Data Stewards: Some 15 people complete training

Five informative days: Taking place from June 10 to 14, 2024 in Berlin, the Data Steward Intensive Course was packed with exciting speakers, excursions to other NGOs and institutions, and a wide-ranging exchange of ideas and best practices. Supported by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and run by The Data Tank and The GovLab, the free course was conducted in two languages and led by world renowned data pioneer Stefaan Verhulst.

The aim of the intensive course was to provide current and future data managers from civil society with the knowledge and skills they need to make responsible decisions, improve civil society’s data ecosystem and, ultimately, promote social change.

The course’s program took participants through the most important steps required to develop a strategy for reusing data – from a needs analysis to final implementation and an assessment of the impact that publishing data can have.

Each of the approximately 15 participants had applied for and received one of the course’s much coveted places. The attendees included employees of German and international NGOs, such as Agora Digitale Transformation, Save the Children and Transparency International. Stefaan Verhulst usually kicked off the morning session, and was followed by several guest speakers, including from the Federal Foreign Office, the UN Data Hub and the German development agency GIZ. The day’s results were summarized in group discussions before everyone departed for the scheduled field visits.

The latter provided the new Data Stewards with a look behind the scenes, including at the GovTech Campus and Wikimedia. In between, there was plenty of time for networking. Afternoons and evenings offered numerous opportunities to explore Berlin individually.

The varied agenda proved popular with the participants. “What I like most about this course is the mixture of systematic approach, abundant opportunities for exchanging ideas and sharing one’s own viewpoint and, finally, the international framework,” said Oliver Rack from Open Government Netzwerk Deutschland.  Benedikt Göller from Agora Digitale Transformation noted, “I’m learning an incredible amount from the other participants, but of course also from Stefaan, whose energy is amazing.”

Taissiya Sutormina from the NGO Minor also left with many new ideas. “I’ve written down a long list of useful links that I’ll be using within my organization and sharing within my network,” she said.

Handling data responsibly and skillfully can help civil society organizations in a variety of ways. On the one hand, they can develop and implement programs more efficiently and effectively if they have solid data as a foundation. One the other, data can help organizations lobby for their own cause and acquire the resources needed to carry out their activities. 

The Bertelsmann Stiftung is using the Data Steward Intensive Course to increase data literacy in civil society. This in turn creates a sustainable basis that makes it possible for more civil society organizations to publish their data as open data (see Ideas for more open data from civil society).