IGF 2019 WS #367 Governing Big Data for Development in Global South

Relevance to Theme: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda identifies the crucial role that big data generated by everyday functioning of internet-based communication, finance, commerce, and other activities will play in realising the vision of global monitoring of SDG indicators. Such use of big data for development, by complementing and not substituting official statistics collected by state actors, is expected to give rise to a ‘data revolution for sustainable development’. The data governance question, however, is fundamental to conceptualising and operationalising such a ‘data revolution’ in a manner that is responsible, that enables a broad range of actors to effectively access and use the big data concerned, and that builds and gains from cooperation across geographies, across actor types, and across disciplinary expertise. This Roundtable session will bring together the leaders of a Global South Network of organisations involved in undertaking and studying Big Data for Development (BD4D) projects and policies at national and regional scales in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

Governance of big data, including but not limited to for purposes of achieving the SDGs, is a fundamental digital economy regulation question across the Global South countries, as well as the Northern ones. Such discussions of governance of big data in the Global South often takes place in the context of negotiation of rules of international trade, regulation of competition in the digital economy, and questions of digital self-sovereignty and localisation of personal data of citizens within national/regional jurisdiction. This Roundtable is aimed at foregrounding the agenda of sustainable development as an essential lens for approaching the questions of governance of big data in the Global South, and to highlight the concerns of capacity development, South-South cooperation, and responsible innovation in that context.

Relevance to Internet Governance: The potential of big data in providing services to the people is being realised not just by private enterprises but also by governments. However, the use of big data for economic or social development needs to be done keeping in mind both the existing unresolved problems within the present global internet governance architecture, as well as those emerging with global proliferation of a digital economy powered by generation, collection, mining, and exploitation of personal and process data.

Global South countries are typically characterised both by relatively (to Northern countries) weaker regulatory frameworks for regulation of big data as well as for preventing and compensating for harms caused by irresponsible and inaccurate use of big data, and by a governance context where national-level policy makers and regulators are most often engaging with big data companies located beyond the national jurisdiction. This significantly complicates the processes and mechanisms of governance of big data in the Global South, in terms of developing enabling policy measures that facilitate collaboration between various stakeholders, and protects the rights and interests of the citizens concerned.

Like internet governance, governance of big data in the Global South has much to gain from a multistakeholder approach, especially in an enhanced form that upholds democratic rights of the citizens concerned. The Big Data for Development (BD4D) Network proposes this session for IGF 2019 specifically to share its experiences on opportunities of and challenges with using big data in the Global South with the wider sphere of internet governance practitioners so as to take ahead such conversations on frameworks for global governance of data.