Lifting the rock on inclusive data: Sightsavers and the Inclusive Data Charter

Hi Dom! To begin, can you provide some background on Sightsavers’ work on inclusive data?

Our involvement goes back to 2015 and the wider shift in the development sector from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While they cover many of the same areas, the SDGs went further and have a focus on leaving no one behind. Groups and individuals did not benefit equally from progress made under the Millennium Development Goals. For us, this change is specifically evident in the inclusion of people with disabilities in several of the goals, as well as a broader focus on sex, age and other marginalised groups.

Other characteristics of marginalisation require new ways of measuring progress and focusing on fresh ways of collecting different types of data. So, the launch of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD) in 2015 gave us a space to learn, share and work with other organisations looking at similar issues. Through this, the Inclusive Data Charter was developed.

What’s the main focus of Sightsavers’ newest Inclusive Data Charter Action Plan?

We launched our second Inclusive Data Charter Action Plan this month and it reaffirms our commitment to collecting and using inclusive data. It looks at what this commitment means for our work, what we’ve learned since our first action plan and our key commitments over the next three years, up until 2027.

But this isn’t a new focus for us. Inclusive data is an area that we’ve been working on for the last few years but we’re making a real shift to look at intersectionality. Put simply, people are more complicated than just one characteristic, like disability, age, sex or economic status. So, for us, we want to understand how these different characteristics interconnect in situations of marginalisation and exclusion. This is critical to addressing the barriers so in this new action plan, there’s an increased emphasis on looking at these intersecting factors.

Secondly, our new plan has a bigger focus on strengthening the capacity of our civil society partners to collect, analyse and use this data themselves in their advocacy and influencing work with governments and other organisations. We want this work and data to be in the right hands. It will be more effective and more useful if it’s in the hands of those who are affected by the issues we’re talking about.

Thirdly, our action plan reaffirms our support for the Inclusive Data Charter network and collaboration with other champions. We want to continue to grow the number and range of IDC champions and I think we’ve made real progress in the last few years sharing the value of the charter. But there’s a lot more than can be done, there are a lot more governments out there and we need to mobilise efforts on inclusive data.

What are the key opportunities for Sightsavers and other organisations working on inclusive data?

The Inclusive Data Charter is a collaboration of many partners and was formed from within the existing partnership of the GPSDD. It’s not just non-governmental organisations with an interest in disability, sex, age or migration. It’s all of those areas and themes coming together with data specialists, private sector organisations, government ministries, donors, governments and statistics offices.

This gives the charter the potential to achieve lasting change. And inclusive data is a new issue that we’re we’re tackling a new issue so, we’re at the cutting edge. We’re sharing learnings openly, including what we’ve learnt and what doesn’t work so that others don’t waste effort by repeating the same mistakes. It’s really important to maintain focus and momentum and to keep pushing the things that are working.

For me, it’s the new partnerships and approaches that are an opportunity to better judge where progress is being made, or where it isn’t. We can use our own experience to support others and talk about where progress isn’t being made. Inclusive data enables us to understand those barriers and do everything we can to address them while also recognising that there’s so much that we and others can do.

What’s your call to action for someone reading this?

We still don’t have enough inclusive data. There still aren’t enough people talking about it or focusing on it. The reality is that we just can’t click on a portal and find information against every indicator included in the SDGs disaggregated by specific population groups. It isn’t happening at the same speed as other progress, but it could be if the focus and resources were put in.

I would say that if you are an organisation that has an interest in sustainable development, you need to be thinking about inclusive data. Otherwise, how can you know whether things are moving forward? So, I would point you towards finding out more about the Inclusive Data Charter and seeing whether it’s something that you think you can add value to and get value from because we’re always open to working with new partners.

If you’re an individual, then I think the first thing to do is check out what’s happening around citizen-generated data. There are a lot of opportunities to provide individual experiences which have the potential to impact policy change in a way that hasn’t been the case before. Civicus has done some interesting work on this for example, so you could start by checking out their website.