Encourage use of data and increase impact

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During the COVID-19 outbreak, the demand for information from policymakers and citizens will be higher than ever, but connecting people to the data, encouraging use, and creating impact requires guidance and action by national statistical offices. Data providers and communicators bear the responsibility of connecting users to the information they need. National statistical offices must facilitate this connection. The resources in this section provide insight on how to encourage the use of data, monitor its uptake and impact, and further increase impact.

Resources to support increasing data use and impact

• The World Bank’s Statistical Capacity Index, a composite score assessing the capacity of a country’s statistical system, is a helpful resource for assessing strengths and weaknesses.
• Capacity Development 4.0 by PARIS21 provides resources to help countries develop statistical capacities that go beyond the traditional production-side interventions to include the strengthening of data use, literacy, and results.
• The Developing a Culture to Support Open Data section in Guidance on the Implementation of Open Data In National Statistical Offices (UN Statistical Commission) focuses on NSO governance through legal and institutional frameworks, internal capacity and streamlining, and external communications as three ways in which open data culture can be engendered.
• GovLab’s Data Stewards: Data Leadership to Address the Challenges of the 21st Century is a portal for connecting organizations across sectors that promotes responsible data leadership to address the challenges of the 21st century, including COVID-19.
• Measuring Data Use: An Analysis of Data Portal Web Traffic, a report by Open Data Watch and AidData, helps national statistical offices and their partners better understand the benefits of web analytics tools and assists them in implementing web analytics on their websites or data portals.

Examples of methods to increase the use and impact of COVID-19 data

• The United States Government has partnered with the Allen Institute for AI, Microsoft, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to launch an open research resource on Covid-19.
• The European Commission accepted applications for funding from startups with technologies and innovations that would help monitor, treat, or test aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak.
• Suggestions from CNN on how to write emails and content about COVID-19 so that people will read and understand them. (13/3/2020)
• Forbes article on how politics and biases affected the ability for decision makers to correctly interpret and take action on coronavirus data. (2/3/2020)
• This Bloomberg article outlines the [probability-neglect bias that causes people to misinterpret COVID-19 data(https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-28/coronavirus-panic-caused-by-probability-neglect). (28/2/2020)
• Psychology today article on some of the different ways our brain interprets the numbers on COVID-19. (27/2/2020)
• The XPRIZE Foundation has announced a Data-Powered Alliance to Stop COVID-19.