Data is to development conversations what blood is to human beings. Data is the major enabler of a good development plan. Planning without data is like driving without a compass. It is to this end DAWN Commission has shown interest in developing data infrastructure through a concept tagged; Southwest Sustainable Open Data Management System (ODMS). The concept’s central focus is to make quality data accessible to different stakeholders with interest in the growth and development of the Region including tracking of the Region’s SDG’s performance.
For DAWN Commission, the ODMS concept is aimed at facilitating the creation of a harmonised data management system that will enable the production, assemblage, warehousing, analysing and broadcasting of statistical information for the sustainable development of Southwest Region of Nigeria. Undoubtedly, the attainment of this lofty goal requires high level strategic collaboration with key stakeholders and decision makers across the six Southwest States.
Thus, the concept was made a subject of conversation at the recently held Southwest Commissioners for Economic Planning and Budget’s Community of Practice (CoP) hosted by State of Osun Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Prof. Olalekan Yinusa. The CoP had in attendance Commissioners for Economic Planning and Budget; Statisticians-General, and Permanent Secretaries of the Ministries of Economic Planning and Budget across the six Southwest States, as well as the Special Advisers to Osun and Oyo States Governors on Economic Planning and Economic Affairs respectively and DAWN Commission’s Data Advisor, Prof. Vincent O. Akinyosoye, a former Director-General of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The DAWN Commission team, led by the Economic Development and Investment Desk, presented for adoption the ODMS Strategic Action Plan. The ODMS Strategic Action Plan is a fall-out of series of technical meetings on data management in the Southwest. The process started in 2016 with the conceptualisation of Southwest Open Data Initiative (SWODI) and the implementation was supported by DFID. This was followed by a presentation at the first meeting of the Commissioners for Economic Planning and Budget hosted by Lagos State in 2017 where Prof. Akinyosoye made a presentation on how to leverage administrative data for tracking the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Region.
Consequently, ODMS was conceived to develop a template for data collation across the States and an IT-enabled platform for data storage. The ODMS concept was discussed and adopted by the six Southwest States with an agreement to domesticate the process of coordination for effective monitoring of development activities within the Region and by extension, for global comparison.
The full implementation of the ODMS Strategic Action Plan is tentatively scheduled to commence in March 2020 with a Regional Technical Workshop to develop a uniform disaggregated data coordination template based on the SDGs indicators, as well as identify the human and infrastructural needs of the six States’ Bureau of Statistics for effective implementation of the web-enabled ODMS.
Reported by Oluwatosin Oke and Olalekan Ibikunle
Knowledge Management Report of CoP for Budget & Planning (DOMESTICATION OF SDG DATA DISAGGREGATION)