a rather Unhappy Marriage? Dr. Marcel Thaens, CIO Province - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Policymakers and the use of Data: a rather Unhappy Marriage?

• Dr. Marcel Thaens, CIO Province Noord-Brabant, 28th of March, 2019

mthaens@brabant.nl

(Big) Data: Numerous advantages for policymakers

Policy can be developed and executed with more:

• Efficiency
• Effectivity
• Legitimation and support

Finally, the ‘dream’ of evidence-based policy can be realized.... Better informed decision making based on ‘real’ insights: Public Value can be increased.

Many projects in almost all policy domains are taking place

For example Housing Mobility Safety and Security Care and Cure Education

But using data in policy in a responsible way is far from easy.......

(at least) 5 major challenges need to be overcome

Challenges

• 1. Many practical challenges need to be addressed

Challenges

• 2. The danger of thinking that everything in society can be

planned and designed

Challenges

• 3. The threat of driving out ambiguity

Challenges

• 4. The fairy tale of ‘objective’ and ‘hard’ data

Challenges

• 5. An unhappy marriage: The divide between the world of data

analysis and the world of policy/governance/politics

The potential of Data for our Economy, Society and for Government is enormous. There are many projects in almost all policy domains and we are doing our best to maximize the potential benefits But we have to keep eye for the associated risks and that means we have to operate from a realistic perspective. To comfort you: not everything is an information problem .. 