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Governance Global Practice

Middle East & North Africa

Special Edition
May 2017

Big Data
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CV MENA
In-a-Nutshell
Connecting Voices (CV) Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a
regional initiative and partnership that promotes governance and
improved financial management practices in the public and private
sectors. The ultimate aim is to support the demands of citizens
throughout the Arab World for jobs, better governance, a voice in
public affairs, and social and economic inclusion as reflected in the
World Banks MENA Regional strategy. CV MENA plans to seize on
the windows of opportunity available in the region. It will support
capacity building in the area of governance, facilitate the
development of a professional community, as well as the sharing and
transfer of knowledge both within countries and within the region as
a whole. CV MENA will help foster greater transparency and
accountability, thereby engendering enhanced public trust. In
addition, building public and private sector governance and financial CVMENA won the World Banks 2013 MENA
management capacity will also help attract and provide comfort to Vice President Team Award
much-needed foreign direct investment in the region.

Publisher: Governance Global Practcie, MENA, The World Bank

Managing Editor: Gabriella Kusz, Renaud Seligmann
Art Director: Denis Largeron
www.cvmena.org Contributing Photographers: Denis Largeron
cvmena@worldbank.org Images: World Bank Images, Shutterstock

Note: The posts in the Connecting Voices magazine should not be reported as representing the views of The World Bank Group, the Executive Directors of the
World Bank Group or the governments they represent. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the The World
Bank or its policy.
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Content
BIG PICTURE Events
04 Editorial
Renaud Seligmann, 26 2017 World Government Summit
MENA Region, World Bank
16 The Role of Big Data
in Assessing Crises Big Data in Action Workshop
in the Middle East and
North Africa Region
Public Financial 17 GAZA - 18 SYRIA - 19 YEMEN
Management (PFM)

05 Interview
Rachel Tiffen
Chartered Institute of Public
Finance & Accountancy, CIPFA UK
28 World Governmnet Summit
High Level Panel Government of the
Future The Promise of Big Data
20 Big Data Solutions Applications for Governments
Understanding Forced
Migration as a Result of
Fragility, Conflict and Violence

21 Is Inequality
Underestimated in Egypt
Evidence from House Prices
Corporate Governance
& Financial Reporting (CGFR)

09 Audit Data Analytics Cross-Cutting

What are the Key Opportunities?
30 Big Data & Procurement

22 Utilizing Big Data to Solve

Cairos Traffic Congestion

31 Leveraging Big Data

COVER STORY to Help Competition Agencies Tackle
BIG DATA Anticompetitive Behavior

11 Big Data in Action for

Government 25 Big Data
Big Data Innovation in Putting Innovation into Action
Public Services, Policy at the World Bank
and Engagement

33 New Books & Reports

Big Data

34 Comic Relief

Renaud Seligmann
Governance Practice Manager,
MENA Region, World Bank
Technology is changing the way the world works, and is shaping the
way governments and the private sector approach, analyze, and
address international economic development challenges. As noted
by World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim, during his opening
press conference to the World Bank Group - International Monetary
Fund 2017 Spring Meetings:
The internet, smart phones, and social media allow everyone to see
exactly how everyone else lives, which is causing aspirations to rise
all over the world. . . [I]n the midst of these crises and with rising
aspirations, we must change the way we work in development
finance. We have to find new and innovative ways to reach the poor
and make the world more secure and stable and to help the world
grow.
Poor service delivery, an inability to meet the needs of citizenry, and
corrupt activities have weakened the common view of public
institutions. Technology and its ability to provide information and
insight has come of age at roughly the same time as public trust in
traditional institutions has diminished. Therefore, technological
development, data analytics and information dissemination offer a
unique opportunity for governments and society to leverage
technology to rewrite the social contract, offer greater transparency
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Editors Note
and accountability in the use of public funds and service delivery,
and rebuild the trust needed for government and society to succeed.
Technology in the form of data analysis and information science
is widely recognized as bringing socio-economic benefits in the
form of greater cost savings and improved efficiency. However, the
application of these practices to the public sector is lagging behind
even though it may offer even greater impact in terms of
improved service delivery, more effective policy-making and greater
trust between the citizens and their governments. Harnessing the
potential of technology, data and information to shape public sector
development will not be an easy task. Significant investment and
effort will be needed to achieve this objective and the rewards will
not be without risk.
In recognition of the sweeping technological changes gripping
society and the economy, this special edition of Connecting Voices
(CV) MENA will focus on the role and value of technology, data and
information in the form of big data. Big data, or the analysis of large
data sets to gain a greater understanding of an issue or challenge,
has only recently been made possible due to the technological
advances in data processing and analysis. Big data offers both the
public and private sectors the potential to review and analyze large
volumes of data and assess risks, provide broad inputs into decision-
making, and highlight any emerging trends or patterns relevant to
solving the challenges at hand.
Among other subjects, this edition of CV MENA Magazine will
explore how big data has been successfully employed to combat
fraud, counter anticompetitive behavior and design solutions to
common challenges in the developing world. Through the following
series of articles, we cover issues surrounding big data as it is applied
to various fields including procurement, auditing, and
transportation. We also take an in-depth look at the World
Government Summit (WGS) events, which took place in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates this past February. The WGS and its emphasis
on technology and innovation showcased how governments can
utilize emerging opportunities, such as big data, to solve their
national challenges. During the WGS sessions, panelists offered
insights and lessons learned for countries as they seek to integrate
innovative thinking and smart solutions into tackling existing and
emerging problems.
We thank you for your readership and invite you to join us in
exploring the subject of big data through this special edition of CV
MENA Magazine.
 5

Public Financial
Management

Interview
Rachael Tiffen,
Head of Counter Fraud Centre, Chartered Institute of Public
Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA), United Kingdom

career toward the central government level, accepted the position of Manager of
which eventually led to my current position Counter Fraud & Loss Prevention Service at
as Head of the CIPFA Counter Fraud Centre. the UK Ministry of Defense.

In order to broaden my exposure at the Because of my significant background in

Welcome and thank you for taking the
time to sit down with CV MENA
Magazine. You have had a very unique
and interesting career path, which has
led you to the position of Head of
the CIPFA Counter Fraud Centre (the
Centre). Please, if you can, share with
us a bit about your professional
background and what led you to the
Centre.
national level, I undertook several voluntary
positions on working and policy groups
which focused on national government
issues. Largely as a result of these volunteer
experiences, I obtained a secondment from
my position in local government to the UK
Home Office. Shortly after I concluded my
secondment, a position became available at
the Home Office. This enabled me to
transition formally from the local to the
central government level. I worked there for
3 years as the Head of Public Sector Fraud,
and eventually was promoted to the
position of Deputy Director. Building upon
my central government experience, I then
local government, I was readily recognized
as the local government expert in this area.
Furthermore, with my operational
knowledge, experience and understanding
of the issues, I was able to lead the UK
Home Offices first-ever national strategy
for combatting fraud at the local
governmental level.
Additionally, my knowledge and breadth of
experience at both levels positioned me
well to take on the tasks and responsibilities
of the CIPFA Counter Fraud Centre. Today, I
lead the CIPFA Counter Fraud Centre in
supporting its clients and stakeholders

