Capacity Building
DDL's deep expertise in extracting value from messy, disparate data sources, as well as our foundation in empirical research, positions us to partner with leaders in government who wish to make a mark on the data and policy landscapes. We work with government to crack difficult policy questions, and to solve thorny data problems that inhibit program effectiveness and a deeper understanding of development dynamics.
Unlocking Valuable Data
For example, many policy design and implementation problems result from an inability to combine data to answer complex questions. Data is collected differently across Ministries - e.g. HMIS and the Census use different districts. Additionally, administrative boundaries change over time, such as the separation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Consequently, to allow for interoperability, we must construct a common geographic schema that accommodates these geographic and temporal differences. The map below illustrates differences in geographic boundaries between the 2011 Population Census and more recent delimitations:
Further complicating matters, these boundary changes can take three forms: splits, merges, or a compound change involving multiple pieces. Each of these cases requires appropriate treatment in the data pipeline.
National Data and Analytics Platform
We’re now actively partnering with government to integrate these lessons learned directly into administrative digital infrastructure, by providing project management support for the development of the new National Data and Analytics platform. This platform takes a subset of high-value government data and curates it to maximize impact and ease of use.
NDAP is available at this link. The full platform succesfully launched in 2022.
