In 2024, the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development established a Working Group on Data Governance to engage in a comprehensive dialogue on data governance at all levels, as relevant to development. Anita Gurumurthy, Executive Director at IT for Change, is a member of this Working Group.
The following inputs were submitted in response to the call issued by the co-facilitators of the four inter-sessional tracks established by the Working Group to, amongst others, organize discussions and identify gaps across specific themes/tracks.
Track 1: Principles of data governance at all levels
The submission to Track 1 highlights some of the tensions in UNCTAD’s overview of data governance principles from a rights and justice standpoint.
Read the submission here.
Track 2: Interoperability between national, regional, and international data systems
The submission to Track 2 highlights the key challenges in achieving interoperability at the national, regional, and international levels without adverse consequences for people’s digital sovereignty and public interest considerations.
Read the submission here.
Track 3: Considerations of sharing the benefits of data
The submission to Track 3 emphasizes the need for robust governance of the economic resource of the data commons and the imperative to create a class of data rights that prevents the consolidation of data monopolies.
Read the submission here.
Track 4: Facilitation of safe, secure, and trusted data flows, including cross-border data flows
The submission to Track 4 interrogates the assumption that liberalization of cross-border data flows automatically promotes equitable development. It brings to the fore the competing considerations that need to be balanced when countries determine their policy stance on cross-border data flows: the right to regulate the domestic digital economy, the imperative to safeguard privacy and personal data protection rights of all citizens, and the aspiration for participation in global digital trade on favorable terms.
Read the submission here.