Centering Equity and Justice in Global Data Governance is a collaborative research initiative led by IT for Change, with support from the Fair, Green, and Global Alliance (FGG) and the Center for Global Digital Justice (CGDJ). The project brings together a dynamic group of scholar-practitioners who are critically engaging with pressing debates at the intersection of data justice and longstanding development challenges.
Our partners, ETC Group, FIAN International, Open Knowledge Foundation, People's Health Movement, and Third World Network, developed case studies on digitization and datafication across critical sectors, including public health, biodiversity, food sovereignty, knowledge commons, and climate action.
Through these case studies, the project aims to bring out the economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR) violations and socio-economic injustices stemming from corporate impunity, lack of respect for domestic law, and exploitation of loopholes in international and national regimes, including, but not limited to, trade, IP, and data governance. Based on these insights, the project aims to articulate justice-oriented approaches to data governance and advance sector-specific, contextually grounded data justice principles rooted in Global South perspectives.
Case Study Reports
Commons to Code: How Platforms Rewire Agriculture and Reshape Power
March 2026
This case study by Samuel Rosado and Soledad Vogliano (ETC Group), examines the rise of digitalized, data-dependent agriculture and examines Bayer’s Climate FieldView platform as a paradigmatic example of how agribusiness and technology corporations are reshaping food systems. The study maps the agricultural data pipeline—from data generation on farms to its storage, processing, and monetization—showing how each stage is embedded in corporate-controlled infrastructures and contractual regimes. The study identifies risks to food sovereignty, cultural rights, labor, health, and the environment. It argues that prevailing models of “ownership” and voluntary governance are insufficient, as they obscure issues of control, accountability, and justice. Instead, it calls for structural data justice approaches, including collective data rights, public oversight of digital infrastructures, and community-centered governance frameworks to counter corporate capture.
Read the executive summary here.
Read the full case study here.
AI’s Large Looting Models? The Emerging Generative Biology Stack as the Next Frontier of Biopiracy
March 2026
This case study by Jim Thomas (ETC Group) sheds light on the emergent field of Generative Biology (GenBio), which is expanding at extraordinary speed, propelled by Big Tech and venture capital, with pharmaceuticals as its primary market and growing applications across agriculture, materials, and energy. Promoted as a transformative solution for health, food, and climate challenges, its greatest value may lie in serving the AI industry itself—generating data-heavy workloads and reputational benefits—while shifting social, ecological, and economic costs onto society. The study highlights urgent data justice concerns: renewed bioprospecting to feed AI models, the conversion of biodiversity into proprietary digital assets, erosion of consent and benefit-sharing, and the acceleration of digital biocolonialism, among many more. Against this backdrop, the study identifies key entry points for civil society engagement, including negotiations under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the FAO Seed Treaty, privacy and data protection enforcement, and national or regional policy on AI training data.
Read the executive summary here.
Read the full case study here.
Seeing Everything from Nowhere: A Human Rights Assessment of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Data Governance
March 2026
This case study by Sofía Monsalve Suárez (FIAN International) critically examines the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) data governance framework, assessing its alignment with human rights principles and its implications for marginalized groups, including Indigenous Peoples, peasants, women, and workers. It evaluates whether FAO’s digital initiatives, particularly its digital public goods (DPGs) and digital public infrastructure (DPI), uphold equity, transparency, and participatory decision-making in agri-food systems. The analysis reveals significant gaps in FAO's current data governance model. A central concern is FAO's growing dependence on US-based technology corporations for cloud services and digital infrastructure. The research also highlights how FAO's DPGs and DPIs fail to meet key public interest criteria. The study concludes with concrete recommendations to align FAO's digital transformation with human rights and public interest principles and food sovereignty.
Read the executive summary here.
Read the full case study here.
Towards a Sustainable Data Commons Ecosystem
April 2026
This case study by Ana Méndez de Andés and Semra Sonmez (Open Knowledge Foundation Network) aims to identify the main characteristics of a data commons ecosystem as a socio-technical infrastructure that protects individual and collective rights. It explores the what, how, and why of data-sharing practices across three key domains: initiatives that serve public interest, open science projects that promote open access to knowledge as a collaborative movement, and open graphic design that utilizes open licenses for creative work and copyleft culture. The report also provides key recommendations to ensure the sustainability of collective processes of creation, use, protection, and dissemination of digital content.
Read the executive summary here.
Read the full case study here.
Public Health in the Age of Data Digital Infrastructures and the Production of Dependency: Lessons from the UK and Brazil
This case study by Joyce Souza Maldonado, with contributions from Matheus Falcão and Lauren Paremoer (People's Health Movement), examines how the digital transformation of public health systems is unfolding in two contrasting contexts—the United Kingdom and Brazil—under neoliberal, data-driven paradigms. It interrogates the expanding role of data infrastructures, algorithmic systems, and public–private partnerships in reorganising healthcare governance, and probes their consequences for equity, sovereignty, and democratic participation.
Read the executive summary here.
Read the full report here.