On 18 April, the World Bank Chief Economist Indermit Gill and Hon. Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Minister for Finance for Ghana hosted a high-level Power of Data roundtable at the World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington D.C. This roundtable convened government officials, development partners, and leaders of national data partnerships from among the several countries spearheading the Power of Data initiative.
Alongside Ghana, officials from the Dominican Republic and Botswana shared their visions to strengthen their national data systems and explained how the Power of Data initiative is helping to enable these transformations. High-level representatives from Bahrain, Canada, the European Union, Germany and Norway, together with senior leaders from the co-leads of the Power of Data Initiative, including the World Bank, several UN agencies, and the Global Partnership, discussed priorities and opportunities to invest in and support data systems and data capital to drive development progress. The roundtable focused in particular on how the Power of Data initiative could help align efforts to strengthen national data systems, and what is needed to scale these efforts.
Governments need data and analytics now more than ever to put in place the right policies and programs, and to deliver help to people who need it most.
Indermit Gill, World Bank Group, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics
2024 is the Data Revolution Year in Ghana. We are resolving disconnects across the national statistical system and harmonizing the use of administrative data, all aligned under the Power of Data initiative.
Hon. Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Minister for Finance for Ghana
We will reform our outdated statistics law to give the country a modern mandate for the development and use of data. The Power of Data initiative has been critical to promote this.
H.E. Luis Madera Sued, Vice Minister of Planning and Public Investment, the Dominican Republic
Data is the infrastructure of policy just like roads and railways are the infrastructure of society. We need good data to have good policy.
Bard Vegar Solhjell, Director General, NORAD, Norway
