50x2030 at World Data Forum: Recap and resources

On 6 October, more than 200 people tuned in online and in person in Bern for the 50x2030 session, “From the Ground, Up. Improving Geospatial Modelling through a Collaborative Approach to Ground-Truthing”, during the 2021 World Data Forum. Haishan Fu, Director of the Development Data Group at the World Bank chaired the discussion, which looked at innovative work being carried out to add value to both traditional survey data and innovative data sources via their integration.

The session was comprised of five, brief but in-depth presentations from experts working to advance data sources integration. Talip Kilic, senior economist at the World Bank and the lead on 50x2030 work on the integration of ground and Earth Observation data spoke about the requirements for surveys to support satellite-based crop type mapping using evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa.

He was followed by Hamed Alemohammad, chief data scientist at Radiant Earth Foundation and Jess Bollinger, vice president of strategic partnerships at Arable Labs who talked about how the non-profit and private sectors, respectively, can contribute technological solutions that generate informative, cost-effective data that can be shared globally to maximize their informative value while protecting respondent confidentiality.

Dominik Rozkrut then shared his experience as president of Statistics Poland pushing the methodological frontier in terms of how data innovations can be grounded and come to terms with the rigor that is required of official statistics. Keith Ahumuza, Senior Statistician, Uganda Bureau of Statistics rounded out the discussion from the perspective of an NSO implementing an ambitious integrated survey program under 50x2030 and as that of a farmer and an activist, His presentation underscored what data integration means for survey respondents and how to give value back to them through a more deliberate approach to valuing data use.

To watch the full session, click here.

To review the PPT presentations from:

Talip Kilic, senior economist, World Bank, click here.

Hamed Alemohammad, chief data scientist, Radiant Earth Foundation, click here.

Jess Bollinger, vice president of strategic partnerships, Arable Labs, click here.

Dominik Rozkrut, president, Statistics Poland, click here.

Keith Ahumuza, senior statistician, Uganda Bureau of Statistics, click here.