The world of 2024 should be much safer, fairer, more empathetic, sustainable, and hospitable than it currently is. AI’s contribution to this vision should also be much more positive than the trajectory we see today. Anger and frustration can either fuel despair and cynicism or ignite determination and commitment; renouncement or resolve. We choose the latter path, driven by one … Read More
Unveiling Local Patterns of Child Pornography Consumption in France Using Tor
Child pornography—better known as child sexual abuse material (CSAM)—represents a severe form of exploitation and victimization of children, leaving the victims with emotional and physical trauma. This study presents an analysis of local patterns of CSAM consumption across 1341 French communes in 20 metropolitan regions of France between March 16 to May 31, 2019, using fine-grained mobile traffic data of … Read More
Stratégie Nationale des Données du Sénégal – Résumé
En 2023, DPA a fourni un soutien technique à l’élaboration de la première stratégie nationale de données du Sénégal en collaboration avec le ministère de la Communication, des Télécommunications et de l’Economie Numérique du Sénégal, Smart Africa et la GIZ pour le compte du ministère fédéral de la Coopération économique et développement (BMZ). La vision de la Stratégie Nationale des … Read More
Overview and Outlook 2022-2024
10 YEARS IN REVIEW: A LETTER FROM OUR DIRECTOR Finding appropriate metrics to summarize a decade of work by and at Data-Pop Alliance is not easy. It could be the number of projects completed (over 100), of our publications (92), of countries where we have worked (over 30), or partners we have collaborated with (countless). It could also be our … Read More
Links We Like: A Compilation of 40 Editions
Links We Like Turns 40! Technically, Links We Like (LWL) has been around for seven years, and in that time we have produced 40 editions, all of which are compiled here in a downloadable PDF form. LWL began in 2015 as a way for us to take stock of the debates and conversations around the data landscape, as well as … Read More
Overview and Outlook 2021-2023
Even for the most optimistic, any hopes that 2021 and the first half of 2022 would constitute a decisive upward inflection from recent and old trends should, by now, unfortunately have been put to rest. The past year has been generally more of the same, or worse, as pre-existing fissures and excesses have continued to be exposed and often exacerbated: … Read More
World Bank Crisis Risk Finance Analytics Strategic Review, Dissemination, and Technical Design on Big Data and Technology for Financial Resilience
This project was a collaboration between the Global Risk Financing Facility, the Disaster Risk Financing & Insurance Program of the World Bank, the European Space Agency and Data-Pop Alliance. The following publications stem from the collaboration. Crisis Risk Finance Analytics Report The report represents a selection of projects from the Crisis Risk Finance Analytics program (CRFA), as part of the … Read More
Overview and Outlook 2020-2022
Last year exposed and exacerbated pre-existing fault lines that had been previously ignored or minimised by those who claimed that 2019 was “the best year in history” only weeks before the pandemic shredded this illusion. Data exposed systemic inequities and structural imbalances when it showed that COVID-19 could severely affect many—even while infecting few—in the poorest regions because of its … Read More
Analyse de mobilité pendant la COVID-19 au Togo
Dans la riposte contre la COVID-19, le gouvernement Togolais décida d’instaurer des mesures de restriction de mobilité pour éviter la propagation du virus. L’analyse suivante se sert de sources de données innovantes pour caractériser les changements des tendances de mobilité qui ont suivi la mise en place de ces mesures. En l’occurrence, l’analyse se concentre sur les données de mobilité … Read More
Digital Technology Shaping Green and Sustainable Lifestyles: Exploring Alipay Ant Forest
Alipay Ant Forest, launched by Ant Financial in 2016, is a green initiative embedded on Alipay’s digital lifestyle platform. This report analyzes Alipay’s Ant Forest trajectory as a green digital innovation that has achieved exponential growth over the past three years. In further models the implications that scaling a platform such as Ant Forest could catalyze in additional countries. The … Read More
Mobile phone data for informing public health actions across the COVID-19 pandemic life cycle
The coronavirus 2019–2020 pandemic (COVID-19) poses unprecedented challenges for governments and societies around the world. Non-pharmaceutical interventions have proven to be critical for delaying and containing the COVID-19 pandemic. These include testing and tracing, bans on large gatherings, nonessential business and school and university closures, international and domestic mobility restrictions and physical isolation, and total lockdowns of regions and countries. … Read More
Mobile phone data and COVID-19: Missing an opportunity?
