Data Governance For Inclusive Development

This policy briefproposes ways to achieve digital transformation through the adoption of inclusive policies in the deployment of emerging technologies, particularly related to the world ofwork. It analyses how digital transformation can help foster decent work and increase well-being instead of furthering precarity, especially in the global South. It has been argued that digital technologies and digital data can accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As digital development is uneven between and within countries, such advances must be grounded on effective normative frameworks, so that they promote fairness and inclusivity, rather than exacerbate inequalities. To explore this possibility, the briefing takes the case of work and the digitally deliverable services (DDS) market in the global South. That choice was based on two main factors: DDS is the sector with the most significant economic increase for lower and middle-high income countries and the world of work is a key thermometer of how digital technologies are faring in terms of an inclusive development (United Nations, 2016. p. 22). These are global transformations, so cooperation and governance are key points of departure. First, to the extent that data drives the digital economy (Gillwald, 2021), data governance is necessary to counter intersectional inequalities, which are amplified online (Rocha de Siqueira, 2023). Second, the digital sphere requires concerted action in terms of regulatory policies. The G20 can promote issues of digital labour rights within the context of major global digital initiatives such as the Global Digital Compact to advance common principles and practices in relation to access, interoperability, security, privacy, and sovereignty of data. Along with pushing for the fulfilment of existing normative structures such as ILO’s guidelines, this could contribute to a fairer distribution of the impacts of data-driven technologies.