Building Data Infrastructure in Development Contexts: Lessons from the #Data4COVID19 Africa Challenge

COVID-19 and other societal threats hamper the ability of development practitioners and stakeholders to address public needs. Bolstering society’s ability to responsibly access, re-use and generate insights from data can mitigate this problem, while supporting more effective uses of limited resources. A six-month effort by Expertise France, The GovLab, and the Agence française de développement (AFD) to improve data systems across Africa for COVID-19 response provides insights on ways to achieve this goal.