Yousif Hassan, assistant professor at the Ford School of Public Policy and the School of Information, has been awarded funding from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) for a new project Defining and Measuring the Sustainable Economic and Social Value of Data in Africa. The project team includes collaborators from the University of Johannesburg, Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, the African Center for Technology Studies in Kenya, and York University.
“Data is an important asset with the potential to drive both economic and social transformation and generate long term benefits for communities,” said Hassan. “With this project, we will deepen our understanding of how data can create sustainable value for African communities while ensuring equitable development and local agency in the digital economy.”
The new project will examine the current state of data infrastructure in Africa, as well as the social and economic dimensions of the data economy. This includes developing a methodology for data value measurement, a global data economy index, and a best practices toolkit for policymakers to help shape a policy framework that supports the data-driven digital economy.
The data value creation project is supported by the European Union and its Member States (Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France and Germany) under the Data Governance in Africa Initiative which supports a human-centric data policy, data use and data infrastructure in Africa, in line with the AU Data Policy Framework.
About the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ):
GIZ is a service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work dedicated to shaping a future worth living around the world. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security. The diverse expertise of our federal enterprise is in demand around the globe—from the German Government, European Union institutions, the United Nations, the private sector, and governments of other countries. They work with businesses, civil society actors and research institutions, fostering successful interaction between development policy and other policy fields and areas of activity. Our main commissioning party is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). In addition to two registered offices in Germany and two representations in Berlin and Brussels, GIZ operates from around 90 offices worldwide.
