Digital records as evidence to underpin global development goals. (HN)

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This project examines the crucial role of records management (and increasingly digital records) in the attainment of current development goals. The launch of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015, has made it increasingly essential to recognise and address weakness in the way governments' official evidence base is managed and used. Plans to measure and monitor the SDGs are based on the assumption that it will be possible to access meaningful data as a basis for benchmarking and eradicating poverty. Unfortunately, it is often the case that records are incomplete, inaccurate, inaccessible or lost completely, with the result that data and statistics derived from the records are flawed. The rapid transition to the use of digital records has encouraged and been closely linked to 'open government' initiatives, aimed at making records and data publicly available. Again, this has a direct bearing on the achievement of current development agendas in ensuring that government is more transparent and accountable. Yet in the digital environment, records created by computerised information systems do not remain reliable or accessible, even for short periods of time, without a control regime of laws, policies, practices and skills as defined in international standards. If digital repositories are not developed, where digital records and data can be managed securely through time, there is no guarantee that they will remain available or reliable. Unfortunately, it is precisely those countries that stand to gain most from progress towards the SDGs that have the greatest problems putting effective data management systems in place.The objective of this, which project builds on the expertise within the School of Advanced Study (SAS), its networks and partner organisations, is to bring together academics, records managers and archivists and a range of NGOs to consider how the management of digital records and data can assist in the achievement international development goals, particularly the SDGs, in sub-Saharan Africa. An important element in the achievement of these goals is the combatting of corruption, something that severely hinders justice, good-governance and development in many countries. Managing records efficiently will not in itself halt corruption, but anti-corruption goals cannot be achieved without trustworthy records as evidence. As such this will be an important thematic focus of the project. It aims to disseminate its findings via and dedicated web resource and an edited volume of articles. The project will also consider the feasibility of a globally-applicable set of protocols for digital records management to help ensure that records management policies, principles and practices become a core aspect of development in the digital environment. A key feature of the project is a two-stage cross-fertilisation of expertise. In the first stage the workshops will be to encourage a dialogue between experts in the area of records management (from both the developed and the developing world) and academic experts on the politics, economics and history of post-colonial Africa. The second stage will allow them to engage with those actively involved in implementing international development goals. As such, measurable outcomes will be extent of the follow-up initiatives that emerge from these dialogues, and the extent to which the immediate outputs of the research network are fed into the policy-making process.