Acting Locally, Monitoring Globally? How to Link Citizen-Generated Data to SDG Monitoring

The Critical Importance of Citizen Science Data

“…It has been suggested that such data may therefore be viewed mainly as a complement to data from conventional sources and could be provided alongside official statistics. Viewed from the CS perspective, Jameson et al (2020) argue that citizen science in low-income contexts should not only be viewed in terms of the value of data production but also as a means of empowering and engaging communities. Thus, rather than requiring that citizen scientists adhere to rigorous protocols and sustain data collection efforts over long periods, CS projects are perhaps best positioned to identify gaps in data acquisition and to highlight community concerns, and as a tool for lobbying for better services and hopefully sustained and consistent data collection by government agencies on issues of importance to communities.…”

“…Our findings in this area, based on a 2020 survey of 44 CS initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa, are more preliminary. We focused on water supply and access (SDG 6) and urban planning and sanitation (SDG 11) out of a recognition that these two areas are of high concern in Africa (Stren, 2019), and the fact that projects in these domains are more likely to be driven by community concerns rather than donor interests (Jameson et al, 2020). The survey was of a representative mix of projects across regions of sub-Saharan Africa, with roughly 39% of projects from West Africa, 27% each from Central and East Africa, and 7% from Central Africa.…”

Citizen Science and the Sustainable Development Goals in Low and Middle Income Country Cities

“…Local monitoring can, therefore, help achieve the pledge of the UN Member States "to leave no one behind" [30] and CS projects, which often have a local focus, are well placed to contribute to this. Local monitoring adds richness and contextual information around SDG indicators [31] and can "empower communities to tell their own stories with regard to the SDGs" [28]. Welldesigned co-created, or community-based, CS projects provide opportunities for citizens to bring issues of importance and concern to them to the fore [32], including citizens from disadvantaged communities in commonly under reported areas [31].…”

“…Local monitoring adds richness and contextual information around SDG indicators [31] and can "empower communities to tell their own stories with regard to the SDGs" [28]. Welldesigned co-created, or community-based, CS projects provide opportunities for citizens to bring issues of importance and concern to them to the fore [32], including citizens from disadvantaged communities in commonly under reported areas [31]. As well as monitoring existing indicators, therefore, CS can also be used to set agendas [33], potentially including identifying new national or locally relevant goals, targets, and/or indicators where gaps exist [4].…”

“…There is also a need to better understand the challenges that might be faced in using CS approaches in the context of the SDGs. While there has been some discussion of this, it has largely focussed on issues around data quality, standards, and interoperability [3,31]. While this is important, as these are seen as major barriers to the use of CS data in the policy sphere [25], a better understanding of additional challenges and how these could be overcome is also needed if the potential of CS is to be realised.…”