The World Health Organization (WHO) is the official source of international public health information, coordination, and - increasingly - data governance. It’s not an overstatement to say that is some of the most important, complicated, and political work in any year - but at the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic, their work is, well, at the front line of defining critical issues and practices in emergency data governance. So it’s encouraging that they’re focused on the issues - and have just released Principles on Data Governance, as well as a range of best practices.
Over the last 15 years, we’ve learned a thing or two about public interest and emergency data governance. Not only have we supported users in 175+ countries, but we’ve worked in an extraordinary range of political and cultural settings - which has informed our technical choices. After all, we started as a desktop product, moved to a cloud offering, and are now beta-testing FrontlineLocal, a blended product that will bridge what we call, the missing middle mile. Having a front row seat to the complicated geopolitics of data architecture has informed our product, our policies, and the clients we support.
And so, we were lucky to be able to contribute a bit of our learning to that process - Frontline’s CEO was on the team that helped the WHO develop the Principles and the supporting documentation. One of those documents focused on best practices in data governance for public health - and here are a few of the key takeaways:
We need more infrastructure for public testing No matter the context, when it comes to deploying technologies - ‘innovation’ is often ‘experimentation’ - and the whole industry gets better when we have contextual testing pre-deployment that respects the ethics and protections of human subjects research.
Data governance is political Ultimately, most data is used to represent people, or something relevant to people. And the way we represent people in systems that distribute information, resources, or services, is political - and that’s ok. We are all better served by embracing the politics of data governance and building ways to participate in setting new standards.
Absolutely no one is there yet There are a lot of principles and emerging areas of practice that are sources of hope - but ethically building public interest technology requires a combination of legal, technical, and civic tools, many of which are still in development. Which, brings us full circle.
There is no perfect set of data governance principles or practices, yet - and like most governance, we are a long way from realizing our espoused ideals. But, when policymakers and service providers and frontline technologists work together to advance the common goals of realizing our values in digital ecosystems, we bend the arc just a little closer to justice. \o/