EPISODE 6 OF MS PRESIDENT SEASON 2 ON PERIOD POVERTY

Some thoughts on research, data analysis and evidence based decision making

About three weeks ago, I was in a #SalzburgGlobalSeminar discussing “Global innovations on youth violence, safety, and justice.” Two of the sessions that I sat through were on community-based research and on data. As a firm believer and practitioner of evidence-based policy decision-making, I was challenged to think about these issues more deeply, hence these personal reflections.

Data in evidence-based decision-making is often used to measure performance, structure incentives, and allocate resources while informing public courses of action. Setting up an anti-corruption agency (i.e., allocation of resources and course of action) with the hope of deterring high-end corruption (structure incentives) because corruption is too rampant (performance) is one such example. Determining the course of action and allocation of resources is often political. On the other hand, the process of measuring performance, while political, is often hierarchical as the data is generated by international agencies, bureaus of statistics, and researchers. Even when the research process is done in consultation with community members, the ultimate interpretation and presentation of the analysis are often from the researchers’ cultural nuances, definitions, biases, or vested interests.

 

Bribery, for example, is the primary consideration when designing the bribery index and, in turn, is a primary determinant of the corruption rankings among countries in the world. In cultural contexts where it is informally acceptable to give money or gifts for a public service rendered, as a way of expressing gratitude, bribery as a measure of corruption becomes very problematic. It means that, as long as corruption is measured using the bribery index,  some countries will never exonerate themselves from being the most corrupt countries in the world because their way of life integrates “transfer of value in the context of an official action.” 

 

Selecting an indicator or a set of indicators to measure performance also means that many factors that perhaps make more sense to a community or tell the whole story as experienced by community members are also left out. Corruption seen through the prism of bribery or another definition like nepotistic appointments to public positions may not be a significant or a relevant measure of corruption in a communal culture like the Somalis in my country who select leaders based on clans. However, personal experiences of denial of essential services like access to health facilities or misuse of resources that cause harm to community members while unfairly enriching others may be a more relevant, tangible, and relatable definition of corruption to them. Therefore, in measuring corruption, the latter indicators should matter more than the former indicators to validate these lived experiences and contexts, whether I agree with them or not from a research point of view. 

 

It is therefore important to remind ourselves that data is never neutral. Data can create illusions of rationality, yet beneath it, mask underlying fundamental differences of interpretation, purpose, and power among the various stakeholders situated on both sides of the spectrum, such as researchers (with an academic outlook) and communities (with lived experiences). Scarcity of resources is at the root cause of relying on other people’s data, hence depending on their interpretation of what is or is not important. This means that the real experts – those with lived experiences and whose perspectives should matter most in giving meaning to the data or indicators to measures performance are often ignored.

 

As a researcher, I must be committed to presenting the community’s outlook with honesty and respect. Taking human-centered approaches to data and research that: truly regards multiple community definitions and perspective; that seeks to have a collaborative as opposed to an extractive data relationships; that considers lived experiences as equally important as academic perspectives; that is empathetic to community welfare above researcher interests, and; that promotes social trust and community realities, must be embedded within research and data analysis if it is to lead to mutually benefiting and just evidence-based decision-making processes.

Anticipating Risks, Enhancing Resilience: What Role for Foresight in Fra...

S3:E02 | My childhood in Kariobangi – Dr. Katindi Sivi on #DDwithMaqC

Dr. Katindi Sivi - Complexities surrounding youth involvement in violence

Freedom in foresight – the reason why children make the best futurists!

I am in the business of futuring, and I am glad that in my part of the world, it is catching on and with a lot of excitement. One of the greatest difficulties I have encountered as I facilitate these processes is what it entails for people or organizations to fully utilize the available intelligence - especially the non-mainstream, seemingly obscure gut feeling or ostensibly disparate information – to effectively increase insights. 