This paper describes how mobile phone data can guide government and public health authorities in determining the best course of action to control the COVID-19 pandemic and in assessing the effectiveness of control measures such as physical distancing. It identifies key gaps and reasons why this kind of data is only scarcely used, although their value in similar epidemics has … Read More
Estrategia de Big Data para Colombia – Documentos de diagnóstico
Documento 1: Estado del arte y análisis comparativo de estrategias nacionales de Big Data Document 1: State of affairs and comparative analysis of national Big Data Strategies This study provides an analysis of the main characteristics of the existing government strategies related to Big Data, while clarifying the operational concept of Big Data used throughout this project. Documento 2: Buenas prácticas sobre … Read More
The ABCDE of Big Data: Assessing Biases in Call-Detail Records for Development Estimates
CDRs (Call Detail Records) represent an important and largely untapped source of data for the developing world. However, they are not representative of the underlying population. We combine CDRs and census data for Senegal in 2013 to evaluate biases related to estimates of population density. We show that: (i) there are systematic relationships between cell-phone use and socio-economic and geographic … Read More
Overview and Outlook: 2019-2020
Data-Pop Alliance was born 7 years ago out of the recognition that the defining element of the 21st century would be data. Since, phrases such as ”Big Data” and “Data Revolution” have been largely replaced by “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and “Artificial Intelligence”, but the key question remain essentially the same: how can data-infused systems and societies be shaped to foster … Read More
Principes et options pour une stratégie et plan d’actions « données pour le développement » au Togo
Cette Note de Cadrage fait partie de l’assistance technique fournie par le bureau pays du du PNUD (Programme des Nations Unies pour le développement) Togo (CO) par Data-Pop Alliance (DPA) dans ses efforts pour promouvoir la bonne utilisation des données ouvertes et des Big Data pour le développement du Togo, y compris le suivi et la promotion des objectifs de … Read More
Big Data para o bem comum
Desde o início do século XX, a maioria de nossas ações e interações tem sido mediada e capturada por dispositivos eletrônicos. Os rastros de dados deixados pelo caminho resultam no que foi batizado de big data. Embora a exploração do big data tenha sido desenvolvida por gigantes da internet, que transformaram a mineração dessas migalhas digitais em uma de suas … Read More
Harnessing Innovative Data and Technology to Measure Development Effectiveness
In this study, the authors discuss and show how new kinds of digital data and analytics methods and tools falling under the umbrella term of Big Data, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, can help measure development effectiveness. Selected case studies provide examples of assessments of the effectiveness of ODA-funded policies and programmes. They use different data and techniques. For example, … Read More
Evaluación de nuevas herramientas y técnicas del big data para proyectos del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
El presente estudio identifica herramientas innovadoras de Big Data a partir de casos de estudios basados en cinco proyectos en vía de implementación por el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) en los países de la Comunidad Andina (CAN) con el fin de que nuevas tecnologías puedan ser aprovechadas e implementadas en estos u otros proyectos de inversión de la región. … Read More
Big Data to Address Global Development Challenges (Paper Series)
These 4 research papers were developed in collaboration with and funded by the Agence française de développement (AFD) between 2016 and 2019 under a joint program with Data-Pop Alliance and research partners. The aim was to strengthen the evidence-base for leveraging Big Data to address global development challenges in local contexts. Individually, the papers show specific cases and examples of how … Read More
Retrouver le sens de la mesure pour de meilleures décisions collectives: vers une intelligence artificielle humaine à l’ère des données (p. 47 à 55)
Les données personnelles et institutionnelles récoltées de plus en plus massivement à l’échelle mondiale ouvrent la voie à de nouvelles façons de penser la prise de décision collective. Cet article présente les conditions d’un traitement de ces données tourné vers le développement humain, au travers du concept d’Intelligence Artificielle Humaine (IAH). Nous présentons à cet égard un exemple de projet … Read More
Towards a Human Artificial Intelligence for Human Development
This paper discusses the possibility of applying the key principles and tools of current artificial intelligence (AI) to design future human systems in ways that could make them more efficient, fair, responsive, and inclusive.
