In a world of growing populations, scarce resources, changing demographics, and shrinking budgets, Kaduna State Government (KDSG) took a unique approach to solve the state’s numerous challenges by developing the Data Revolution plan aimed at strengthening the coordination in the collection and use of data for evidence-based decision making. To put it simply, evidence-based decision-making helps people make well-informed decisions about policies, programs, and projects by putting the best available evidence from research at the heart of policy development and implementation. Evidence-based decisions bring a focus on solutions and prioritizing projects has been at the heart of governance reform efforts in the state.
The Data Revolution plan which birthed the Data Lab Project is currently being implemented by the Kaduna State Bureau of Statistics, KDBS, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BMGF, and the Natview Foundation for Technology Innovation, NFTI. The plan has the human capital development around data science as one of its core objectives and this is where the Click-On Kaduna Programme comes in.
The Click-On Kaduna Digital Development umbrella is a brand created by the KDSG to drive transformational change for young persons in the state. Since 2018, the brand has received support from the World Bank Group, the Rockefeller Foundation, WACOM, and recently the BMGF, empowering and connecting young people with skills and networks to participate in the global digital economy. The programme being a trusted brand has received recognition both within and outside the country for its contributions to developing the digital space in Africa, receiving the World Bank Africa Vice President’s Award in 2020 for its impact on supporting young people in Africa.
In 2020, the KDSG launched the Data Science Fellowship Programme (DSFP) under the Click-On Kaduna brand to train young people in the state to become world-class Data scientists and support its vision. This they did as part of the State’s commitment to improving the use of evidence for decision making. 30 young people graduated from the training last December and these young data scientists have so far made immense contributions to some key KDBS projects. However, across the Kaduna State public sector, there are several other problems that require the creativity of young people to deliver transformational change. To address some of these problems, a hackathon competition was designed as a follow-up activity to the DSFP. Around the globe, hackathons are organized as competitive events in which people work in groups on software or hardware projects, with the goal of creating functioning solutions to specific problems. Our hackathon event tagged the Kaduna Datathon is bringing together young data scientists from all over the country to co-create, brainstorm and develop innovative solutions that address public sector use cases; modeling evidence-based data for decision making.
With its unique approach to impacting the lives of people through data science, the NFTI is once again implementing this laudable project in partnership with the Kaduna State Bureau of Statistics(KDBS). Over the last couple of months, our team has reached out to key stakeholders including the health ministry, departments, and agencies such as the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Center, the Kaduna State Health Supply Management Agency, and others, to help them make sense of their data management issues and connect them to these young innovators.
By working with key agencies within the health sector to pilot the use of predictive models to gain insights on data that would support better planning and decision making in the state, the KDBS and NFTI have identified a number of data management problems across the health value chain and have made the opportunity to solve these problems open to young data scientists in Nigeria.
The Datathon received about 500 applications at the first stage also known as the ideation stage. By collaborating with the best tech communities in the state, 10 amazing ideas were selected to come up with prototype solutions for these problems. At the end of it all, one solution will be selected by judges consisting of the various health MDAs and tech community representatives to emerge as the champion of the competition. The 2022 Kaduna Datathon final will take place today Thursday, March 31st at the Sir Ahmadu Bello Foundation. Data Hackers from across Nigeria will convene at the event to pitch their solutions.
Through the Kaduna Datathon, NFTI has once again proven that it has the capacity to foster innovation, collaboration, and social change in our communities. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes that the achievement of sustainable development is a shared responsibility among all countries and among all actors from the public and the private sectors. How the world would look like in 2030 will greatly depend on how different development actors come together, and how they find new ways of partnering.
For us at NFTI, bringing different stakeholders from the public health sector and private tech hubs to work together for social good has been the most fulfilling part of our journey in the implementation of the Datathon. Leveraging partnerships is our way of building more sustainable communities in the decade of action. We are thrilled to work with our amazing partners and we look forward to working alongside all of them on more projects in the nearest future.
To all the Data Scientists at the first edition of the Kaduna Datathon, we say, ‘let the hacking begin!’
