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Filling Data Gaps through Design: Insights from the Gender Equality Design Labs

In the era of big data, we often assume that an abundance of information leads to better decisions and improved outcomes. However, data availability is not uniform across all regions and demographics. This disparity creates what are known as “data deserts,” or areas where critical data is sparse or non-existent. These data deserts leave many communities, especially those in global majority contexts, without the benefits that come from informed policy-making and investment.

Catapult Design’s mission is to improve the lives of underserved communities through innovative design. Data is sparse and often inaccessible in many communities. Our strategy is deeply rooted in making our design processes more inclusive and scalable. Good data is needed to get us there.

The Challenge of Data Deserts

Data deserts primarily exist in regions and among populations where systematic data collection is lacking. This gap not only impedes local development, but it also skews global understanding and cooperation. The proliferation of artificial intelligence and big data technologies, while promising, can sometimes exacerbate these inequalities by introducing bias or flattening the nuanced contexts of vulnerable communities.

Approach Through Gender Equality Design Labs

To address these challenges, Catapult Design has partnered with local organizations DODO (Nigeria), Derz Consulting (Ethiopia), and Ideate Innovation (Pakistan), as well as technical partners like Open Knowledge Framework (India) and Paukwa (Kenya). Together, we have pioneered the Gender Equality Design Labs in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Pakistan to bridge these gaps. These labs employ a design-centric approach to gather and analyze data about the health of the most vulnerable women in these regions.

The Gender Equality Design Labs aim to assist the Gates Foundation in identifying the most impactful investment opportunities based on direct feedback from vulnerable women. This initiative exemplifies how design can be a powerful tool for social change, providing strategic insights that lead to meaningful and sustainable improvements in the lives of vulnerable women around the world.

Design-Centric Data Collection

Utilizing a vulnerability segmentation framework, our partners have engaged panels of women from the most vulnerable households as core members of our design teams. This integration ensures that our data collection and analysis are not only about these women, but also by and with them, fostering a deeper understanding and more relevant insights.

It’s important that the labs are not just collecting data; they are transforming it into actionable insights. By continuously testing and reframing the investment hypotheses with real-world feedback, we identify opportunity areas for innovation in products, services, and policies specifically tailored to the needs of these women.

Sharing Insights in Accessible Formats

Developing a rich dataset is only half of the equation. Recognizing the importance of accessibility, we experiment with various formats to share our findings. These include audio insights and podcasts, which allow us to disseminate timely, digestible, and actionable information. It is important that the format is determined by the local women.

Lessons Learned and Recommendations

Throughout our journey with the Gender Equality Design Labs, we plan to glean insights into both the process and its impact. We aim to offer valuable lessons and actionable recommendations for funders, implementers, and innovators looking to adapt this model in different contexts.

Although this project is just launching, we’re excited by its potential, while also realizing that it’s just one part of a much larger problem. As we continue gathering information and more informed datasets, we’ll also continue sharing lessons learned, pivots we make, and both successes and failures we encounter.

For now, here are our guiding principles that we strive to follow:

  • Reach the most vulnerable women through utilizing vulnerability segmentation to provide a holistic view of vulnerabilities and allow for better intervention design.
  • Application of Design Labs model to generate higher quality qualitative data with a bias toward research that’s designed to improve investments and service, product, and policy design.
  • Adoption of rigorous techniques to capture and synthesize qualitative design data and mix-methods analysis.
  • Maintain transparency by sharing all analysis outputs with the women we’re engaging with, including data, visualizations, photos, and audio, to ensure accurate representation.

By filling data gaps through thoughtful, inclusive design practices, we are not only enhancing our understanding of underrepresented populations, but we’re also contributing to more equitable development. The Gender Equality Design Labs exemplify how design can be a powerful tool for social change, providing strategic insights that lead to meaningful and sustainable improvements in the lives of vulnerable women around the world.

Explore our website or reach out for more information on our co-designed projects and to join us in this vital work.

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