Acting Locally, Monitoring Globally? How to Link Citizen-Generated Data to SDG Monitoring

Abstract

Citizen-generated data (CGD) is data actively created by citizens and their organisations. It is produced to monitor, demand or drive change around issues that are important to them, often collected on the ground and in local contexts. As such, CGD yields the potential to foreground the issues of disadvantaged communities in underreported regions. Yet, if the SDGs aim to leave no one behind, and if CGD can provide contextual information about marginalized groups, the question is whether and how CGD can be used for the SDGs. Currently there is often a mismatch between citizen-generated data (CGD) and SDG monitoring. This report for Datashift/CIVICUS explores what this mismatch is, and makes concrete recommendations to both overcome these challenges and further explore the long-term potential of CGD for SGD monitoring.

Keywords: politics of data, aggregation, SDGs, citizen generated data, ICT4D