level. Estimates put social media membership at around 2.5 billion non unique users globally, with Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounting for over half of these. Social media data can add value to international development research, monitoring and evaluation in several ways.

These data are‘transformative’ as they are user generated in real time and produced in large volumes in contrast to the necessarily retrospective snapshots of social trends provided by conventional means such as household surveys and administrative data. As such, they can provide insight into the behaviour and opinions of specific populations that are often unreachable by conventional methods where social media uptake is high.

The examples in this pratice note show cases where social media data were available in high volume in development contexts. However,it is important to note that for some situations and regions social media data may not be available in such volumes, precluding their use to gain near real time insights

4 case studies are included:

  • Data-Pop Alliance: Big Data for Disaster Resilience
  • Assessment Capacities Project – Nepal Earthquake
  • Mapping Refugee Media Journeys
  • Nigerian Election

Click here for full study.

Filed Under: [E] C4D Monitoring & Evaluation, Big Data, Big Data Highlights, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Nepal, Nigeria, Publications (published in print and/or online), Research Communication & Uptake, Social Media Tagged With: Elections, Mapping, Nepal Earthquake, Refugees

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