The ACSS was represented at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which convened its 25th Anniversary Summit in Nairobi, Kenya (November 12 -14, 2019) to galvanize partnerships and mobilize political will and financial commitments to fully implement the landmark ICPD Programme of Action and achieve the sustainable development goals by 2030.
The Summit covered innovation and data as one of five themes needed to accelerate progress towards the ICPD goals laid out in the Programme of Action and brought together heads of states, ministers, parliamentarians, technical experts, civil society organizations, young researchers, business leaders, and academics. One session at the Summit was entitled “Democratizing Data as a Public Good”, and focused on the idea that national development and investments can be effectively shaped only when data are widely accessible and utilized as a public good, while protecting the confidentiality and privacy of research subjects.
Dr. Abla Amawi, Secretary General of the Higher Population Council in Jordan and a member of the ACSS Dataverse Advisory Committee, presented on this topic, showing how data can support evidence-based decision making at the local level. As part of her presentation, she highlighted the ACSS Dataverse initiative as an important model in data archiving for the public good.
The ACSS Dataverse is a research tool and online platform launched by the Arab Council for Social Sciences and is the first such interdisciplinary social science data archive to address challenges of data accessibility in the Arab region. This initiative attracted positive attention and interest at the Summit. The ACSS Dataverse is an initiative established in collaboration with the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina.
(https://dataverse.theacss.org/)