By Olga Cowings, Partnerships and Engagement Officer Read: Global Britain in a competitive age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy 2021 marks an important year for Britain’s international ambitions. There are unprecedented risks and opportunities at home and abroad alike — from countries and communities across…

By Ivana Ramirez, Communications Intern, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data Read: Hannah Fry, What Data Can’t Do: When it comes to people — and policy — numbers are both powerful and perilous. When it comes to data, there is no shortage of variety and utility. From using satellite data…

By Al Kags, CEO, The Open Institute This blog was originally posted by Al Kags here. A couple of weeks ago, there was an article in the Business Daily that has costed me many nights of sleep and much consternation. That report has been a major distraction in my mind…

By Martina Barbero, Policy Manager, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data Read: Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The costs of connection: How data is colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism. Who said that Marxist theory is outdated and should be left to gather dust in university libraries…

By Claire Melamed, CEO, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data READ: Salome Viljoen, Democratic Data: A relational theory for data governance. Available online at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3727562 This paper was only published in November and it’s already been recommended to me by about three different people. It’s a brilliant read — thorough…

By Claire Melamed, CEO, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data Facts are back. President Biden began his term with a strong defense of truth, and a rejection of a culture where ‘facts are manipulated, and even manufactured’. The words in the inauguration speech have been backed up by actions: the…

By Janet Chapman, Tanzania Development Trust At 12 years of age, Rhobi Samwelly almost bled to death after being subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) against her will. Since then, she has dedicated her life to helping save girls from a similar fate in rural Tanzania. However, until recently, her…

By Claire Melamed, CEO, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data No one thought 2020 would be like this. News pages are filled with images of violence against protestors in familiar streets of New York, Washington D.C., and Hong Kong. George Floyd’s face is everywhere. Meanwhile, we’ve been on lockdown, hiding…

By Claire Melamed, Executive Director, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data You often hear about people being ‘reduced’ to numbers, as if the act of being counted and included in a data set somehow lessens their power and the importance of their voices. Recent events suggest the opposite. Numbers are…