Although my current position involves

undertaking anti-fraud and corruption work
at a variety of levels, my career began and
has largely focused on local government
service. Most of my career has been spent
serving as the Head of Audit and/or Fraud
for the U.K. Municipalities of Enfield,
Waltham Forest and Lambeth. Only in the
last seven to eight years have I steered my

through the development and provision of
tools, consultancy services, thought
leadership and training.
The CIPFA Counter Fraud Centre works
to lead and coordinate the fight
against fraud and corruption across
the local and central governments, as
well as the health, education and
charity sectors. With such a wide
remit, how does the Centre prioritize
and select issues and projects?
The Center has a small team, so we must
review and prioritize our work very
carefully. When I first came to CIPFA to set
up the Center, I was its only counter fraud
employee for the first 18 months. Today,
although we have a larger team and more
resources than when we first began, we are
faced with a very active and constantly-
changing fraud environment. As such,
prioritizing and evaluating issues and
concerns is still of key importance in
determining where our efforts would be
best placed.
To keep our finger on the pulse of the fraud
environment, the Centre has ongoing alerts
and monitors key issue areas. In this regard,
we undertake workshops with key
stakeholders to obtain a clearer view of
what is happening on the ground. We also
engage with individual investigators to
understand their most pressing concerns.
Additionally, the Centre undertakes
consultancy work so we are clear about the
issues and risks facing our stakeholders and
clients.
Finally, in the course of my career, I have
had the opportunity to work on both UK
National Strategies for Local Government
the first while I was at the UK Home Office
and the second while at CIPFA. A core part
of these strategies has been engaging with
and interviewing various counterparts and
representatives to gain a comprehensive
understanding of the fraud issues facing the
nation and its local governments.
To cite an example, one area we have
emphasized in recent months has been the
value of counter-fraud activity. Fraudulent
activities and crimes have a significant
financial impact on the economy and
society. For example, in the UK, fraudulent
activities constitute one in every three
crimes committed and cost the UK roughly
British Pounds (GBP) 52 Billion (roughly
US$67.5 Billion equivalent). The exact
amount depends on what is being counted
and how it is being measured; but
regardless of the means, research has
demonstrated that fraud is big business for
criminals. Indeed, in the UK and countries
around the world, fraud presents a massive
challenge. As additional research and
evaluation data and information about the
costs of fraud are revealed, we can better
understand and appreciate the value of
such counter-fraud activities.
The Centre focuses not only on fighting
fraud at the central government level,
but also at the local level. In the World
Banks Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) region, strengthening
governance at the local government
level has been a key priority. What
advice or guidance can you offer to
MENA region readers who may be
struggling to promote counter-fraud
and anti-corruption initiatives at the
local level?
While working as Deputy Director of the
National Fraud Authority at the UK Home
discussions and interviews was the Local
Office, I very quickly realized that there was
a lot happening with regard to counter-
fraud at the local level both good and
less good practices. As such, I began by
facilitating the development of a Local
Government Counter-Fraud Strategy. To
develop this strategy, our unit spoke with
local representatives, including Chief
Executive Officers [CEOs], investigators, and
so on. Through this engagement, we
understood that if this strategy were to be
successful, it would need to be owned by
the local government and its stakeholders.
The National Fraud Authority could
coordinate and facilitate the development
of the strategy. However, the local
government and stakeholders would need
to direct us toward what they wanted. This
was essential to ensure buy-in and
successful future implementation. In total,
we completed 11 workshops with local
investigators. Our goal was to try and speak
with everyone we could. As such, we spoke
with investigators, behaviorists, data
6
analytics professionals, political leaders, and
others. Together, we discussed their
respective risks, problems, capacity, fraud
possibilities, and what was needed to bring
them to the discussion table.
One of the key takeaways from our
workshops was that local governments
require support from outside experts. They
need access to external networks of support
in combatting fraud. In response to this, in
2010, we developed a Board of senior
practitioners and stakeholders who could
respond, as needed, to the local
government requests for support, advice
and guidance regarding counter-fraud. I am
happy to say that this network has proven
itself sustainable and is still in existence
today.
The culmination of our workshops, group
Government Counter-Fraud Strategy
document. This strategy was developed as
a living document that captures a series of
streams of work, engaging people to their
desired level, and seeking to work together
in a collaborative manner. This includes
both the public and private sectors. The
strategy document is structured around
three core principles:
Acknowledging CEOs and political
leaders need to acknowledge that
there is a fraud problem at the local
government level and then work to
address the issue.
Preventing Doing what can be done
in order to prevent fraudulent activity.
For example, an entity at the local
governmental level may not have a
large counter-fraud staff. However, by
pooling resources and expertise with
other local governmental units, they
may be able to have access to the right
 7
people, tools and resources to concerned data analysis. In the UK, we have developing its investigative capacity to help
undertake these core functions. data-matching initiatives (at both the organizations review and scrutinize these
central and local governmental levels), but resultant cases. Additionally, the central
Pursuing Pursuing is related to the matching that is undertaken is relatively hub also produces alerts so it may not only
recouping lost funds. infrequent. Typically, data are matched only be used as an input into investigations, but
every two years. The result is many matches also as an alert to users regarding potential
When we were ready to publish and and false positives. issues so that they may then take
disseminate the strategy, we had more than preventative measures, as needed. Finally,
600 people attend the dissemination Through our discussions, we found that the Centre also maintains a hotline to
workshop. There was also significant people wanted something a bit smarter, support organizations in addressing results /
interest and a spirit of volunteerism to and in real-time with the ability to access cases which emerge from the system. The
participate in the various pilots and other databases and information beyond CIPFA Counter Fraud Centre recently won a
programs envisioned through this strategy.
In the first year of implementation, the
strategy and its work streams saved local
governments GBP 11 Million (roughly US$
14.3 Million equivalent). However, I believe
the larger impact has been in influencing
cultural change in local governments
regarding the role and value of counter-
fraud efforts, as well as the manner in
which such fraud needs to be addressed.

In 2014, when I joined the CIPFA as the

Head of the Counter Fraud Centre, the
original Local Government Counter-Fraud
Strategy had come to a conclusion. The
Centre was then asked to lead the
development of the succeeding strategy.
Over the course of these years, many things
had changed and improved in local
government; but there were still significant
challenges.

The successor strategy focused on what we

found to be the 6 principles which were
necessary to building and maintaining a
robust counter-fraud program. We coined
these principles the 6 Cs: culture,
capacity, capability, competence,
communication and collaboration. Through
our second round of research and
engagement, we began to understand that
if a local government embodied these six
principles in the right measures, they would
have the foundation for a strong counter-
fraud program.
This edition of CV MENA Magazine has
a strong focus on 'Big Data.' In line
with this theme, can you share with us
information about CIPFA's new
partnership with BAE Systems Applied
Intelligence to create a new,
advanced data analytics service which
may help public sector organizations
to identify and protect themselves
against fraudulent activity and cyber-
attack?
In the design and development of the CIPFA
Counter Fraud Centre, we took time to go
around the country to speak with
investigators, stakeholders and others to
understand what was really wanted and
needed in addressing and combatting fraud.
One of the most popular responses
that which was captured by the
government. In my position at the UK Home
Office, I had worked with BAE through one
of our pilot programs and knew of their
capabilities and interest in potentially
collaborating on an initiative of this level.
Therefore, working in cooperation with BAE,
we developed data analytics with wrap-
around support services provided by CIPFA
to help investigators.
We went out and spoke to organizations
that collected information regarding
identity fraud, compromised bank accounts,
national databases and identity/ forged
documents. We then sought to establish
relationships with them, and include their
collected information in a central hub which
could be used by the CIPFA Counter Fraud
Centre and our stakeholders to identify
risks, monitor activity and act on issues.
BAE systems utilize NetReveal, which
analyzes the data contributed to the central
hub and identifies discrepancies, risks, and
so on. Organizations using the system are
able to assist with setting the risks, as well
as contributing data. One outcome of the
system is that because we are inputting
third-party data and its predicted analytics,
a large volume of cases will be produced
which will need to be pursued. In response,
the CIPFA Counter Fraud Centre is
contract to deliver these analytic services to
all 32 local government agencies across
London, plus the City of London. We are
very excited about this groundbreaking,
innovative opportunity and we believe it
will save the local governments a lot of
money.
The BAE central hub and attendant public-
private partnership has developed into
quite a unique collaboration. Drawing upon
our strong heritage of counter-fraud and
our extensive network of professionals/
experts in the public sector as well as our
understanding of the problem, the CIPFA
Counter Fraud Centre leads the cooperation
and information sharing but it is truly a
public-private partnership.
The Centre's website
(http://www.cipfa.org/services/count
er-fraud-centre) has a plethora of
materials, resources and guides which
may be of use to readers in the MENA
region. What are some of the new or
upcoming projects that you would like
to highlight for our readers?
I believe it is important to note that the new
UK Anticorruption Strategy was expected to
be delivered late this spring. However, as
the UK just had elections, this may impact

