Measuring the value of improving data governance and access in Gates Foundation programme: A case study of the Supporting Soil Health Interventions in Ethiopia projects

The Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) and the Open Data Institute (ODI) commissioned a team of economists to measure the value of improving data governance and access in the Supporting Soil Health Interventions in Ethiopia (SSHIiE). In order to do so, the study applied two separate but interlinked models to create a new framework. For the first time, the Five Safes model was adapted to be used in a qualitative assessment of value. These results informed the development of an innovative quantitative framework, applied to a traditional cost-benefit analysis (CBA) methodology. By combining the quantitative and qualitative framework, the study demonstrated that it is possible to generate plausible and credible quantitative estimates of both costs and benefits of data governance and access. While acknowledging that the estimates are only illustrative, the case study results suggested on a direct cost measure, the SSHIiE data governance activities yielded a negative return; but they also show that relatively few ‘indirect’ benefits (current but unmeasured, or measurable but in the future) are necessary to reverse that view, at least from the point of the economy more generally. This is the full project report