Data Governance and M&E

As noted in the previous blog, lower and middle-income countries are at the forefront of adopting new data privacy laws.

However, there is a big gap between laws on paper and laws in practice, and strong data governance systems are urgently needed to address this gap.

M&E teams are key in promoting and executing data governance systems, as they play the role of ‘data stewards’ by ensuring that data policies and data standards are adhered to in daily practice.

To help the development sector move forward and better support governments in their data governance efforts, M&E practitioners need to be equipped with up-to-date knowledge on data governance and data protection.

Taking into consideration that M&E practitioners and the departments that they work with deal with several types of data, practitioners should be fully aware of their responsibilities and accountabilities to the various stakeholders. During the M&E process, for example, accountabilities are mandated to the following:

• Individuals: Their data is collected and used to measure programme impact or to predict outcomes.
• Communities: They have a stake in the data collected about them and the decisions made using that data.
• Peer organisations: They hold the collectors of data accountable for peer-ethical and transparent governance processes.
• National governments: They need to keep the data of those living within their borders safe and secure.
• Other country governments: They may receive or have access to data sets and need to ensure that this data is protected.
• Donors: They play a strong role in determining what data is collected and processed and use data to determine whether programme goals have been met.
• Evaluation commissioners: Since the work of M&E practitioners is framed within a particular context or country, they must operate within national laws, including data protection and privacy laws and research ethics laws.

M&E practitioners in the development sector are often torn between prioritising ‘upward’ accountability towards donors over ‘downward’ accountability to individuals and communities who are participating in programmes and services. The Centre for Global Development for instance, found that while the value of data should lie in providing actionable insights that can improve services and policy, the benefits of this data are seldom felt by the individuals, communities and organisations that initially provided it. This often results in data collection and decisions made from data that are of little practical value for the community. In addition, donors may choose to work outside national data systems, resulting in paternalistic relationships and poor country ownership.

Data governance challenges for M&E

While new legislation is strengthening certain data rights and data privacy protections, challenges remain in several areas. In general, legislation has been unable to keep pace with changes in technology and, as the sophistication of data use grows, new issues will continue to emerge. For example, only now is legislation is being formulated to regulate the use of facial recognition and to address government use of private sector location and mobility data without a specific warrant to do so. A 2021 report highlighted the urgent need to legally restrict the sale of tools sold by the private sector to governments to spy on human rights activists and others who voice dissent. Additionally, enforcement of data laws has been uneven and has been heavily dependent on the strength of the rule of law and on the capacity and funding of data protection authorities.

M&E units and individual professionals play a role in ensuring that data collected is put to good use and does not compromise the safety and security of those whose data is collected.

In the next blog series, covering Part 2 of the data guidance report, guidelines will be provided for responsible data management for M&E units and practitioners.

Read more about Data governance and M&E in Part 1 of the Responsible Data in Monitoring and Evaluation paper. To follow the series, check our previous blog posts: How is the data revolution influencing digital MERL in Africa? ; MERL and the African Data Ecosystem; Data Rights as Human Rights; and Data Governance in the African Context.