The US government is taking steps to make sure its data captures everyone

Economy / April 23, 2022 / DRPhillF / 0

The Biden administration is now working on a plan to ensure fewer people slip through the gaps.

On Friday, the Fair Data Working Group, a group of data and policy experts from more than a dozen federal agencies, released a blueprint Shows how to make federal data more representative of America’s growing diversity.

By making data more inclusive, the hope is that policy decisions that rely on federal data will ultimately better serve communities in need, Alondra Nelson, co-chair of the Fair Data Action Group, said in an interview with CNN Business.

Government data is also often considered the gold standard when it comes to determining the distribution of federal, state, and local funding for services such as veterans’ benefits, disaster relief, and stimulus payments. It can also be used to better analyze how tax breaks and other benefits affect Americans and to ensure that this funding is directed to the people who need it most.

“We can’t really know how to do and how well we serve the American public, if we don’t have the ability to dig into the data,” she said.

Created as part of the Executive Order on Racial Equality signed by President Joe Biden on his first day in office, the working group has been indicted. Examines how the government collects data, finds out who’s left out, and offers strategies to ensure America’s diversity is better represented in federal statistics.

Among the most important recommendations: analyze and disaggregate broader data by demographic regions, such as race, ethnic subgroups, income, geography, sexual orientation, and gender identity; Increase funding for more federal and independent research and analysis data that better includes minorities and marginalized populations; and make The information is more accessible, transparent and easy to understand by the general public.

The recommendations also include several requests to increase the budget for further research and analysis in areas such as access to healthcare, the protracted Covid, and mental health status in historically disadvantaged communities; adding questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to the largest household survey conducted by the Census Bureau; and increase staffing and capacity to expand data collection to include Middle Eastern and North African heritage and subgroups of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.

Over the past year, the group has met with dozens of nonprofit organizations and research institutions to gather their input on how federal data can be more equitable. Some of these groups included the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, the Round Table for Black Women, the Latina Institute, the National Conference of the American Indian, the Pew Research Center, the Urban Institute, and the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. .

Many of these groups were increasingly talking about how to do it Their communities, demographics, and demographic subgroups are not represented in the federal data.

Independent research by universities, non-profit organizations, and others They only go so far, they said, because it doesn’t carry the same weight as government statistics that lead to direct services funding.

“If we don’t count, we don’t,” Cathy Rinna, director of communications for the National Gay and Transgender Task Force, told CNN Business last year.

Nelson said Friday that management is listening and taking action to make these changes.

“We want to say to the American audience, ‘We hear you,'” she said. “We understand that you don’t feel visible.”

Economie, The US government is taking steps to make sure its data appeals to everyone - CNN