CIVICUS; The Big Development DataShift

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

The Big Development DataShift is an ambitious, multi-stakeholder initiative to leverage the potential of new technologies for more creative and effective social accountability. It brings citizen voice to the heart of sustainable development by building a community of people and resources prepared to harness the data revolution. It is a movement and a tool to monitor and shape progress on the new global development agenda by Promoting People-Powered Accountability. What Civicus Is Doing: Truly sustainable development requires a paradigm shift – one in which citizens have a voice. The Big Development DataShift is a bold project to create a new system of monitoring and shaping development progress by Promoting People-Powered Accountability. How Civicus Is Doing It: New technologies present remarkable opportunities to democratise how information about development is collected, curated, and used. The Big Development DataShift will harness this potential by enhancing coverage of citizen reporting, empowering comparability of data, emancipating tools for campaigning, and Promoting People-Powered Accountability. What Civicus Wants To Achieve: The Big Development DataShift seeks to change the global development arena. It is a bottom up approach designed to put citizens at the centre of the development agenda from 2016 and beyond. This journey toward a more people-centred and planet-sensitive world starts with Promoting People-Powered Accountability. This Big Development DataShift is led by CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, and supported by technical advice from the engine room. As an initiative with global significance, the project concept was launched at the High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) in Mexico City in April 2014. Over the next two years, CIVICUS will work with members and partners from across the globe to deliver on the vision and potential of the DataShift. By 2016 and the next High Level Meeting of the GPEDC, the DataShift will be a broad movement to empower citizen monitoring in development and a set of new tools for promoting people-powered accountability at the local and global levels. The primary beneficiaries of the Big Development DataShift will be the civil society organisations in developing countries around the world.