Distinguished international guests will give short presentations designed to promote audience discussion around strategically identified themes pertinent to linked life course data ecosystems around the world, and how these systems can support health and social policy.
Concepts will include social licence; cross – jurisdictional data harmonisation; infrastructure investment; civil society data; and resourcing for analysis. This will be our seventh Data for Policy event, dating back to the start of our Centre in 2014, and will be held in Chicago immediately following the International Population Data Linkage Network Conference on 19th September 2024.
About the Workshop
The Workshop will include short presentations around strategically identified themes pertinent to linked life course data ecosystems around the world, mixed with open discussion among presenters and the audience as to ways to improve linked data ecosystems to facilitate evidence-to-policy pathways.
Anticipated topics include:
- Social licence to link person-level government data. Is delivering evidence for better informed policy a strong enough argument for systematic linkage without individual consent?
- Harmonising data linkage infrastructure approaches across jurisdictions, especially internationally. What are the challenges, and the rewards?
- Funding data linkage infrastructure and access in a way that is fair to data custodians, researchers, taxpayers, and governments. Valuing the resource – who should pay, & how much?
- Inclusion of NGO or civil society data into government linkage systems. How do we enable this?
- Resourcing to analyse the proliferation of linked data. Is there a role for Artificial Intelligence?
Morning Session
- Professor Janeen Baxter will introduce the ARC Life Course Centre and the International Data for Policy Workshop concept and goals, and welcome attendees to the Workshop.
- A/Prof Francis Mitrou will outline the Centre’s Data for Policy Portfolio which has worked for a decade to engage the research sector with Government and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) to improve the quality of policy and program evaluation via advances in linked data infrastructure and access.
- Australian Government departments will collectively describe the dramatic escalation in linked data infrastructure and data accessibly that has occurred over the last decade in Australia. They will outline both the vision and challenges of the coming decade and ask our international presenters and the audience for their reflections and guidance on that vision.
- What can other countries learn from the Australian journey, and what can all countries teach the international life course data community based on their own systems and models of working? These points will be discussed openly via audience participation.
Afternoon Session
- The WHO will describe their Life Course approach to global health and the desire for all countries to have a minimum standard of longitudinal and linkable administrative data across health and social spheres to inform global health policy and practice.
- NGO representatives will detail their attempts to link civil society data with government data assets for planning and evaluation purposes, highlighting successes and challenges, and seeking insights from the international audience.
Speakers include
- Rachel Christie
National Manager, MA Centre for Evidence and Insights, Mission Australia - Claire Sparke
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - Marcel van Kints
Australian Bureau of Statistics - Mark Western
The University of Queensland
What is Data for Policy?
The Life Course Centre’s Data for Policy initiative seeks to shape administrative data access in Australia to improve the lives of those living in social and economic disadvantage. We do this by bringing together relevant stakeholders to share their initiatives, successes and the barriers they face, and we have been doing this since 2014.
Since the inaugural Data for Policy event, several major changes have taken place in the Australian data landscape, including the establishment of the Multi-Agency Data Integration Project (MADIP) administered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Tax Office’s A-Life, the NSW Government’s Data Analytics Unit and the collaborative state-based linkage service the Population Health Research Network, amongst many examples.
But more is needed. Large policy initiatives such as Closing the Gap and Stronger Places, Stronger People need to track success, including making the data evidence useful for the community organisations involved. The Life Course Centre’s NGO partners and stakeholders are working towards linkage and analysis of their own data, to measure success and for better planning and delivery of services. And philanthropic organisations are increasingly seeking measures that will demonstrate the effectiveness of their investments.