Meet a TReNDS’ Expert: Muchiri Nyaggah
Written by TReNDS Staff
In the Meet TReNDS series, we introduce you to TReNDS' experts, staff, and friends–leading individuals and organizations in the broader data for development community.
Meet...
TReNDS’ expert Muchiri Nyaggah, Co-Founder and Executive Director at the Local Development Research Institute and Senior Fellow, Results for Development
About MUCHIRI
Muchiri serves as the Executive Director at the Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) and is a Senior Fellow at Results for Development. He previously served as the Deputy Executive Director and Policy Lead at the Open Institute Trust and worked on open data and open government projects at the national and sub-national level. He has more than 20 years of experience working on software development and technology innovation for those living on irregular income in Africa, online strategy for African organizations, and public policy implementation for development data. His work explores the implementation of international initiatives, their impact on local development, and how empowering policy actors and citizens with the right data can result in better development outcomes for all.
Q&A
In your career, what area of data for development have you primarily focused on?
I have been particularly interested in the enabling environment factors that affect the availability and use of data for decision making within the public sector. Open data has been a big part of that in addition to the related policy frameworks and human capital needed.
What projects are you currently working on at the Local Development Research Institute and is there an emerging area of data for development that you are most eager to tackle in your own work?
We are running a four-country fellowship program through which we embed early career researchers in government institutions for a year to support data for development efforts and study how open data and evidence-informed decision making can be advanced in development. For us, addressing the challenge of responsible collection, management, use and sharing of intersectoral gender data has become key. For instance, how can agriculture policy be responsive to the energy access needs of women in rural areas and how does this affect nutrition outcomes? The lived realities of women at the nexus of agriculture and energy access or nutrition and energy access or even agriculture and climate change can only be responded to well when the data is available at scale.
What emerging area of data for development are you most eager to see addressed by the community at large?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming an option for governments seeking ways to identify and respond to challenges rapidly without resulting in raising headcount or investing in extensive grassroots-level infrastructure. However, the data being used for AI, the methodology behind its collection, how the algorithms process this data and the extent to which privacy and human rights are preserved are turning out to be major concerns. This is an area I am most keen to see addressed. This area actually forms the core of a new program we have started at LDRI called Accountable and Inclusive Artificial Intelligence (AI:AI).
What is the most interesting use of data you’ve seen?
One of the most interesting uses has been earth observation data used for predictions of crop failure. It’s gotten to where intergovernmental mechanisms such as the Africa Risk Capacity can intervene while a disaster is still unfolding, closing the gap between crisis and response to almost zero. We are now looking at learning from this and expanding the potential by combining earth observation data and other terrestrial data to provide early warning and response for food and nutrition security at the local level.
What do you think will be the primary focus areas for data for development this decade and how will Covid-19 impact this?
At the sectoral level, I believe agriculture, climate change, nutrition, energy access, health, education and the broad area of decent work will be major areas. However, at a cross-cutting level, regardless of the sector or development framework (SDGs, CEDAW, Agenda2063, Sendai Framework, etc) gender responsive data will remain central. COVID-19 has shown how urgent it is to strengthen our human and technological infrastructure for this. For instance, as governments responded to the spread of COVID-19 with lockdowns, many failed to put in place measures to address women and girls at risk in the home because data on gender-based violence and the factors that drive it at the sub-national level were not in the line of sight. Governments also seem to not have incorporated a response to the escalation of unpaid care work that disproportionately falls on women when putting in place the lockdown measures. Basic public service messaging on this would have been a decent effort, but it was missed, partly because of the lack of data and partly because of the gender imbalances within high-level public sector offices where these decisions are made and implemented. I expect more research, better policy, and increases in investments for better gender data across sectors will become increasingly central in discourse on data for development as a result of COVID-19 in the years to come.
What are you most eager to engage in with TReNDS?
I am eager to engage in TReNDS’ work around closing data gaps through sectoral interoperability under the Data Reconciliation and Data for Now projects as well as the population, infrastructure and settlements’ work under the POPGRID collaborative.
Check out some of Muchiri past work below:
The LDRI’s model on Open Data Policy. *If you would like to provide feedback or insights on this document, please get in touch directly.
A report on the Drivers for Development Data published by the inaugural cohort of the Africa Open Data Fellowship.