Josh Powell

As DFID aims to harness the Data Revolution, ensuring that data drive decision-making, public
accountability, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ensuring
that systems, processes, and skills for data are aligned with these objectives is paramount.
Across sector policy teams, country offices, and various analytical and technical cadres, different
strengths and weaknesses, as well as needs and ambitions exist. To inform a strategic approach
to data, as… Show more

As DFID aims to harness the Data Revolution, ensuring that data drive decision-making, public
accountability, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ensuring
that systems, processes, and skills for data are aligned with these objectives is paramount.
Across sector policy teams, country offices, and various analytical and technical cadres, different
strengths and weaknesses, as well as needs and ambitions exist. To inform a strategic approach
to data, as framed in its forthcoming Data Roadmap, DFID collaborated with Development
Gateway to perform a Decision and Data Use Landscaping study. This report details lessons
learned from approximately 60 interviews across 4 DFID country offices, all sector policy teams,
senior managers, and various analytical and technical cadres and offices. Show less

International development actors spend upwards of USD $2.5 billion annually performing program
monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Ostensibly, this investment aims to enable data-driven decision-making in support of institutional accountability and learning, and to achieve better development
outcomes. Yet our work in the Results Data Initiative (RDI) has uncovered a critical flaw in this theory of change. Despite these enormous investments in M&E systems, staff in donor and government… Show more

International development actors spend upwards of USD $2.5 billion annually performing program
monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Ostensibly, this investment aims to enable data-driven decision-making in support of institutional accountability and learning, and to achieve better development
outcomes. Yet our work in the Results Data Initiative (RDI) has uncovered a critical flaw in this theory of change. Despite these enormous investments in M&E systems, staff in donor and government agencies report little to no utilization of M&E data for decision-making. Rather, the predominant effect of these investments has been an increase of human and material resources dedicated to data collection and reporting, often at the expense of primary service delivery duties and responsibilities. This white paper explores the institutional, management, and individual incentives and barriers to data use, proposing a framework for understanding when investments in data and technology are likely to lead to better decisions. Show less

In the past several decades, international development aid has been the focal point of high profile public campaigns and academic debates. These debates generally fall along a lengthy spectrum of ideological stances that view aid, on the one hand, as a potential panacea for countries stuck in poverty traps and, on the other, the perpetrator of persistent poverty and underdevelopment in the world. Behind this vitriolic battle is a growing awareness that what we actually know and do not know… Show more

In the past several decades, international development aid has been the focal point of high profile public campaigns and academic debates. These debates generally fall along a lengthy spectrum of ideological stances that view aid, on the one hand, as a potential panacea for countries stuck in poverty traps and, on the other, the perpetrator of persistent poverty and underdevelopment in the world. Behind this vitriolic battle is a growing awareness that what we actually know and do not know about aid and its effects is contingent upon the quantity and quality of available data.
Show less