Public-Private Partnerships: Grease for Accelerating Data Access in the Emerging World
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Public-Private Partnerships: Grease for Accelerating Data Access in the Emerging World
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By Davis Mwania, Analyst, Botho Emerging Markets Group
July 20, 2022
Data scarcity presents a significant global challenge and hurts the growth of developing countries and their ability to reap the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution. Data access is necessary for proper planning and equitable distribution of resources. Data infrastructure is constrained by weak technical and financial capacity, underemployment, and government inefficiencies. To improve data access in emerging markets by developing requisite local talent and technical capacity, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are critical.
Challenges Within the Statistical Landscape
National statistics services publish statistics on demographics and socioeconomic indicators on official websites. Some developing countries have such services, including the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and Statistics South Africa. Nevertheless, according to the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance, in 2020, a quarter of national statistics offices (NSOs) in Africa did not have the autonomy to collect data and publish findings and have sufficient funds to do both. Thus, the institutional independence and statistical neutrality of NSOs are under keen public scrutiny. Consequently, the integrity of national statistics has been subject to national debate, with doubts surfacing around a range of issues - from poverty and GDP estimates in Rwanda to population figures in Nigeria. This lack of confidence in national data is not limited to developing countries. A 2018 survey in Japan, for example, pointed out that 80% of the respondents did not rely on official government economic indicators due to sampling errors.
International datasets, on the other hand, are viewed as more reliable and up-to-date. Public and private actors alike use these datasets in planning and executing various internal and external strategies. The UN Comtrade Database, for example, is utilized by local and international trade experts. It aggregates global trade data from official international sources into a monthly statistical bulletin. Another source of information, among others that are partly open access, is Statista, with data from multiple public and private sources. Multilateral institutions, such as the IMF, provide regional statistics like the recent Regional Sub-Saharan Africa Economic Outlook published in October 2022. Though international figures are helpful, they may not reflect the local dynamics needed to formulate national agreements or give evidence-based policy recommendations. Thus, developing countries require sufficient local baseline data to compare against international datasets.
Emerging markets experience macroeconomic turbulence, which calls for close monitoring and tracking of socioeconomic indicators, such as inflation, for proper planning and resource allocation by individuals, households, and governments. Projections made from outdated information may not account for unexpected or unprecedented events. Governments should, therefore, prioritize frequent statistical publications to enhance accuracy and resource efficiency. Many developing countries need the technical capacity to gather, synthesize, and disseminate much-needed data.
Public-private partnerships, a necessary tool
To capture and consistently publish local data, the public and private sectors need to partner to effectively build technical capacity, increase funding, and bridge the deficits in skill supply and data infrastructure. Building technical capacity, especially among youth, enhances their potential to drive the use of technology and updated infrastructure such as 5G across emerging markets - critical in advancing local datasets. Public universities and government agencies could partner with leading tech schools to enhance the IT technical skills of students and staff, reducing the supply deficit of needed IT skills in these countries. Alternatively, experts and professionals could facilitate skill transfer between the private and public sectors through boot camps, annual hackathons, and exchange programs.
Major telcos and the government could work together to upgrade technological infrastructure, especially in rural areas, to increase network coverage, improve access to the internet, and consequently widen the reach of public services to remote areas. NSOs need both hardware and software data collection and analysis tools, such as tablets with updated ODK for administering questionnaires, N-Vivo for qualitative data analysis, and STATA for quantitative analysis. Creating a PPP whereby governments provide administrative support as private sector entities provide these tablets could assist key stakeholders in accessing more timely and relevant data.
Moreover, NSOs in emerging countries could change their funding model from supply-driven to demand-driven. This means that when sourcing for funds, NSOs need to request funding for more key strategic proposals rather than receive funding for specific work requested by funders. While statistical systems have been funded by donors and multilateral loans such as the World Bank’s STATCAP, PPPs could provide needed financial resources to drive the independence and neutrality that NSOs require. NSOs could seek various funders whose requirements match their strategic priorities. Furthermore, having multiple sources of income would assist NSOs in sourcing and publishing statistics.
Implementing such PPP frameworks will not only build synergies between the public and private sectors but also quicken the transfer of skills and technology. This will provide more timely and dynamic statistics that emerging markets need to provide sound macro and micro-analysis. To prevent challenges that may hinder the data revolution, such as bureaucratic corruption and low adoption of technological advancements, government agencies, and ministries need to be result-oriented and adopt monitoring and evaluation practices. This will ensure the dissemination of reliable official local statistics and rid emerging markets of an overreliance on international institutions with a monopoly on data.
Davis Mwania is an Analyst at Botho Emerging Markets Group