The Datahub initiative is implemented by BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University, with support from International Growth Centre (IGC), London School of Economics. The dashboards are primarily designed for Upazila and Zilla-level policymakers, students, and researchers of Bangladesh, specifically around the theme of social protection, poverty, migration and energy.
Researchers: Munshi Sulaiman; Saadman Faisal
Partners: International Growth Centre (IGC)
Timeline: 2023-2025
Status: Ongoing
Contact: Saadman Faisal; saadman.faisal@bracu.ac.bd
Context
Accessing requisite data to conduct research is very difficult for researchers in Bangladesh due to many factors, including the lack of data, a lack of willingness to share data among data collection agencies, and data being stored in unusable formats. Even though the government has put an emphasis on the use of data in designing policies, there is little effort to make data use palatable to government officials and policymakers. The IGC-BIGD Datahub is an initiative aimed at increasing data access in Bangladesh for researchers and increasing data use among policymakers.
Objectives
The goal of the IGC-BIGD Datahub is twofold:
- to increase data access for researchers; and
- to create data products (visualisations, dashboards, analyses) which will make data legible to policymakers.
For the first phase of the initiative, a social protection and energy dashboard has been created on the DataHub Bangladesh website.
Methodology
The study integrates publicly available survey datasets and census summary data into a centralised digital platform (datahub.org). Data is standardised, cleaned, and linked at sub-district and program levels to create dynamic visualisations for policy use for district and sub-district administrators.
Findings and Recommendations
Forthcoming.
