How Can the Private Sector Contribute to the Global #DataValues Call?

In September 2022, the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data launched the #DataValues Manifesto. It includes recommendations for governments, companies, civil society organizations, donors, and others to change how data is funded, designed, managed, and used. This article explores the recommendations and shares why CDOs should take note of this initiative.

A community call is made:

#DataValues was motivated by the understanding that a lack of clarity, regulation, and common agreement on how to unlock the value of data while protecting people’s rights has created a vacuum that is contributing to rising inequality, insecurity, and worse health outcomes, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Data issues are fragmented, becoming more polarized, and compromise and consensus in policy approaches are increasingly difficult.

Accompanied by a supporting report — Reimagining Data and Power: A Roadmap for Putting Values at the Heart of Data — the resulting manifesto calls on governments, companies, civil society organizations, donors, and others to make positive changes in how data is funded, designed, managed, and used. 

What does the manifesto call for?

The Data Values Manifesto comprises five core values: 

1. Support people to shape how they are represented in data. People must have a say in data design and collection that affects their lives. Everyone deserves to have their needs, priorities, and experiences — as they define them — captured in data. 

2. Invest in public participation for accountability. People must be included in decisions related to data use and reuse. This is essential to hold leaders accountable, protect people from harm, and improve lives. 

3. Democratize data skills for greater equality. Everyone, everywhere, must gain confidence in engaging with and using data. Widespread data confidence is a building block of a fair data future.  

4.  Create cultures of transparency, data sharing, and use. All leaders must invest in strengthening cultures of data use and reuse. Repeated positive experiences of regulating, sharing, and using data for the public good will build trust. 

5. Fund open and responsive data systems so that all people share data’s benefits. Governments and donors must dedicate more funding to data systems that support action and promote participation and inclusion from start to finish.

The role of the private sector

The #DataValues Manifesto resulted from a year-long consultation with more than 300 people from more than 60 countries. A central concern that emerged from these diverse contributions was a significant disconnect in how data is produced, managed, and used, including by the private sector. "Reimagining Data and Power," the supporting report for #DataValues, states:

“Far too many people remain excluded from data while others are harmed by their inclusion in it. Existing data is left unused or underused by policymakers. Top-down data governance solutions do not allow space for people to hold those in power accountable. Development agencies collect and use data primarily at the behest of donors who are often out of touch with events on the ground. Data and automated decision-making reinforce structural inequalities — largely behind the scenes.” 

There is a significant disconnect in data governance because it rarely includes those who the data is supposed to help. While this is also a reality for the private sector, emerging examples of affected populations are brought into discussions on data governance practices. For instance, there are pushes for more patient engagement in health research design and benefit sharing in the U.S. and Africa. 

The manifesto’s core values — derived from an extensive consultation — clearly put people first in all moments of the data cycle, from conceptualizing which data should be captured and ensuring social-economic value is distributed to accountability via systems and data literacy. Putting people first results in long-term benefits and better incentives for corporate social responsibility.

What can you do? 

Companies should acknowledge their power and take steps to promote more equitable societies that promote rights while also working toward long-term return and growth. The Data Values Manifesto highlights how the private sector can actively contribute to a fairer data future, and CDOs can be the change leaders. The accompanying report "Reimagining Data and Power" includes steps companies can take to improve how they design their data governance and management programs. Those steps include:

• Creating mechanisms for users and data subjects to shape how their data will be used in new products and services.

• Identifying where human intervention needs to be protected or reintroduced to automated decision-making. 

• Establishing, abiding by, and communicating ethical red lines that define what business the company will not undertake, what business practices are off limits, and ensuring a demonstrated respect for people’s dignity, agency, and human rights.

• Improving auditing of data collection, management and use, and adopting and communicating about related certification mechanisms allowing individuals to choose the most ethical products and services on the market.

At the manifesto launch in New York , on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly in September, Andrew Means, Senior Director of Global Impact Data Strategy at Salesforce, discussed how the Data Values Manifesto can help companies like his build technology that aligns with their customers' values. “Efforts like the data values campaign are so important because it creates easy ways for companies to be held accountable, for organizations to know whether they are serving the needs of their customers or not,” he said.

About the Authors

Carolina has more than 20 years of experience in technology and telecom law and policy and non-profits management, strategy, and development. She is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a member of WEF’s network of Global Future Councils, and a professor at Boston University Law School. She is the co-founder of and serves as a senior advisor to Portulans Institute, where she was the CEO for its 2 first years, and is a board member of InternetLab (Brazil), Derechos Digitales (Chile), #IamtheCode (Global), and Instituto EducaDigital (Brazil). She was a founding advisor to Global Partners Digital (UK), The LightHouse Collective (USA), and the Open Knowledge Foundation (Brazil).

Jenna previously was Director of Sustainable Development Policy at the United Nations Foundation. She has over 12 years of experience at the UN and working on UN policy issues related to sustainable development and peacebuilding, with a focus on analyzing the political dynamics around the 2030 Agenda, development data, and the UN’s peacebuilding architecture. Jenna worked for the UN Development Programme and for Building Markets in Kosovo.