the timing of the release. Regardless of the
release date, this will be an important issue
and area for the Centre.
Another emerging issue is the European
Unions General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR) and the use and application of data
analytics. In this sense, the theme of this
edition of CV MENA Magazine is very timely
as everyone is talking about big data. This is
definitely an area the Centre will be
addressing strongly going forward.
Finally, I think one of the most urgent issues
we will be facing now and into the near
future is the cyber world. The landscape of
cyber and the amount of incidents, volume,
and their impact is enormous. However, so
are the number of cyber strategies and
firms offering to support governments with
cyber security services. As such, it is quite a
difficult landscape for our local government,
central government and sector stakeholders
to navigate in determining what to use and
which services and providers to select.
The Centre plans to continue to address the
issue of cyber security and offer advice and
guidance to our stakeholders. We will also
continue to engage on our traditional work
streams, including our annual survey of
counter-fraud within the UK. It is scheduled
for release in May 2017, and will include a
summary report to be published in
September. We also have our annual
Government Awards which honor and raise
the profile of individuals and organizations
that have excelled in the field of counter-
fraud.
Looking ahead, what do you see as
some of the key challenges that public
institutions will face in countering
fraudulent activity and cyber-attack in
the future?
In the UK, we have recently had many well-
publicized data breaches. As such, there is
quite an urgency regarding organizational
security and counter-fraud. In response, we
have seen several efforts by the
government and other organizations to
educate and encourage members of the
public about the importance of securing
data. For us, as organizations, we also need
to reflect on data security, in particular as
we navigate personnel management and
8
the changing nature and structure of our
workplaces (for example, with increased
teleworking).
The UK government has recognized the
urgency of this issue, and has invested
roughly GBP 1.9 Billion (roughly US$ 2.5
Billion equivalent) in the creation of the
new National Cyber Security Centre. The
Cyber Security Centre itself is the public
face of the UK Government in addressing
cyber threats, providing advice, offering
threat intelligence, and deploying rapid
response management for victims of cyber
crimes.
The National Cyber Security Centre has
formulated a five-year Cyber Security Plan.
It seeks to raise awareness and enhance
planning and preparedness against cyber-
fraud. Some of the recommendations
stemming from this plan include
incorporating younger, cyber-savvy
personnel into the workforce, investing in
organizations and cyber-security programs
and a commitment to improving efforts
in this area.
 9

Corporate Governance
& Financial Reporting

Audit Data Analytics

What are the Key Opportunities?
Kalina Shukarova Savovska
Senior Financial Management Specialist,
Centre for Financial Reporting Reform
(CFRR), World Bank

Traditional audit methods served auditors

for decades, but as technology advances
and stakeholders expectations evolve, so
too does the need for auditors to innovate
and transform their approaches in order to
keep pace with demand.

How is technology transforming the

audit?

Today, advances in technology and software

solutions make it possible for auditors to
fundamentally change the way a financial
statement audit is done. Financial statement
audits will still strike a balance between
traditional methodologies and new
technology-driven methods. However,
auditors now have new tools and
techniques available.
Audits are already becoming semi-
automated, meaning that hardware and
software inputs are increasing. Indeed, the
use of information technology to
computerize documentation, audit plans
and working papers is standard practice in
the profession.
The audits of the near future will likely
include substantially more data analytics.
Technology advances support the use of
data analytics methods and introduce new
forms of audit evidence as well as new ways
of audit testing.
What is new about audit data
analytics?
Classical analytical procedures consist of
absolute comparisons of balances with prior
year balances or with budgets and forecasts,
ratio comparisons and trend analyses. They
may also consist of comparisons based on
financial or operational data designed to
predict the balance in a financial statement
classification. As such, they form part of the
audit judgment process by challenging
financial information or the lack of such
information.
Audit data analytics is much broader and
deeper than traditional analytical
procedures. It involves using powerful
software tools and statistically complex
procedures. These can include: cluster
analysis; predictive models; data layering;
visualizations; and what if scenarios that
allow the exploration of new ways to
analyze large sets of relevant auditing data.
These data are sourced from internal and
external information and are used to
produce audit evidence during risk
assessment, analytical procedures, and
substantive procedures and control testing.
Enhanced audit quality
More relevant audits
Identifying issues earlier
Larger populations tested
More relevant evidence gathered
Higher quality audit evidence
Increased audit effectiveness
Assess large volumes of data quickly
Make better informed risk assessments
Increased auditors focus
More frequent testing
More timely reporting
Improved client service
Greater insight
Raising issues earlier
Improved communication
Possibility to visualize results

