I recently visited the province of my birth, KwaZulu-Natal following the devastating floods. The desperation of the people and scale of the disaster has seen tens of thousands of displaced citizens turning to government to provide a broad range of relief measures, while damage to critical infrastructure including water supplies has prompted the President to declare a national state of disaster.

An estimated 40 000 people have been displaced by the flooding, while damage to roads and schools have seen over 270 000 learners affected, in addition to 66 public healthcare facilities. 

Coordinating the ongoing response will require close cooperation between multiple government and private sector entities as well as the active involvement of NGOs who play a vital role in supporting affected communities. 

However, while the immediate task is to support those most vulnerable following the floods, there is a broader imperative to ensure public services are accessible and provide sufficient support to vulnerable communities across the country.

SA population has large share of vulnerable communities

Vulnerable groups include people living in poverty, those living with disabilities or dread disease, the elderly, youth and women, indigenous communities, rural and urban informal communities and displaced persons and migrants.  

The pandemic has disproportionately affected vulnerable groups as they struggle with a variety of conditions and several barriers which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Ensuring essential public services are accessible and effective for vulnerable groups is a vital component of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially as it relates to SDG 16, which strives for just, peaceful, and inclusive societies that are supported by strong institutions. 

A recent report by the Bureau for Economic Research has found South Africa is not making sufficient progress toward achieving its development objectives. For a country where the official unemployment rate is over 35%, and millions depend on social grants and other measures to survive, this lack of progress is putting citizens – and especially vulnerable communities – at risk.

Stakes higher for public sector digital transformation

Public sector entities are arguably under greater pressure to ensure digital transformation efforts are designed with vulnerable communities in mind. Those depending on social grants or public healthcare facilities need such services to be easily accessible, especially in underdeveloped areas such as informal settlements and rural towns and villages. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently called for a ‘new social contract’ as part of post-pandemic recovery, based on inclusivity and sustainability, and highlighted the need for governments to prioritise investment in digital literacy and digital infrastructure to build social cohesion.  

Many governments have heeded the call and have made services available in the format of “digital by default”. However, this approach often excludes those who need the services most, for example older people and those in lower income groups who are not able to access online information and services as easily as those in the higher income groups generally.

Increasingly governments are deploying cutting-edge technology to deliver public services. The most effective approaches often rely on big data analytics and employ the latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and blockchain to ensure effective outreach and provision of services. 

Consequently, the trend of adopting cutting-edge technologies in the government sector has intensified, which heralds an irreversible shift towards digital transformation. But these services may fail to improve the lives of citizens if there is a lack of trust between society and government.

Fostering trust between citizens and government

The most recent Edelman Trust Barometer highlights increasing wariness of government and media. This is fuelling a cycle of distrust and demonstrates that government is not seen as able to solve societal problems. 

The COVID pandemic and disasters like the KZN floods have highlighted the need for agile government. However, a recent study found that nearly one in ten South Africans consider corruption as the biggest problem that government needs to address. 

Reports of mishandled relief funds during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic has sowed distrust among the electorate, which has extended to the relief efforts for flood-affected communities in KwaZulu-Natal, where local NGOs are instead being entrusted with providing essential relief measures.

This distrust does serious damage to government’s agility in the face of crises. An agile government is able to respond to crises as they emerge and can help anticipate an appropriate response. Predictive analytics and the advancement of complex systems analysis with cutting-edge technology can help governments develop agility and anticipation and improve their response to future scenarios.  

Technology can also improve management of precious public sector finances, which is fundamental to the state’s efforts at supporting citizens during times of crisis and essential to the ongoing delivery of vital services. 

Spend management tools such as Concur can provide system-based automated compliance and the option to embed financial policies in the software to align with regulations such as the Public Finance Management Act.

This can help restore a culture of accountability that ensures scarce financial resources are spent responsibly and reach the communities that most need it.

As we hurtle into the 21st century, it will become increasingly important for the emergence of more anticipatory digital transformation functions in government than we have today, allowing us to build better, more inclusive, and more resilient societies.  

