WDR 2021 will focus on data for development

World Bank Group, Chief Economist, Pinelopi Goldberg announced that the 2021 World Development Report (WDR) will tackle ‘data for development’. Goldberg stated in a letter that the theme was chosen seeing the importance of good quality development data for sound policy-making, effective public service delivery, transparent accountability, and increased economic activity through private sector growth. The report will address data-related questions from the perspective of low and middle income countries. To this aim, the report will explore how public and private data can complement and improve each other including policy and governance challenges entailed. It further looks at the challenges of big data and digital platforms. After publishing the concept note of the report, the World Bank will hold stakeholders consultation meetings over the coming months.