UNICEF: Designing regional and country strategies for data on children

UNICEF commissioned DI to transform its strategic framework on data for children into tailored strategies that could be actioned at the regional and country level.

Our brief

In 2018, we entered into a long-term agreement with UNICEF to translate its global framework on ‘data for children’ into action at the regional and country level. We supported UNICEF offices to develop context-specific strategies for investments over three to five years.

What we delivered

DI has strong expertise in using data for impact and specialist knowledge in humanitarian assistance and crisis financing. This allowed us to develop tailored data strategies for UNICEF country offices in Zimbabwe, Uganda, Nigeria and Bangladesh, as well as the West and Central Africa Regional Office.

We reviewed key documents, including national strategies, annual workplans and evaluations, and held key informant interviews to understand the specific data challenges and opportunities in each region or country. We then produced an assessment of the relevant data landscapes and developed strategic action plans. These contained recommendations and identified next steps for making effective investments in data to improve the lives and living conditions of children.

We also worked with the UNICEF Gulf Area Office to strengthen the collection, analysis and use of child-related data in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to improve outcomes for women and children.

We produced a report that surveyed the data landscape in the UAE and set out key issues, challenges and opportunities for its evolving federal statistics institutions. We also produced a strategic action plan for the region. This included recommendations on ways to enhance data governance, and improve collaboration and openness, to support the UAE’s efforts in reporting data on indicators for the Convention of the Rights of Children and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Results

We received some excellent feedback from UNICEF, particularly on our data strategy for the UNICEF Nigeria Office, which UNICEF HQ praised as, “one of the best they’ve seen for any of the countries where this work has been done so far”.