Advising the WHO on its data sharing practices in non-emergency contexts

Between April and June 2020, we led a team of consultants supporting the WHO in the identification of gaps and opportunities to strengthen implementation of their data sharing policies. To do this, we undertook a series of key informant interviews with stakeholders across the organisation and helped the WHO Secretariat to convene a series of Expert Group discussions on issues and challenges pertaining to the data principles and sharing of public health data.

Our work took place at the intersection of international politics, digital and data policy, public health policy, and research and data ethics. The challenges facing the WHO were compounded by the fact that this work was undertaken during a global pandemic, with unprecedented interest and pressure on the WHO.

As a result of the work we undertook, we helped the WHO to progress with the development of a set of five organisation-wide data principles. These principles help lay the foundations for sound data governance and will help to drive internal WHO decision-making.

We also produced a series of briefs and reports outlining the WHO’s mandates to govern and manage public health data, gaps in its current data sharing policies and practices, and recommendations for how to strengthen its data governance processes in future.

We undertook this project with support from Sean McDonald, co-founder of Digital Public; Linda Raftree; Beverley Hatcher-Mbu, Senior Associate at Development Gateway; and, DataReady’s own Tom Orrell and Melissa Stock.