The Opportunities and Challenges of Using Meta’s Data for Good Products in MENA

June 1, 2023

In 2022, Cepei, together with LIRNEasia and other research centers from the Global South, created the SDG Acceleration Roadmap initiative that aimed to map public-private data collaborations and their contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

From Cepei, we hope that, through this research, public-private data partnerships will improve their potential to respond to the global context.

This summary provides information on Meta’s Data for Good initiative, which produces maps, surveys and user findings that could, in theory, support policy and decision-making by governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The text identifies opportunities and challenges for using its products in the region.

Principales hallazgos

The Data for Good initiative is much more limited in the MENA region than in the rest of the world.

To improve the use of Data for Good products in MENA, Meta should train government partners as key stakeholders to better use its datasets.

To ensure that the data is context-specific, Meta should ensure that people in each region are involved in designing and implementing tools to analyze these datasets.

Main Findings

The Data for Good initiative is much more limited in the MENA region than in the rest of the world.

To improve the use of Data for Good products in MENA, Meta should train government partners as key stakeholders to better use its datasets.

To ensure that the data is context-specific, Meta should ensure that people in each region are involved in designing and implementing tools to analyze these datasets.

About the author

Abed Khooli

Abed is a physicist by education and an ICT specialist by practice. He is currently working in the data for development field (infrastructure, policies and regulations, ethics, digital transformation, research, and development). Over the past few years, he worked with the Palestinian national committee for open government data to draft the national open data policy and set up the open data platform (opendata.ps).

Acerca del autor

Abed Khooli

Abed is a physicist by education and an ICT specialist by practice. He is currently working in the data for development field (infrastructure, policies and regulations, ethics, digital transformation, research, and development). Over the past few years, he worked with the Palestinian national committee for open government data to draft the national open data policy and set up the open data platform (opendata.ps).

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