National Big Data Strategy for Colombia

The MIT Media Lab and DPA provided technical assistance to iNNpulsa—Colombia’s entrepreneurship and innovation agencyand to the National Planning Department (DNP), in the design and development of the country’s first national Big Data strategy, which was presented to the President of Colombia in 2020. After intensive research, DPA produced nine diagnostic documents that were used to identify priority areas and specific actions that would generate the necessary synergies to achieve 4 strategic objectives of the project: 1) strengthen the Big Data ecosystem in the country, 2) develop analytical capabilities for greater and better use of data, 3) foster the digital economy, and 4) promote the adoption of Big Data solutions and AI for public administration. In that sense, an implementation proposal and two pilot projects in Colombia were completed, along with an impact evaluation and two training workshops.