What benefits do audit data analytics
bring?
The advances in technologies and software
solutions enable auditors to engage with
audit data analytics in a variety of new
ways, resulting in audits that are more
focused, insightful and effective, as follows:
Focused as the auditors attention is
directed toward areas of greater audit
risks;
Insightful because they provide
improved client service; and
Effective as audit teams can direct
more of their time to complex areas
where increased audit risk may be
present.
So what can practitioners expect?
Audit practitioners of all sizes will need to
embrace technology in the audit process.
Large accounting firms are already making
significant investments in developing home-
grown tools and methodologies surrounding
audit data analytics. Many smaller firms
have yet to introduce these advances and
reap the benefits. Major investments are
required, such as in human capital,
hardware and software, as well as in the
development of implementation
capabilities.
Expectations of investors, audit committees,
regulators, and other stakeholders
regarding the use of technology advances in
the audit are also evolving rapidly. Clients,
even small ones, are becoming better
equipped technologically, and as they come
to appreciate the benefits offered by data
analytics, they will undoubtedly expect data
analytics and technology to be used in the
audit process.
It is becoming necessary for smaller audit
firms to start embracing the use of
technology in the audit process.
Professional Accountancy Organizations can
support practitioners and smaller audit
firms in a variety of ways, including:
providing educational opportunities; raising
awareness among clients and members of
the key benefits; developing toolkits and
guidance; researching and recommending
software and hardware options, including
generic data analysis tools; and providing
members with support to convey their
views, comments, and input to national and
international standard setters.
Audit standards will likely evolve
Many challenges and questions arise with
data analytics in the audit context of today.
These challenges and questions may require
further guidance, including: the ability to
test entire populations and how to deal with
exceptions; fitting audit evidence derived
from audit data analytics within the current
requirements; clarifying what kind of audit
procedures exist; and how to address the
issue of the integrity of underlining data
used as well as the need to validate data
from non-traditional external sources.
Standard setters do not want audit
standards to inhibit ongoing innovations in
this area. However, they also recognize the
need for careful consideration before the
process of amending audit standards can
take place. The International Auditing and
Assurance Standard Board (IAASB) Data
Analytics Working Group issued a Request
for Input, Exploring the Growing Use of
Technology in the Audit, with a Focus on
Data Analytics. It informs stakeholders
about the ongoing work in this area and
gathers their input as to whether all
relevant considerations regarding audit data
analytics have been addressed before any
revisions to the International Standards on
Auditing (IAS) are attempted.
Auditors skills will need to be
upgraded
Auditors will always need to have a good
foundation in traditional technical
competences, which already constitute a
core body of knowledge in university and
professional educational programs.
However, a new set of skills will be required
for performing the technologically advanced
audit. Education will be required in
information technology, statistics, and
modeling. Indeed, this body of knowledge
will need to be integrated in university and
professional education programs for current
and future accountants.
Professional Accountancy Organizations can
play an instrumental role in this process by
offering practicing members opportunities
to engage in a learning process via training,
continuing education development
programs, or other focused education to
develop these new skills.
Investments in both hardware and
software are necessary
Many smaller audit practices cannot afford
to develop customized data analytical tools
as the pioneering investments in hardware
and software are a costly matter and simply
beyond their resource availability.
10
There are several good alternatives that
smaller audit practices can employ. These
include using third-party vendors to process
and analyze data and using simple but
powerful generic database tools with
functionalities designed for auditors. These
can include the ability to access a variety of
data sources and perform source data tests
that are automated, traceable, and
repeatable.
There is potential to use data analytics
beyond traditional audits
The potential of using technology, and
especially data analytics, can extend beyond
the scope of traditional audits. It provides
practitioners and smaller audit firms with an
opportunity to engage with clients across a
variety of service lines and in innovative
new ways.
Auditors work with data on a daily basis and
explore new ways of analyzing data. This is
part of a natural evolutionary process for
the accountancy profession. Provided
auditors independence is not impaired,
data analytics can be used to provide
greater insights. Data analytics consulting
and advisory services can be provided or
engaged via specialized assignments. In this
way, such services can offer some targeted
level of assurance in certain areas that
provide clients with reduced risk and
improved security.
The accountants role from report writer to
business partner is also gradually changing
because accountants spend more time
analyzing the companys results. Analyzing
patterns or potential issues, as well as
pulling data from different sources into one
view where data can be overlapped and
patterns can be recognized faster, may be
especially beneficial for small- and medium-
sized enterprises (SMEs). In such cases,
firms may lack in-house monitoring and
controlling departments and need to rely
instead on external professionals to provide
greater insight into operational and
compliance risks.
Acknowledgements
This article summarizes messages addressed in a recent
publication by the World Banks Centre for Financial
Reporting Reform (CFRR) developed by Kalina
Shukarova Savovska, Senior Financial Management
Specialist, CFRR, the World Bank with contributions
from Bonnie Ann Sirois, Senior Financial Management
Specialist, CFRR under the Audit Training of Trainers
Community of Practice (Audit ToT) of the EU-REPARIS
Program. This is available at:
http://go.worldbank.org/D6CT7QUHM0.

Cover Story
Big Data
Big Data in Action for Government
Big Data Innovation in
Public Services, Policy and Engagement
This paper was produced within the context of a
reimbursable advisory services agreement with
the United Arab Emirates Prime Ministers Office
in order to support the World Government
Summit 2017
PROMISING APPLICATIONS FOR BIG DATA
IN GOVERNMENT
The potential for big data to transform
government is vast. This article focuses on
big data solutions with applications in
service delivery, policymaking and citizen
engagement areas in which big data can
play a transformational role. It also
discusses key initiatives for governments to
facilitate action for effective data use.
Service Delivery
Big data analytics can be used by
governments to improve existing services,
as well as to draw on novel datasets to drive
entirely new public services.
Policymaking
Policymakers are using satellite imagery, cell
phone data and more to produce alternative
economic indicators for new and real-
time policy insights.
Citizen Engagement
By applying machine learning to online and
social media, governments can be more
responsive to citizen sentiment, ushering in
a new dimension of civic engagement. Big
data analytics can be used by governments
to improve existing services and to draw on
novel datasets to drive entirely new public
services.
Strengthening Government Service
Delivery
Today, consumers are used to having a
growing supply of personalized, on-demand
commercial products and services. People
interact with government services every day
with regard to areas such as health,
employment, education and business, just
to name a few. Society is eager to use big
data to make public service delivery equally
as smart, responsive and personalized.
One area of tremendous opportunity is in
the use big data algorithms to detect fraud,
non-compliance and bottlenecks in
government operations. Governments are
huge producers of data, most of which are
unstructured and text-intensive. Text
analytics and machine-learning algorithms
are indispensable to analyzing
administrative data for insights. They can
automate systematic, multi-level checks on
insurance, procurement and tax records to
flag entries requiring further examination,
or identify performance bottlenecks that
need attention.
Procurement and Financial Flows: Big
data techniques are transforming processes
to detect fraud, collusion and money
laundering through the analysis of
procurement and financial information.
Algorithms are used to scan procurement
records, invoices, bank information,
certificates of origin and other data to
identify fraud, collusion and shell
companies.
Solution Spotlight: The International
Consortium of Investigative Journalism
(ICIJ) provides nearly 40 years of
information about companies in over
200 countries and territories. ICIJ also
11
hosts the Mossack Fonseca, that is, the
Panama Papers. The Panama Papers
contain 11.5 million emails, database
entries, images and documents which
big data analytics helped to rapidly
sort, categorize, index and search. The
analysis found several irregularities and
triggered multiple investigations.
Solution Spotlight: The Counter Fraud
Centre at the UKs Chartered Institute
of Public Finance and Accountancy
(CIPFA) manages the London Counter-
Fraud Hub, which supplies big data
analytics, investigations and recovery
services for the 32 London Local
Authorities and the City of London
Corporation.
Healthcare: Valuable information about
public health is found in government
records, as well as unconventional sources
such as social media, discussion forums,
mailing lists, health websites and news
outlets. Mobile phone data is also being
widely used for monitoring and improving
health services. These channels can
complement traditional information sources
to help authorities monitor results and
feedback in real-time, as well as to improve
performance and outcomes in hospital
management operations, insurance

