United Nations Foundation
For Support To The Africa Data Leadership Initiative (ADLI) Through The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)
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Amount$350,000
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Program
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Date Awarded9/14/2022
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Term12.0 Months
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Type of SupportProject
Overview
The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) is a nonprofit initiative of the United Nations Foundation dedicated to ensuring all people benefit from the potential of digital technologies to improve access to critical public and private services and to fuel innovation economies while mitigating the downside risk of data abuses such as enabling surveillance and repression, exacerbating the exclusion of vulnerable individuals and communities, and undermining competitive markets. The Africa Data Leadership Initiative (ADLI) is a peer engagement and learning network for senior Africa-based practitioners tackling the thorniest data policy and governance issues. It works to build the capacity of decision makers across the continent through exchange of knowledge and experiences within a values-oriented framework designed to expand the value of data for governments, markets, and people while safeguarding key civil liberties. In this growth stage, ADLI will expand participation in the network from five to 16 countries, and create new cohorts of parliamentarians and government digital technology coordinators — leaders of agencies charged with executing national digital policies. The grant will also broaden the types of engagement offered, and invest in durable infrastructure for peer exchange and knowledge discovery, creating cross-border collaboration to support data governance approaches designed by and for Africans, and support the development of a sustainable revenue model to support the network in the long term. This grant sits within a cluster of grants under the Evidence-Informed Policymaking strategy to strengthen a field of African institutions working on data governance. The goal of this cluster is to help governments in East and West Africa develop policy frameworks that balance public good uses of data with data privacy and protection.
About the Grantee
Grantee Website
www.unfoundation.org
Address
1750 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
Grants to this Grantee
for the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data
The United Nations Foundation serves as the institutional host of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD), which brings together government, private-sector, civil society, and international institutions to harness new and traditional sources of data to better understand and address development challenges. This grant renews support for the implementation of the partnership’s strategic plan, which seeks to solve three major problems: (a) how to harness up-to-date data to ensure decisions are informed by current and changing contexts; (b) how to safely include and represent all people in data and the data value chain; and (c) how to govern data fairly and safely. It will also support the partnership’s expansion into related, but newer areas — including artificial intelligence (AI), a more comprehensive approach to capacity building, and a deepening of the country partnership model through its Power of Data initiative. (Strategy: Evidence-Informed Policymaking)
for exploration of an African-based legal entity for DIAL
The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) at the United Nations Foundation works to understand what drives national digital transformations, helps countries accelerate access to life-changing technology and trusted innovations for all, and does so by identifying compelling evidence of what works. It finds the best digital solutions, passes them on to trusted country partners, and advocates for policies and practices that put people at the center of a country's digital transformation journey. As DIAL enters its second decade, its work continues to have a strong focus on the African continent. As a result, DIAL intends to be more fully staffed by people from the African continent, and partnering with Africa-based institutions. To that end, this organizational effectiveness grant will help DIAL understand pathways to having an Africa presence that cements its relationships between its internal human resources based in Africa and its external partners, particularly governments. In doing so, DIAL will also examine which pathway is least disruptive to its long-term operational and institutional health.
for support of the Data2X program
Data2X, an alliance housed at the U.N. Foundation, seeks to improve the quality, availability, and use of gender data to make a practical difference in the lives of women and girls. Data2X works with partners to improve the production and use of gender data through advocacy, collaboration, communications, and research. During this grant period, Data2X will work toward ensuring that gender data guides smart policymaking and promotes accountability in the effort to improve the lives of women and girls in countries around the world. This will include improving investment in gender data systems, improving the usability of gender data for policy, catalyzing policy demand for gender data, and creating an enabling environment for gender data use. (Strategy: International Women’s Economic Empowerment)