Data is generated everywhere – from the movements of mobile devices or wearables tracked by GPS to social media and retail activity.

While there may seem to be no direct connection between data and coordinated flood response, the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) has created the opportunity for crowdsourcing and citizen data scientists to help solve humanitarian problems.

I-Sah Hsieh, Principal Program Manager, Corporate Social Innovation and Brand, SAS Institute, explains: “Data by itself is meaningless. This is where innovative technology like artificial intelligence (AI) can awaken data’s true potential. Using sophisticated algorithms, it is possible to transform the raw data into intelligence much more efficiently than in the past. AI can help address some of Africa’s and the world’s most pressing issues – from healthcare to education, sustainability, energy and social development.”

Using data-for-good means harnessing digital disruption to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which serve as a useful proxy for solving the world’s social problems.

Data is proliferating at a rate faster than it can be applied for social good, but there is enormous potential in harnessing it for decision makers to draw upon.

Murray de Villiers, EMEA Emerging, Education Head, SAS Institute sheds light on a real-life example that puts this into context. “SAS in South Africa has partnered with the Department of Higher Education to determine the optimal placement for new schools in rural KwaZulu-Natal. Through using crowdsourced data we were able to measure the daily commutes of high school learners from their communities. Some learners were travelling up to 30km per day, mostly by foot. Though from an analytics point of view using satellite data to pinpoint new school locations was a relatively simple exercise, it has the potential to deliver tangible life benefits for students who may potentially miss school days regularly due to excessive distances.”

Data can be used to create insight, and insight underpins policy. Relief efforts, repair and reconstruction by civil society and the public and private sectors can be guided by these insights if enough data is collected and aggregated in a useful format.

“The data-for-good movement is generating a lot of energy and goodwill among our employees. With some analytics and creative data science we can use the power of data to improve and save lives,” states Hsieh.

“We need to teach the world to embrace data, through literacy programmes, so that we create a cohort of citizen data scientists. This is a virtuous circle since the use of data can support the delivery of education. Promoting data literacy, regardless of role or job description, will lead to data and analytics being employed as critical tools in decision-making,” says de Villiers.

These topics may seem complex and unfamiliar, but it is when real-world examples of successful applications demonstrate benefits for society that people begin to engage with data science and analytics.

The conduit is passion about social impact. Data for good is an easy way to start engaging the next generation of citizen data scientists about the importance of data literacy.

Residents of KwaZulu-Natal reporting impact data around them do not need to be mathematicians or statisticians to appreciate the power of data in preventing and responding to future natural disasters.

In a similar way, projects around the world are achieving social good. One example is protecting the Amazon from deforestation by asking citizen data scientists to click on satellite imagery where they see signs of human impact.

This activity is training artificially intelligent models to recognise signs of human impact that will ultimately accelerate research and make it more accurate.

Citizen data scientists are both protecting the Amazon and learning about AI simultaneously.

In another example, organisations that dig wells to provide access to fresh water in some of the world’s poorest countries are being assisted in determining well location by citizen data scientists. The same skills that are being employed commercially can be extended to deliver social good in line with Sustainable Development Goals.

“What is required for the impact of data to be maximised is an increase in participation. There are a few hurdles to overcome: most notably cooperation among competitors, who may resist sharing data related to their business model, as well as privacy concerns,” indicates Hsieh.

The solutions to the first problem lie in demonstrating the collective benefits of data sharing in both overcoming industry challenges and addressing global social issues, as well as legislators incentivising data sharing by organisations.

In general, insights and trends beyond one’s own organisation leads to better responses to challenges that affect all market participants.

As far as the second problem is concerned, there is a trade-off to be made in effectiveness of harnessing data when privacy is paramount.

Anonymising data as much as possible and preventing traceability to individual level can reduce resistance to donating data toward a good cause. Data forgood needn’t compromise privacy.

“The world is on the cusp of bringing together machine learning, AI, predictive analytics and optimisation to create new solutions to social problems. All that is required is some creativity and imagination to unlock the power of data for good,” concludes de Villiers.