Are NGOs doing enough to share data?

The nongovernmental organizations Jack Cornforth works with don’t have the capacity to generate and use data in constructive ways — let alone share it.

Cornforth, the coordinator for Civicus’ DataShift initiative, has been tailoring capacity building programs based on data problems at civil society organizations in Argentina, Tanzania, Kenya and Nepal for the past two years. Those problems range from a lack of infrastructure — such as internet connectivity — to language translation capacity, to political and legislative barriers.

Despite these challenges, the call for open data and increased data sharing within the development community has never been louder, nor have as many institutions and initiatives been devoted to answering it. Read more here.