Media
Videos
WDR 2021 chapter/topic events and global voices videos.
Events
Launch of the World Development Report 2021: Data for Better LivesDownload presentationWorld Bank Group President David Malpass, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Microsoft President Brad Smith, and WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala discuss data’s tremendous potential to improve lives.
WDR 2021 Discussion with G20 StakeholdersBuilding on the launch of the WDR 2021, this event, hosted jointly by the World Bank and the G20 Italian Presidency, is one in the series of high-level dialogues where diverse stakeholders bring their perspectives on the role of data for development. This event is an opportunity to engage G20 stakeholders and the international development community as they discuss the report’s recommendations and data’s tremendous potential to improve lives.
Data for a sustainable and inclusive world : Exploring the World Development Report 2021 (IDRC)This event built on the launch of the World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives. It engaged Canadian stakeholders and the international development community in an interactive session to discuss the report’s recommendations and explore opportunities to ensure that data improves the lives of the most vulnerable around the world. Speakers include key international data experts, as well as the World Bank, the Treasury Board of Canada, and Maninder Sidhu, the Parliamentary Secretary to Canada’s Minister of International Development.
Data as a force for public good (Chapter 2)Download presentationData can be a force for public good by empowering individuals, holding governments accountable, and improving service delivery. However, gaps in the availability, quality, and usability of data are pervasive, particularly in low-income countries, preventing data from reaching their full potential. This seminar will discuss why such gaps persist, the political economy of data as a force for public good, and policies that can help realize data’s full potential.
Policy Research Talk: Research Directions and Measuring Country CapacityDownload presentationIn this Policy Research Talk, members of the World Development Report team highlight research being done by World Bank staff that illustrates the potential to combine private and public intent data to yield timelier, more granular insights to confront policy challenges, as well as research findings from data quality experiments and assessments. The team also presents new data sources released in conjunction with the report.
Statistical Performance Indicators: A New Way to Measure Country Statistical CapacityWith rapid changes in the production and consumption of data, there is an urgent need for national statistical systems to transform and strengthen their capacity. To assess the performance of such systems, the World Bank has developed the Statistical Performance Indicators (SPI). By helping countries identify the strengths and weaknesses of their statistical systems, the SPI can guide decisions about investment priorities and help identify peer countries from which they might learn. The SPI includes a forward-looking framework to track progress in national statistical capacity and will replace the Statistical Capacity Indicators (SCI) that the World Bank has regularly published since 2004.
Navigating the independence and relevance of National Statistical Offices (NSO)Part of a series of launch events for the World Development Report 2021, this discussion focuses on national statistical offices (NSOs) and their relevance. It addresses the question of why the movement for the independence of NSOs has been weak and what needs to be done to promote it.
Creative reuses of data for greater value (Chapter 4)Download presentationInnovations in repurposing and combining public intent and private intent data are opening doors to development impacts previously unimaginable.This seminar discusses the potential and limitations of reuse and integration of public intent and private intent data, while providing a forward looking perspective on how governments, donors, and private sector can help promote innovative uses of data for public benefit in lower-income countries.
Data Infrastructure Policy: Ensuring equitable access (Chapter 5)Download presentationThe digital character of modern data makes infrastructure a prerequisite for collecting, exchanging, storing, processing, and distributing data. Harnessing the full economic and social value of modern data services calls for digital infrastructure that is universally accessible, while also offering adequate internet speed at affordable cost. This seminar discusses existing barriers and the necessary data infrastructure policies that are needed to connect poor people and poor countries.
Data policies, laws, and regulations: Creating a trust environment (Chapter 6)Download presentationCreating a trust environment involves putting in place the policies, laws, regulations and technical standards to enable data to be effectively used, reused and shared, while safeguarding the data rights of parties that control the data to ensure they are not misused. The report takes a rights-based approach as the basis for safeguarding the fundamental rights of individuals in their personal data, while proposing a balance of interests to safeguard non-personal data, such as through the use of intellectual property rights. The analysis is supported by the findings of a new Global Data Regulation Survey, which finds that elements of the enabling legal and regulatory frameworks for trusted data use remain unevenly developed across select country income groups.
Competition Policy Challenges Posed by Data-Driven Businesses (Chapter 3/7)Download presentationData play a central role in rapidly expanding platform-based business models, and these data-driven businesses pose complex challenges for competition policy. While they can drive pro-development market opportunities, their propensity for tipping towards entrenched positions of market power holds risks for exclusion of smaller rivals and exploitation of individuals. This seminar explores the issues facing policy makers globally on strengthening competition policies for the data-driven economy - both in terms of ex post competition enforcement and ex ante regulatory measures. It also presents findings from a new database on antitrust in the digital economy.
