The exponential growth of data provides powerful new ways for governments and companies to understand and respond to challenges and opportunities. This report, Data for Development: What’s next, investigates how organisations working in international development can leverage the growing quantity and variety of data to improve their investments and projects so that they better meet people’s needs.

Investigating the state of data for development and identifying emerging data trends, the study provides recommendations to support German development cooperation actors seeking to integrate data strategies and investments in their work. These insights can guide any organisation seeking to use data to enhance their development work.

The research considers four types of data: (1) big data, (2) open data, (3) citizen-generated data and (4) real-time data, and examines how they are currently being used in development-related policy-making and how they might lead to better development outcomes.

To explore the trends uncovered by this research and read our recommendations, download the full report: Data for Development: What’s next.

This research was financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). It was conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).