Development Initiatives Poverty Research America

Development Initiatives (DI) focuses on putting data-driven decision making at the heart of poverty reduction and sustainable development. This grant will support DI’s Africa Hub, and its plan to establish data storytelling labs in Kenya and Uganda. The program will equip different communities with the skills, strategies, and technical know-how to tell their stories in a more powerful data-centric way, giving a voice to vulnerable and marginalized communities that have been left behind. In particular, the program will support efforts around Citizen Generated Data (CGD) to provide compelling stories that support evidence-driven priority setting and accountability in public spending. The data stories will focus on tracking nonfinancial indicators and targets as articulated in official government policy documents. The data stories developed will provide credible and complementary data to support accountability efforts by citizens to engage their policymakers at different levels. DI will support both the improvement of methodological rigor in data collection, and the standardization of CGD datasets as various stakeholders interact with CGD and the data stories shared. The program will also test and pilot approaches in empowering these communities to communicate their data with policymakers, thereby enhancing inclusive governance in an evidence-driven way. (Strategy: Evidence-Informed Policymaking)

Development Initiatives seeks to advance the global poverty reduction agenda through the provision of high-quality data on poverty and public resource allocation. The organization works with local partners in Kenya, Uganda, and Nepal to ensure that decisions about the allocation of public resources are informed by data on poverty incidence. In addition to direct advocacy through local partners, it helps watchdog groups to access and understand this data so they can advocate for better resource allocation. Development Initiatives also strengthens feedback loops between national development priorities and international commitments, notably the "leave no one behind" campaign under the Sustainable Development Goals.