Cross-Border Data and Digital Trade (Chapter 7)Download presentationThis event presents the analysis and findings of the World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives on linkages of digital data and international trade, especially on digital services, and the domestic and international policy approaches to cross-border data flows. The discussion addresses the implications of digital data and data-driven innovations for digital trade and the ability of middle- and low- income to further engage on digital trade as a tool to boost development and inclusive growth.
Unraveling Data’s Gordian Knot – Enablers and Safeguards for Trusted Data SharingThis discussion with leaders from countries and companies around the globe, will explore a central premise that data sharing and its use is of critical importance to realizing the development potential of data and ensuring diverse stakeholders' benefit. We hope to explore the limits of data sharing/use and the enablers and safeguards that are ensuring people have trust and agency in the data economy. This panel is one in a series of events designed to explore themes from the World Development Report (WDR) 2021: Data for Better Lives and follows the release of the background report, Unraveling Data’s Gordian’s Knot: Enablers and Safeguards for Data Sharing in the New Economy.
Putting “Data for Better Lives” Into Practice: Building on the World Bank’s 2021 World Development Report (Center for Global Development)A conversation with senior World Bank staff who contributed to the Report, Vivien Foster and Malarvizhi Veerappan, and data policy experts and practitioners Shaida Badiee and Deepa Karthykeyan, where they discuss the work and research agenda needed to support the vision laid out by the World Development Report. The discussion was moderated by CGD Policy Fellow Michael Pisa.
How Creating Gender Aware Data Systems is Key to Achieving Gender EqualityDownload presentationThis Data2X and WDR 2021 co-sponsored event, with the support of Open Data Watch, initiates a conversation on how the WDR 2021 data agenda and recommendations apply to strengthening gender issues and to ensure that adequate gender data are available and—perhaps more critically—used to support and guide decision-making. The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the critical need for gender data for informing policy decisions. Building gender aware data systems and filling gender data gaps will play a key role in achieving the full implementation of SDG Goal 5 to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. This session engages different partners in the gender data ecosystem to drive the conversation forward on what it takes to implement the recommendations and solutions offered in the report.
How to Harness the Power of Data for Development Leaving No One Behind: WDR 2021This event, organized by the World Bank Group Geneva office, discusses the World Development Report 2021. Presented by senior World Bank staff who contributed to the Report – Vivien Foster, Dean Jolliffe and Malarvizhi Veerappan, the seminar’s discussants included Dr Samira Asma, Assistant Director-General, Data, Analytics and Delivery, World Health Organization, and Dr Anthony Rea, Director, Infrastructure, World Meteorological Organization.
How to unleash the full potential of data for better lives: WDR 2021 (Paris21)Download presentationThe Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate and the World Bank held a webinar on the World Development Report (WDR) 2021. The virtual event introduces participants to the key findings and recommendations of the report, followed by a panel discussion with leading members of the data and financing communities on the role of financing to achieve integrated national data systems. The discussion also covers new developments, such as the upcoming launch of the World Bank’s Global Data Facility, the development of innovative tools such as the Clearinghouse for Financing Development Data, a global platform to match the demand and supply of support for data and statistics, being developed by the PARIS21-hosted Bern Network on Financing Data for Development, and the OECD launch of the first-ever Data for Development country profiles of the main OECD funders of national data and statistics.
Foundations For Trust: Multistakeholder governance for the data economyDownload presentationIn this webinar co-hosted by the Data Values Project (The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data) and the World Development Report 2021, successful examples of multistakeholder governance models and the implications of sustaining such models are discussed. WDR 2021 argues that a multi-stakeholder approach to data governance is better equipped to govern the complex data ecosystem in a transparent, inclusive, and distributed way, which reflects the interests of all key stakeholders. The discussion builds on that and aims to deepen our understanding of how to promote multi-stakeholder governance based on practical experience. It feeds into the Data Values Project which is a global policy consultation bringing together diverse perspectives, research and experience on major data challenges leading to a common agenda for collective advocacy.
WDR 2021 Discussion with Austrian Federal Ministry of FinanceDownload presentationThe Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the World Bank, hosted the presentation and discussion of the 2021 World Development Report: Data for Better Lives.
WDR 2021 Discussion: World Bank Group Tokyo and JICACo-organized by the World Bank Group Tokyo and Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development, this seminar provides an overview of the WDR 2021 report and includes comments by Makino Koji, Deputy Director of JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development and Ito Seiro, Director, Microeconomic Analysis Studies Group, Development Studies Center, JETRO-Institute of Developing Economies.
