OD4D Observations in the time of Corona

As the impact of COVID-19 continues to be felt across the globe, disruption to ‘business as usual’ also presents an opportunity for us to further leverage data and digital technologies to inform health responses, weigh risks, and influence future decision-making. At the same time, opportunities to integrate data-driven approaches can be inhibited by a lack of transparency, data infrastructure, connectivity, and capacity. Below are reflections from the OD4D network on possible pathways forward that capitalize on opportunities and consider the challenges as we all attempt to navigate this complex new reality.

Ensuring information flows and support for remote communities, including indigenous and ethnic minorities, has been further problematized by the restriction of movement and connectivity barriers. In instances where pandemic information is available to remote populations, language barriers often further exacerbate access (or the information is contested due to the rapid circulation of dis and misinformation). A lack of transparency and established open data processes in some cases has also limited access to pandemic data and information, enabling governments to enforce strict measures on freedom of speech. The increase of powers to authoritarian regimes is likely to cause a rise in human rights abuses, which is currently the case in many parts of Southeast Asia – you can read about this in further detail here.

Throughout Latin America, the amount of information and data released to the public on COVID-19 is also varied. As in Southeast Asia, restrictions to movement have significantly increased the demand and need for digital information, further exposing the divide between those who have digital connectivity and those who are excluded. You can read about this in further detail through this editorial published by ILDA (Spanish).

Work to increase transparency in health data and procurement should continue, but with an increased emphasis on digital rights and personal protection to mitigate potential threats from state actors. The demand for health-related data also presents an opportunity to explore working with governments (where willing) on initiatives like creating guidelines for opening data sets that incorporate the visibility of marginalized groups and minority rights. In Southeast Asia, the RDA Covid-19 Working Group is currently drafting up guidelines for data sharing that address these issues.

Good health-related data doesn’t simply appear from the ether. It is a result of the policies, processes, and infrastructure that make up a strong primary healthcare system. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the weaknesses in primary healthcare systems in the global north as well as in the global south. Those weaknesses contribute to the low availability of data and a low confidence in whatever data is available from administrative systems. This has likely exacerbated the reluctance of some governments to provide the data many are clamouring for in an effort to respond to the pandemic. Therefore, addressing the healthcare data problem must start by first addressing the core issues affecting primary healthcare delivery before changes can be seen in distal areas associated with open data. This pandemic may provide opportunities to do that in ways that may have been more difficult to attempt in the past, much as it may also provide opportunities to imagine new ways of engaging with, and building capacity within, different communities and civil society organizations.