processing, vaccinations, nutrition and
disease.
Solution Spotlight: HealthMap is a
platform that automatically tracks and
analyzes multiple data-feeds in 15
languages including official
documents, news reports, social media,
international health organizations,
government websites and health
workers blogs to produce an online
visualization of disease trends. This
approach can facilitate the early
detection of disease outbreaks,
thereby enabling prompt and targeted
responses.
Solution Spotlight: In Brazil, the Ceara
State government is using Proactive
listening, a mobile-phone based system
to provide the government with real-
time data about the coverage and
quality of public health services. Real-
time information enables the
government to identify emerging
problems, such as bribes for health
services, and intervene in a timely and
effective manner.
Solution Spotlight: During West Africas
2014 Ebola crisis, the Swedish non-
profit, Flowminder, used cellphone
data to create models predicting
population mobility and potential
routes of disease transmission. Experts
from around the world also created the
Ebola Open Data Initiative. This
organized access to multiple big data
resources and created a tool to analyze
them, leading to the development of
an open-source global model for Ebola,
which allowed health officials to test
different scenarios and interventions.
Public Utilities: Remote sensing data from
satellites and ground-based sensors can
provide a wealth of real-time or near-real-
time information to monitor the provision
and quality of public utilities, such as water
and energy.
Solution Spotlight: The Chinese city of
Shanghais municipal government has
installed sensors throughout the citys
3,300-kilometer waterpipe network.
These sensors alert the authorities to
precise location issues, such as leaks,
dramatically reducing response times,
infrastructure damage, maintenance
costs and service disruption.
Solution Spotlight: The India.Nightlights and survey methods. These near-real-time
platform uses night light data from
satellite images to monitor electricity
provision over time to all 600,000
villages in India.
Solution Spotlight: The SWEET Lab
company is working with local
governments and service providers in
developing countries around the world
to better understand water and
sanitation services. Sensors on water
pumps in Ethiopia and Kenya provide
usage statistics and monitor
functionality to help keep pumps
working.
Education: Personal data from devices,
exam data and other sources can be used in
innovative ways to monitor student
performance, better understand teaching
practices, and help parents and students
identify the best fit with a school. Big data
can complement traditional sources to
enable new delivery regimes that tailor
lessons to performance, and monitor
progress toward government and global
goals.
Solution Spotlight: In Kenya, the
national government uses a mapping
platform to show areas where
educational resources are lacking.
Tanzania has established the website
Shule.info to help assess the quality of
schools.
Solution Spotlight: In Mexico, the
ENOVA platform uses data analytics
and data from student interaction and
feedback to continuously troubleshoot
12
educational processes and improve
learning tools.
Land Administration: High-resolution
imagery from satellites and Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, or drones), combined
with cloud computing and hand-held
computing devices, can deliver capabilities
to revolutionize land registration processes
methods will inevitably replace traditional
surveying approaches. Land registration
improves public revenues by increasing tax
collection. It also enables efficient
resolution of competing boundary claims,
and provides the unbanked with property
rights that are the basis for access to credit
and finance.
Solution Spotlight: In Kosovo, UAVs are
being tested to secure property rights.
The drone imagery is processed in real-
time and used in combination with a
hand-held tablet to record boundaries
in an online system to formally register
land. The entire process is completed
in hours and days, as opposed to weeks
and months with traditional survey
methods.
Solution Spotlight: The South African
government has worked with Digital
Globe to use high-frequency and high-
resolution satellite imagery feeds along
with mobile phone applications to geo-
locate each residential dwelling with an
address. This is part of a broad
government effort to digitalize census
and household survey processes for
planning and budgeting purposes.
Public Security: Police forces are drawing
on big data and predictive analytics to make
better policing decisions. Basic information,
such as crime type and location, can help
officers make smarter decisions about
patrols. Law enforcement agencies are also
using big data analytics, through social
media analytics companies such as Crimson
Hexagon, to be more effective in public
outreach campaigns.
Solution Spotlight: PredPol is a
predictive policing application used in
50 cities that analyzes basic data, such
as crime type, dates and location, to
help law enforcement agencies make
better policing decisions. Brazil, the
Netherlands, and the UK use similar
approaches.
Solution Spotlight: In Bogota, Colombia,
World Bank researchers are using big
data analytics and risk terrain modeling
to understand the relationships
between crime and public
infrastructure, such as bus stations,
public hospitals, schools and
drugstores.

Smarter Policymaking
The role of information in policymaking is a
big concern in our information age. Big data
is a viable source of high-frequency and
granular data that can provide profound
insights into human mobility and economic
behavior to better inform policy decisions.
The entire globe is now imaged by satellites
on a daily basis, with quality and
affordability continuously improving. New
public-private arrangements, such as the
Open Transport Partnership and the
Workforce Data Initiative, are emerging to
make data from social media, professional
networks, mobile phones and sensors
readily available to policymakers.
Traditionally, policy is based on reports that
are largely informed by traditional survey
and administrative data and statistics
instruments that are slow and labor
intensive. In contrast, big data can
potentially deliver policy insights on a more
frequent, disaggregated and cost-effective
basis. Traditional surveys such as
censuses, official statistics and enterprise
data will always be needed. However, it is
likely that robust big data proxies will
continue to emerge and become more
integrated into policymaking processes and
decisions. The data from satellites, mobile
phones and social media alone can change
the dynamic between information and
policymaking.
Transport and Urban Planning: Satellite
imagery, cell phones, vehicle sensors, video
feeds and social media are being used by
policymakers and planners for traffic and
urban planning purposes. Remote sensing,
mobile phone data and machine learning
can provide policymakers and planners with
a much better understanding of urban
mobility, land usage and urban change.
Policymakers now and in the future can use
these insights to provide access to jobs, as
well as to make cities more sustainable,
inclusive, productive, resilient and livable.
Solution Spotlight: Big Pixel is among
several satellite-based applications that
are aiding policymakers in acquiring a
more systematic understanding of
where urbanization is occurring, to
what degree and how quickly. This
helps to show what impact policy
interventions, such as zone changes
and transport corridors, have upon
urbanization.
Solution Spotlight: OpenTraffic is a
global platform that uses anonymized
positional data from vehicles and
smartphones to visualize real-time and
historic traffic conditions. The Uber
Movement platform aggregates Uber
vehicle data to inform urban
infrastructure decisions.
Solution Spotlight: In Seoul, South
Korea, the OWL bus uses big data
analytics to better serve the needs of
nighttime travelers. The project used
data from three billion call and text
data points, along with five billion
points from corporate and private taxi
data, to design nighttime bus routes
optimized to match the origin and
destination of passengers journeys.
Official Statistics: In many countries,
census data is incomplete and outdated.
Accurate and reliable information on basic
statistics, such as population and poverty,
are surprisingly lacking for much of the
world. A consensus is emerging in the
statistics community that big data and
machine learning can be used in certain
instances to create viable statistical proxies
for monitoring and policy decisions.
Solution Spotlight: Facebook
Connectivity Lab is working in
collaboration with the Center for
International Earth Science Information
Network to produce high-resolution
population maps. Flowminder is using
13
satellite, mobile phone and household
survey data to create dynamic
population maps.
Solution Spotlight: The Billion Prices
Project (BPP) started at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) Sloan School of Management
aggregates price information from a
multitude of online retailers around the
world and provides real-time inflation
predictions.
Solution Spotlight: Stanford Universitys
sustainability and artificial intelligence
lab has developed a satellite imagery
and deep-learning approach to
predicting poverty. The World Bank is
also experimenting with satellite-based
methods that complement traditional
methods for small-area poverty
mapping.
Food Security: Big data tools are enabling
sophisticated analyses of weather and
satellite data to analyze crop strategies and
formulate optimal agricultural policies.
Solution Spotlight: Lobell Labs has
developed a scalable crop yield mapper
that uses satellite-based
measurements to predict crop yields in
both commercial and smallholder
farms. The solution has been tested in
the US, as well as in smallholder
systems in Africa and India.
Solution Spotlight: Information on food
prices can be crowdsourced through
social media. In Indonesia, Global Pulse
has tested social media and
crowdsourcing to track food
commodity prices in near-real-time in
areas where other data sources are
limited.
Employment Services: Government labor
agencies are experimenting with big data to
inform the most appropriate policies to help
individuals resume work, such as tailoring
training services for different segments of
job seekers.
Solution Spotlight: LinkedIn is working
with the Australian government to
mine data from the LinkedIn economic
graph to identify trends, such as the
increasing demand for technology
workers who also possess soft skills.
These insights will help policymakers to
create programs giving Australian