WDR 2021 Discussion: International Conference on Governance, Crime and Justice StatisticsOrganized by UNODC-INEGI’s Centre of Excellence in Statistical information on Government, Crime, Victimization and Justice, this session, as part of the 5th International Conference on Governance, Crime and Justice Statistics, discussed the implications of the World Development Report 2021 and included components to be considered when developing an international data system, and the role that the private sector plays in data production and management.
The Role of Data in Ending Violence Against Women and GirlsDownload presentationThis event highlighted the importance of effective use of existing data related to violence against women and girls for designing evidence-based operations. It presented the World Development Report 2021, which puts a spotlight on violence against women and girls (VAWG), exploring the potential that data offers in improving the lives of people. In addition, it introduced the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Violence Against Women Prevalence Estimates, 2018 report and its interactive data visualization platform, the Global Database on the Prevalence of Violence Against Women, as a data tool to inform VAWG prevention and response operations. Moreover, it presented the WHO’s RESPECT Framework for addressing violence against women (VAW), which identifies evidence-based interventions for the prevention and response of violence against women and girls to be used in operations and policy engagements.
How to Leverage Data to Foster Development in the Western BalkansThis event discussed the policy messages of the World Development Report 2021 to raise awareness and promote dialogue with policymakers and other actors in the Western Balkans on the role of data and a modern data ecosystem for development.
WDR 2021 Discussion at Global Innovative Growth ForumThis event presented the World Development Report 2021 at the Global Innovative Growth Forum 2021, a flagship forum for global leaders to engage and discuss how innovation is key for sustainable growth. The World Bank Group Korea Office and the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance co-hosts this annual forum with the partnership of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Global Strategy Institute and the Born2Global Centre.
Global Voices
The Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Digital Government, CanadaJoyce Murray shares an important effort to ensure equity. Canada has introduced tools that help review historical data for biases and identify and address potential sources of systemic discrimination. She says that through the International Development Research Center, Canada is supporting developing countries with their open data initiatives to enhance transparency and accountability, which will improve public service delivery and citizen participation.
Dr. Ola Awad, President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of StatisticsDr. Ola Awad shares how harnessing the power of data encourages evidence-based decision making. By building more resilient data ecosystems, better decisions can be made. The coronavirus pandemic has increased the important role of data in meeting the challenges, says Dr. Awad. Leaving no one behind requires timely, reliable and interoperable data to identify and address the challenges and barriers faced by vulnerable groups.
Fabrizio Scrollini, Executive Director, ILDA (Latin American Initiative for Open Data)Fabrizio Scrollini shares an experience that is helping overcome violence against women. Data is used in Latin America to visualize the violence that women suffer, to inform the design of better strategies. He says that people need to be more aware of the power of data, to get better training and to think critically on how data can be used to advance better government outcomes.
Keith Ahumuza, Founder, Zoe Organic Farm, UgandaKeith Ahumuza shares how smallholder subsistence farmers are benefitting from data in southwestern Uganda. If the data are translated to local languages and are widely disseminated it enables the farmers to better understand implications of their actions on their livelihoods, food security, and the environment. He says promoting modern farming techniques in the way they do has led to increased adoption of these techniques and thus, better farm yields and food security.
Cassandra Richardson, Community Activist and Educator, Sint MaartenCassandra Richardson highlights the importance of research and data dissemination to address gender-based violence. Data plays an important role in raising awareness in communities, dispelling myths, gauging attitudes, and shaping better programs and policies.
Press releases
Blogs
Blogs on WDR 2021 topics.
A new social contract for dataMarch 24, 2021What would the world look like if all development data were as timely as COVID-19 case data?June 02, 2020The Statistical Performance Indicators: A new tool to measure the performance of national statistical systemsMarch 31, 2021Navigating the independence and relevance of national statistical officesApril 06, 2021How much should governments spend on data?April 21, 2021Building gender aware data systems is critical to create a level playing field for women and girlsMay 03, 2021Improving data infrastructure helps ensure equitable access for poor people in poor countriesMay 06, 2021Creating an Integrated National Data System – Lessons from Estonia, Ghana, and MexicoJuly 13, 2021Not all data are created equal: why the adoption of international data standards pays offSeptember 01, 2021Data-driven development and its potential to transform lives: A new online course explores how data can benefit marginalized populationsOctober 05, 2021Four recommendations for building trust in multistakeholder governance of the data economyOctober 25, 2021Germany’s data strategy for growth and innovationDecember 09, 2021Promoting trust in data through multistakeholder data governanceDecember 13, 2021
Further reading
Feature Story: New social contract for data needed to transform the lives of the poorIDRC connects Global South expertise to the World Development Report 2021: Data for Better LivesWorld Development Report Urges Strengthened Systems to Tackle Data InequalitiesIn poor countries, statistics are both undersupplied and underusedHow can the “data revolution” work for developing economies?