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As countries grapple with multiple, intersecting global challenges, everyone from policymakers to citizens needs high quality and timely data. Health data, like disease prevalence and death rates, are used to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. Sex-disaggregated and gender data, such as maternal mortality ratios, are crucial to improving gender equality and the welfare of women and girls. And environmental data are needed to inform climate change resiliency and adaptation efforts within countries. Not only should data like these be available, but they must also be accessible.
The 2022/23 Open Data Inventory (ODIN), produced by Open Data Watch, shows that many countries have struggled to maintain their data publications since the COVID-19 pandemic began. ODIN measures the availability and openness of official statistical data in 192 countries. The median ODIN score has increased to 50.9 in 2022 from 49.1 in 2020, the smallest increase since 2017. Many factors impact a country’s ability to collect and publish official statistics, but one universal challenge was the COVID-19 pandemic. The constraints of social distancing, remote operations, and limited resources added to the many challenges faced by statistical offices trying to provide accurate and timely data that have been crucial to informing and monitoring country responses to the pandemic.