On the privacy conscientious use of mobile phone data
The breadcrumbs we leave behind when using our mobile phones—who somebody calls, for how long, and from where—contain unprecedented insights about us and our societies. Researchers have compared the recent availability of large-scale behavioral datasets, such as the ones generated by mobile phones, to the invention of the microscope, giving rise to the new field of computational social science.
Mining Case Law to Improve Countries’ Accountability To Universal Periodic Review
The United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a process established by the Human Rights Council aiming to monitor and improve the human rights situation in each UN member state. In this study, we hypothesize that leveraging text mining and machine-learning algorithms is a viable strategy for monitoring gender discrimination in sentencing practices of Fiji’s judiciary system, which has … Read More
The Tyranny of Data? The Bright and Dark Sides of Data-Driven Decision-Making for Social Good
We focus our attention on social good decision-making algorithms, that is algorithms strongly influencing decision-making and resource optimization of public goods, such as public health, safety, access to finance and fair employment. Through an analysis of specific use cases and approaches, we highlight both the positive opportunities and the potential negative consequences that practitioners should be aware of and address … Read More
Book chapter – “The Evaluation of Complex Development Interventions in the Age of Big Data
Recognizing that complexity calls for innovative, conceptual, and methodological solutions, this unique book offers practical guidance to policymakers, managers, and evaluation practitioners on how to design and implement complexity-responsive evaluations that can be undertaken in the real world of time, budget, data, and political constraints. Introductory chapters present comprehensive, non-technical overviews of the most common evaluation tools and methodologies, and … Read More
Event Paper – “Big Data and Privacy: Understanding the Possibilities and Pitfalls of the Data Revolution in Germany
As the first event paper in the digitising Europe’s series, this event paper captures the major key themes emerging from our events in Berlin in November 2015. The Berlin workshop and public forum focused on the possibilities and pitfalls of using Big Data analytics for economic growth and public good. Bringing together German academic institutions, think tanks, businesses and other thought-leaders, … Read More
Group Privacy in the Age of Big Data
This paper attempts to define what is a group and what is privacy in order to determine how a privacy right might attach to groups distinctly from the individual privacy rights of its members, and what might be the content of such a group privacy right. The challenge faced by group privacy is to enable the positive uses of Big … Read More
White Paper: The Law, Politics and Ethics of Cell Phone Data Analytics
This paper examines Call Detail Records (CDRs) and their expanding role in providing insight into human behavior, movements, and social interactions. As a result of their growing application, certain ethical and legal questions need to be addressed. The paper summarizes current legal frameworks, explores structural socio-political parameters and incentives structuring the sharing of CDRs, proposes guiding ethical principles and discusses … Read More
Quantifying the Data Deluge and the Data Drought
This paper investigates how the world’s Big Data capacity can be understood in terms of the world’s storage capacity and the telecommunication capacity to access this storage (‘the cloud’). This paper follows the methodology of what has become the standard reference in estimating the world’s technological information capacity: Hilbert and López (2011).
AFD Paper – “CDRs & Poverty and Population Analysis – Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal”
This paper considers Big Data’s potential to partly fill some key data gaps and complement or even replace official statistics. Data-Pop Alliance offers the specific case of Côte d’Ivoire, using Call Records (CDRs) from Orange in conjunction with two other datasets, the WorldPop dataset, which provides population data derived from satellite imagery, and the recently released 2013 Demographic and Health … Read More