workers the right skills and
competencies.
Solution Spotlight: The World Bank is
working with Flowminder in Haiti to
analyze mobile phone data to provide
Haitians with better information
regarding access to jobs and
opportunities.
Environmental Policy: Analysis of
environmental and climate data from
multiple sources is enabling authorities to
understand environmental impacts and
interventions from regional, national and
global perspectives.
Solution Spotlight: Global Forest Watch
combines satellite imagery, crowd-
sourced witness accounts and public
datasets to track deforestation around
the world, which is believed to be a
leading man-made cause of climate
change. The project helps ethical
businesses to ensure that their supply
chain is not complicit in deforestation.
Solution Spotlight: Microsofts
Madingley is a next-generation model
of ecoystems and biodiversity across
the globe. Madingley provides a
working simulation of the global
carbon cycle, and aims to model
everything from deforestation to
animal migration, pollution and
overfishing in a real-time virtual
biosphere.
Citizen Engagement
Citizen engagement the interaction
between governments and citizens to
strengthen citizen voice can play an
integral role in the improvement of service
delivery and policymaking processes,
provided appropriate mechanisms are in
place to translate citizen feedback into
action. Big data analytics can make this
interaction smarter, more targeted,
personalized and responsive.
Governments have only recently begun to
adopt the customer relationship
management approaches that are now
prevalent in the private sector in many
countries. These systems can potentially be
used to enhance government-citizen
interactions with timely information. In this
regard, they help citizens to better manage
service requests. Big data analytics can also
improve government process performance,
enable better decisions and improve the
transaction experience. Benefits include:
A more informed and engaged
electorate: Informing voters can help
them assess politicians performance
and legislative issues of interest, as well
as increase voter turnout.
Monitoring and feedback on services
and polices: Big data can be a catalyst
to improving service delivery by
helping governments to proactively
listen to feedback on performance and
quality, as well as to gauge sentiment
around policies and interventions.
Citizen voice and collective action: Big
data analytics help to identify real-time
trends and can help citizens to mobilize
with regard to policy issues of interest.
The promise of big data for better citizen
engagement can only be realized if feedback
is effectively aligned with government
incentives, mechanisms and processes to
take informed action. The pursuit of public
ends is not just a responsibility of
governments, but also of the private sector,
non-profit organizations and the public.
Individual administrations within the
different systems of government will
embrace the idea of shared greater
accountability to varying degrees. Making
government services and policies more
responsive to citizen feedback will require
strong relationships between policymakers,
service providers, civic organizations and
citizens.
Solution Spotlight: After Haitis 2010
earthquake, a crowd-sourced
application developed by Humanitarian
Open Street Map soon became the
default tool for search and rescue
teams. More than 600 volunteers
traced roads and encampments from
aerial images onto a computer
program. Crowd-sourced markers
identified resources, such as refugee
camps and cholera clinics.
Solution Spotlight: In Brazil, researchers
analyzed tweets made during protests
surrounding the 2014 Soccer World
14
Cup to understand citizens feelings
about policies and government. The
analysis showed citizens expressing
negative sentiment about the national
governments low investment in basic
services compared to lavish spending
on the World Cup suggesting
domestic policy priorities for Brazils
government.
Solution Spotlight: The Ushahidi
platform was created to monitor
Kenyas general elections. It has since
been used around the globe by citizens
to monitor and support solutions for
elections, civic problems and crises.
Putting BIG DATA into Action for
Government
The age of big data creates new challenges
and opportunities. Governments need to
develop strategies, tools and forms of
engagement to better understand dynamic
forces and respond accordingly. The
solutions featured in this article show how
big data can tackle fraud and corruption,
generate administrative savings, and
improve service delivery and policymaking
processes, thereby making them smarter,
more accountable and more responsive to
citizen feedback.
However, to realize value from big data,
governments must strengthen technical and
legal frameworks to access and use data
responsibly. Importantly, they need to
develop integrated capabilities to put big
data insights into action, and to be
responsive to citizen feedback about
services and polices. Big data innovation is a
rich process of learning that will require
perseverance as solutions are tested,
adapted and mainstreamed. However, the
potential value from effectively using big
data should make the effort worthwhile.

Big data has the potential to help shape
governments of the future. However,
leveraging the opportunities brought about
by big data also requires a cultural shift
within the public sector. Data needs to be
seen as an asset rather than a byproduct of
administrative activity in order to be valued,
curated and shared where appropriate. This
could be part of a broader movement to
transform the public sector away from the
bureaucratic model inherited from the 19th
century and toward a more agile, 21st
century version. Such a transformation
could be key to restoring citizen trust in
government, which has significantly eroded
in recent years. Several key areas require
government action if big data is to be used
effectively for better governance:
1. Provide clear regulation and guidelines
for data use: Governments need to
provide legal and policy guidelines on
data ownership, quality and sharing, as
well as issues pertaining to privacy, civil
liberties and equality. They must make
decisions on privacy in conjunction
with public opinion, informing citizens
about the trade-offs (costs versus
benefits) between the privacy and
security risks of sharing data.
2. Foster Public-Private Partnerships: The
majority of high-value data assets
reside with the private sector. Public-
private partnerships can facilitate the
coordination of governments,
businesses and non-profits to make big
data accessible for the public good. For
example, the Global Partnership for
Sustainable Development Data is a
multi-stakeholder network of over 150
organizations that promotes the
sharing and responsible use of private-
sector data.
3. Promote transparency in algorithms:
Governments must encourage good
practices in the design and
documentation of algorithms, including
transparency and accountability
mechanisms to correct and contest
decisions based on algorithms.
4. Invest in big data capacities: Many
datasets span departments, meaning
governments need to manage and
integrate datasets from departmental
silos. Big-data control centers are
needed for implementing strategies
and best practices, as well as for
providing essential resources in
advanced computing technologies.
Governments also need change-
management and data science skills to
adapt processes, systems and practices
to put big data in action.
Additional Resources
These sources provide some useful starting points
regarding the use of big data to improve
government:
Big Data Challenge, Pioneering Data Driven Approaches
to Development. This World Bank report profiles the
application and lessons of several World Bank big data
applications in the development sector.
United Nations Global Pulse is an initiative to promote
awareness of opportunities to harness big data for
development and humanitarian action. It is a network
of innovation labs that coordinate research and
strengthen the big data innovation ecosystem.
United Nations International Conference on Big Data
for Official Statistics 2016. Proceedings of the 2016
conference in Dublin. Going beyond the existing
15
examples of isolated use of mobile phone data, social
media data or satellite imagery data, innovations are
needed in the daily production of official statistics, which
requires real partnerships with the private sector, new
skills and infrastructure, and clear links between these
available Big Data sources and the Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) indicators.
United Nations Big Data Global Working Group. Big
Data Project Inventory: a catalogue of Big Data projects
that are relevant for official statistics needed for
decision-making on public policies, as well as for
management and monitoring of public sector
programs/projects. This is a joint project of the World
Bank and the United Nations Statistics Division.
Big Data Applications in the Government Sector.
Communications of the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM), March 2014. This provides a good
overview of business and government use of big data,
including issues of volume, velocity, variety, and security.
The public sector is learning from the fast-growing
commercial use of big data and analytics.
Big Data: A Report on Algorithmic Systems,
Opportunity, and Civil Rights. Executive Office of the
President, U.S. Government, May 2016. This report
examines several case studies from the spheres of credit
and lending, hiring and employment, higher education,
and criminal justice to provide snapshots of
opportunities and dangers, as well as ways that
government policies can work to harness the power of
big data and avoid discriminatory outcomes.
The Federal Big Data Research and Development
Strategic Plan. Written by the Big Data Senior Steering
Group, Subcommittee on Networking and Information
Technology Research and Development, for the National
Science and Technology Council, Executive Office of the
President, United Sates.
Pathways for Progress, Data Driven Development. The
World Economic Forum report provides a vision for how
Big Data might be used to address the challenges of
sustainable development.
Bringing probability judgments into policy debates via
forecasting tournaments. A tournament sponsored by
the U.S. intelligence community revealed ways in which
forecasters can better use probability estimates to make
predictions even for seemingly unique events. It
showed that tournaments are a useful tool for
generating knowledge.
Beyond prediction: Using big data for policy problems.
Machine-learning prediction methods have been
extremely productive in applications ranging from
medicine to allocating fire and health inspectors in cities.
However, there are a number of gaps between making a
prediction and making a decision, and underlying
assumptions need to be understood in order to optimize
data-driven decision-making.
World Development Report, 2016: Digital Dividends.
This World Bank report looks at digital opportunities of
the new economy and how countries can prepare by
ensuring that institutions are accountable.
World Development Report, 2017, Governance and the
Law. This World Bank report looks at fundamental
questions, which are at the heart of development,
policymaking and policy implementation.
FOOTNOTES
1
See http://www.mckinsey.com/business-
functions/digital-mckinsey/ our-insights/public-sector-
digitization-the-trillion-dollar-challenge and http://
www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-
mckinsey/our-insights/bigdata-the-next-frontier-for-
innovation
2
Other countries with big data strategies include
Australia, France, Japan, and New Zealand.
 16
The Role of Big Data
in Assessing Crises
in the Middle East and North Africa Region

