Workshop Summary: Does Data Sharing Enhance NGO Coordination, Collaboration And Transparency?

At this Thursday afternoon panel, Marian Spivey-Estrada of the American Red Cross, Stephen Davenport of Development Gateway, Melissa Bator of the University of California Santa Barbara, and moderator Andrew Schroeder of Direct Relief International offered insights into data sharing as a tool for NGO coordination, collaboration and transparency.

The workshop discussed the benefits that can derive from data sharing and standardization while also exploring some of the challenges that prevent NGOs from maximizing participation.

Benefits include improved targeting and integrated services. Challenges remain around perceived competition between organizations, standard development, and the necessity of changing the NGO project management structure to facilitate sharing. Participants discussed the amount of labor necessary to transform data into a product that tells a compelling story; the power of data visualization; questions about who data should be shared with and the type of data that should be shared; creating incentives for sharing; how to report lessons learned to donors; and sensitivity issues around data sharing.

The session produced some consensus that data sharing among NGOs will involve a process of trust building, and that improvement of data standards will facilitate progressively better sharing over time. 

By Tawana Jacobs, associate director of public relations at InterAction