Dear Colleagues,
At the UN Word Data Forum in Medellin, Colombia last week, I was thrilled to be in community with activists, statisticians, policymakers, platform developers, civil society representatives, and funders from around the world with a shared goal of building inclusive data systems to advance the sustainable development goals and leave no one behind.
Of all the sessions, those that stood out with palpable energy of intention, collaboration, and movement were those that were focused on Gender Data, SOGISC (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Sexual Characteristics) data, Intersectional Data, and Citizen Data. There is an underlying sense that inclusive, community-led data and visibility is a way to counter increasing authoritarianism around the world, and it can only happen by building multi-sector relationships, partnerships, and trust. These sessions underscored the ways in which collecting, sharing, and accessing data are unto themselves political action—that data is not just a neutral representation of reality, but is always filtered through a point of view.
There is great alignment between Feminist Philanthropy and the Citizen Data movement as outlined in The Copenhagen Framework on Citizen Data. Both movements recognize the importance of centering people who have first-hand experience with the ways in which gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, disability, and other factors intersect in compounding and complex ways. Both movements seek to support community-initiated work that address local systems of discrimination to increase opportunity for all.
One of my biggest takeaways from the forum was the importance of partnerships to facilitate trusting relationships between communities, civil society organizations, local governments, funders, and statistical offices, and most importantly, trust flows both ways. With such strong values alignment, deep local relationships, and strong research and data practices, we see the feminist philanthropy movement as well positioned to serve as “citizen data intermediaries,” supporting the relationships between local community-led data initiatives from conception all the way through policy change. We call on philanthropy to invest in the networks, infrastructure, and relationship-building that will bring the perspective of citizen data into the global conversation.
Sincerely,.
Sara Keilholtz
Women’s Funding Network
Director of Data and Strategic Insights