The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction
and Recovery (GFDRR) is a global
partnership that helps developing countries
better understand and reduce their
vulnerability to natural hazards and climate
change. GFDRR is a grant-funding
mechanism, managed by the World Bank,
that supports disaster risk management
projects worldwide. Working on the ground
with over 400 local, national, regional, and
international partners, GFDRR provides
knowledge, funding, and technical
assistance.
Specifically, GFDRR provides analytical
work, technical assistance, and capacity
building to help vulnerable nations improve
resilience and reduce risk. GFDRR has
produced a number of Crisis Assessments in
the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
region and elsewhere. Three in particular
concern the use of big data and other
innovative data methods such as social
media analytics, satellite imagery, and data
mining to assess the damage due to
recent/ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Syria and
Yemen.
Innovative Data Gathering Methods
Social media analytics involves the
gathering of data and insights from social
media websites, blogs and the like. It can
provide textual context, mobile and location
data, and search engine data.
Data mining is increasingly being used in
international economic development and
aid programs. It involves examining large
databases from various viewpoints in order
to gain insight and knowledge into patterns,
trends, associations and relationships on a
given topic.
It can also be used for the purposes of
forecasting future developments. Satellite
imagery can be used to: assess and measure
poverty and economic development levels
in remote geographic areas; monitor water
resources and agricultural output; monitor
deforestation; and inform damage
assessments in conflict-affected countries.
Since 2008, the World Bank and the
European Space Agency have worked
together to harness the benefits of earth
observation for development.

Crisis Assessment: GAZA
Context
In the aftermath of the 2014 Gaza War, a
number of rapid assessments were
conducted to assess the situation following
the ceasefire announced on August 26,
2014. These included Palestinian Authority-
led sectoral assessments, the Multi-Cluster
Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) and a rapid
physical damage assessment carried out
using before-and-after satellite imagery.
These assessments formed the basis for
designing the Palestinian Authoritys Gaza
Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan
2014-2016 (GERRP), which was used as a
tool to raise funds at a subsequent
international donor conference. To guide
the implementation of these funds, the
Palestinian Authority (PA), with the support
of key donors, requested the Gaza Detailed
Needs Assessment (DNA). The DNA aimed
to articulate the GERRP and develop a
medium- to long-term recovery plan by
formulating and prioritizing programming
interventions across sectors, including
guiding the attendant institutional and
implementation arrangements.
The specific objectives of the DNA were to:
(i) validate the immediate damages of the
conflict; (ii) estimate the expected
economic losses induced by those damages;
and (iii) develop a detailed strategy for the
recovery and reconstruction process. These
would then form the basis on which a
needs-oriented, but prioritized recovery
process, would be managed across the
various sectors. It would also account, as
much as possible, for the critical parameters
of the longer-term vision of reconstruction
and livelihoods restoration of Gaza.
Gaza Recovery Needs (US$ millions)
Sector
Infrastructure Housing
Energy
Water
Transport
Explosive ordinance disposal
Productive Agriculture
Non-agriculture productive
Tourism
Information and Communications Technologie
Livelihoods & social protection Livelihoods and social protection
Social Development Health
Education
Culture
Governance Governance
Total
17
GFDRRs Role recovery framework, ensuring a uniform
The Gaza DNA marked the first government approach across all sectors.
request to implement the Guide to
Developing Disaster Recovery Frameworks Aggregate Damage Assessment
(DRF Guide) following a disaster or conflict. The infrastructure sector accounted for 64
It also marked the first application of the percent of all estimated damages for a total
joint European Union-United Nations-World of US$ 1.4 billion, and 60 percent of all
Bank Guide to Developing Disaster Recovery estimated losses totaling US$1.7 billion.
Frameworks, helping the government in Gazas gross domestic product (GDP)
planning recovery according to priority and contracted by 15 percent as a result of the
phase of recovery. conflict.
In coordination with the GFDRR, a multi- Key Results
sectoral team led the damage assessment A detailed needs assessment verified and
and recovery needs process on behalf of the further articulated damages and economic
Palestinian Authoritys international losses resulting from the conflict. It also
partners for all infrastructure sectors presented prioritized needs for recovery
including energy, housing, municipal across all sectors, along with a year-by-year
infrastructure, transport and water and financing plan. A national consensus-
sanitation. GFDRR also designed and building workshop brought together all key
provided guidance on developing Gazas ministries, agencies, and international
partners to present the recovery and
reconstruction findings and priorities. This
workshop also served to generate
Subsector Recovery needs consensus and ownership regarding the
930 DNA findingsmainly cross-sectoral
238 priorities, as well as institutional and
156 implementation arrangements. The
54 methodologies and processes used in the
5 Gaza DNA to develop the recovery
297 framework would go on to inform the
301 development of subsequent recovery
1 frameworks in post-crisis applications. The
3 application of the DRF Guide in the Gaza
763 conflict serves as evidence regarding its
383 flexibility and applicability to a number of
150 contexts.
13
581
3.875 Billion