The inability to do so is orchestrated by the fact that all human beings have a particular worldview they use to filter things, including information. The tendency is to reject whatever is not congruent with those filters. These relatively narrow mental constructs are based on past and the conventional lenses they use to view the world. However, one other crucial reason is that they come to these processes with self-serving biases that incline them to gather and process information to advance their perceived self-interest or support their pre-existing views. To be politically correct, they seldom voice all their standpoints, cynicisms, fears, or assumptions, without which the process short-circuits the creation of robust futures that enable strategic decision making.

To guard against these blind spots, it is imperative to consider:

1. Joining these processes from a place of complete honesty, awareness, reflection, and the openness to learn just like children view the world with wide-open eyes and a sense of wonder and curiosity
2. More honest analyses of the data we collect, including the emerging weak signals we often dismiss to re-conceptualize our ideas and get multiple views, just like children are open to having more than 'the right answer' to a question 
3. The effective use of human intelligence tacked away in gut feelings just like children bluntly say what they think, however illogical
4. Inviting those people we rarely interact with, the ones who are not like us – the authentic dissenters or devils advocates - with the intention to value those outside views just like children are un-inhibited and open to playing with everyone
5. Highly abstracting sensitive situations and role-playing them to literary 'put oneself in another's shoes' and increasing empathy while creating a much more open interaction, just as children often experiment with anything in their context to imagine different fantasies, aka possibilities!

 

Mentorship matters

I will never forget how terrified I was when I was about to graduate from campus. I wondered what it was that I could offer the world and get paid, never mind that I had picked out my undergrad course on a picky ponky basis because there was no career guidance. The fright of having to face the uncertainty of my future without help was so bad that I had to get treated for ulcers. 

 

After graduation, I was fortunate to get a three-month internship position in one of Kenya's leading thinktanks, and where I eventually got to work for the next eleven years. The whole office had insanely intelligent people. Half the time, I wondered what they were going on about, primarily because they dealt with a subject that was entirely out of my depth - Economics. I had also come from a seriously flawed education system – one where I could ace it in class but one that rendered me dysfunctional when I stepped out to apply that knowledge in the workplace. I was inadequate in many ways, but my work environment provided the space to grow. The tonnes of literature I had to read through, the debates I listened to, the many places I visited, the people I interacted with, but most importantly, my colleagues who graciously handheld me out of my 'not knowing' without judgment – all gave me an opportunity to learn, unlearn and re-learn. Because of that, which was extended to me, I am a firm believer in providing that space for others.

 

As fate would have it, I came into contact with what would eventually become my life's calling – foresight. The organization had just completed a project on Kenya's possible futures in the coming decade, and I was in charge of the countrywide dissemination process in 300+ workshops. Traversing the country and facilitating community dialogues helped me understand my history and get in touch with my heritage. It also knocked out a lot of assumptions I had previously made during my sheltered school life. I got to experience the strategic power of foresight firsthand when three of the four extrapolations panned out in seven years - even if the project's intention was not to predict the future. The fact that we had an opportunity to proactively design policy decisions beforehand was revolutionary. From this experience, foresight became that thing that had to be transmitted to others – especially in a continent that needs to get its act together on many levels, operates largely from two-dimensional time perspectives, and has the fewest number of futurists. 

 

Through LongView Futures Foundation, we are now running Africa foresight Lab, which fosters foresight literacy among young Africans. The 10-week action learning training program is offered three times a year. It is designed to accommodate a maximum of 30 young people from 30 countries, learning for three hours every week for three months to understand the basics of futures thinking. This first cohort is very special because we have designed foresight projects together in the past. They came on board to deepen their knowledge on the subject and help test the tools and methodologies, and ensure that they are fit for purpose in the African context. The team comprises 17 individuals from 12 countries – who are now on week 7 of learning. They are in the process of designing futures perspectives on the areas that are of most concern to them. We hope to share the outcome of that process at a later stage. We hope that they will use the knowledge gathered to transform their spheres of influence because collectively, we will influence Africa's futures one cohort at a time.

Dr. Katindi Sivi