Crisis Assessment: SYRIA
Context
The Syrian crisis has devastated the country
and set it back decades in terms of
development. The Syria Information and
Research Initiative (SIRI) was designed to
respond to the main challenges
represented by the Syrian conflict. It offers
an innovative solution to the problem of
coordinating humanitarian and
developmental efforts across World Bank
Group (WBG) and other development
partners. As part of this initiative, a damage
assessment was conducted in the Syrian
city of Dara.
Following this assessment, the World
Banks MENA regional team requested
GFDRR support to conduct a damage and
needs assessment for six Syrian cities. The
objective of this assessment was to
estimate the effects of the crisis on the
population, infrastructure, and service
delivery, as well as to better understand the
preliminary recovery needs.
GFDRRs Role
The ongoing conflict in Syria posed a unique
challenge. The damage assessment had to
be conducted without having any presence
on the ground. Therefore, the GFDRR
assessment team developed an innovative
methodology to assess damages in a remote
manner using satellite imagery analysis,
social media analytics and data mining.
Social media analytics played a major role in
this assessment to validate the damage
information gathered from satellite imagery
analysis. Market expertise was solicited to
do this analysis under the guidance of
GFDRR and the World Bank sector teams.
The GFDRR team also developed an
accuracy rating metrics as part of this
18
Total Value of Damages by Sector for Syrias Six Cities
(US$ millions as of March 2016*)
Sector Low Estimate High Estimate
Education 176 215
Energy 1.182 1.445
Health 321 392
Housing 4.056 4.958
Roads 128 156
Water & Sanitation 99 121
Total 5.962 Billion 7.287 Billion
* Damage estimates of physical infrastructure use historical unit costs. Reconstruction needs
would be higher due to inflation, security premiums, scarcity of materials/labor, and so on.
assessment to obtain a better Key Results
understanding of the confidence level of the A preliminary report identified: (i) a
final damage data. quantitative range of estimates of the
physical damages to key public and private
The GFDRR team led the project with the assets in the selected sectors including:
key objective to be the bureaucratic silo education, energy, health, housing,
breakers, bringing together a multitude of transportation, and water and sanitation for
sector specialists from the World Bank the six cities; (ii) the impact of the crisis on
Global Practices. These specialists associated service delivery; and (iii) key
contributed to the assessment with elements of an enabling environment,
background context, data verification, including infrastructure needs to motivate
analysis of damage characterization, impact IDPs to return to their place of origin.
on service delivery, and sector
recommendations. A Geographic Information System (GIS)-
based data visualization and sharing
Aggregate Damage Assessment platform was created to facilitate data
The total damages for the six cities analysis and sharing. The platform allowed
including Aleppo, Dara, Hama, Homs, Idlib, the teams to convert the large sector data
and Latakia ranged between US$5.962 to sets into easily understandable visuals over
US$7.287 billion. Aleppo is the most the base map of each city.
affected city, accounting for roughly 50
percent of the estimated damages. Latakia The work conducted for the Syria Detailed
is experiencing increased pressure on Needs Assessment was included in an
infrastructure and services from the influx internal watching brief to the WBG
of Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs). leadership. It positions the WBG to be
better prepared to mobilize quickly in the
event that hostilities reduce to operable
developmental activity levels. An update
was carried out establishing new damage
data reflecting the current status of the
assessed cities (as of March 2016).
GFDRR leveraged its relationship with its
partners. This will also prove valuable in
obtaining a situation awareness as the
conflict evolves, and provide insight on
areas that require prioritization in a post-
conflict recovery scenario.
The assessment techniques and innovative
methodology pioneered by this activity
informed a subsequent Iraq damage
appraisal that was conducted through
GFDRR support in a record time of ten days.

Crisis Assessment: YEMEN
Total Value of Damages by Sector for the Four Cities in Yemen
(US$ millions as of March 2015)*
Sector
Education
Energy
Health
Housing
Transport
Water, sanitation & hygiene
Total
* These are damage estimates of physical infrastructure using historical unit costs. Reconstruction
needs would be higher due to inflation, security premiums, scarcity of materials/labor, and so on.
Context
Yemen is the lowest-income country in the
MENA region. In June 2014, armed conflict
between the government and militias
started to spread across much of Yemen
and then escalated in March 2015. It has
caused major loss of life, internal
displacement, and the destruction of
infrastructure and service delivery across
the countrys main sectors further
exacerbating a pre-existing humanitarian
crisis. The Yemen Damage and Needs
Assessment (DNA) was conducted in
partnership with the United Nations, the
European Union, and the Islamic
Development Bank (IsDB). The DNA had the
strong support of the Ministry of Planning
and International Cooperation, acting as the
focal point for the government of Yemen.
Work for the first phase began in July 2015.
The key objective of the first phase was to
inform the Government of Yemen, the
Low Estimate High Estimate
86 105
125 153
435 532
3.245 3.966
88 108
79 97
$4.058 $4.961
World Bank Group, and its partners about
the impacts of the ongoing conflict in
Yemen on critical infrastructure, physical
assets, and service delivery. The first phase
of the Yemen DNA focused on four cities:
Aden, Sanaa, Taiz, and Zinjibar. The
Government identified six priority sectors
for each of these cities, including:
education, energy, health, housing,
transport, and water and sanitation.
GFDRRs Role
GFDRR was asked to support the Social,
Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice
(GSURR) in conducting the Yemen DNA. Due
to the ongoing conflict, the assessment was
primarily remote-based. In this context, it
used an innovative mixture of satellite
imagery and social media analytics,
supplemented by field reports and local
government data whenever possible.
Market expertise was solicited to utilize
remote assessment techniques to perform
19
the analysis under the guidance of GFDRR
and the World Bank sector teams. Damage
information provided by partners,
government ministries (for example, the
Ministry of Education) and local agencies
(including, for example, the local water
corporations and the Road Maintenance
Fund) was also collected to triangulate the
findings of the market vendor.
GFDRR supported the sector specialists
from the six priority sectors with data
analysis that helped them to quantify
damages, analyze the impact on service
delivery, and provide sector
recommendations.
Aggregate Damage Assessment
Damage costs are estimated to range
between US$4-5 billion. The energy sector
in both Sanaa and Taiz sustained over 60
percent damage to their assets. Housing is
the most affected sector with total damages
of US$3-4 billion. Approximately 88 percent
of the damage in the transport sector is due
to damage done to the port in Aden and the
airports in Aden and Sanaa.
Key Results
A preliminary report included: (i)
quantitative estimates of the physical
damage to key public and private assets in
the six key sectors of the four cities; (ii) the
impact of the crisis on associated service
delivery; and (iii) a preliminary analysis of
stabilization interventions and their
respective sequencing.
The work conducted in the Yemen DNA
activity informed an internal watching brief
for the Government, the United Nations,
the European Union, the IsDB, and the WBG
leadership providing them with a better
understanding of the ongoing conflict. The
work has also helped to forge a partnership
that would prove useful in supporting
Yemen in its post-crisis recovery.
A GIS-based data visualization and sharing
platform was created to facilitate the
sharing of information. The platform
allowed the team to convert the large
sector data sets into easily understandable
visuals over the base map of each city. The
platform also allows for the progressive
update of the damage information that will
be effective in providing a time lapse
understanding of the situation.
The continued improvement and
formalization of the remote assessment
methodology developed by GFDRR resulted
in GSURR taking the lead in the assessment,
with technical support provided by GFDRR.
 20
Big Data Solutions
Understanding Forced Migration
as a Result of Fragility, Conflict and Violence

A report by Unfortunately, there is often a severe lack (1) forced migration flows and dynamics,
World Bank and Deloitte of high-quality data in fragile and vulnerable (2) the local and global effects of violent
areas. Promisingly, the rise of big data is conflict situations,
This Knowledge Note uses a case approach providing innovative data flows that can be (3) the environmental stressors behind
to illustrate the potential of big data in used to greatly improve situational forced migration, and
understanding the dynamics of forced awareness and understanding of forced (4) the political, social, and economic
migration as a result of fragility, conflict and displacement. dimensions of forced migration.
violence around the world.
This big data primer
Measuring the magnitude and evaluates six example cases
understanding the drivers of which demonstrate the
forced migration where potential of big data in
fragility, conflict and violence forced migration as a result
compel vulnerable populations of fragility, conflict and
to migrate are key violence. From the
components in formulating harnessing of satellite
effective crisis responses. In imagery and crowdsourced
lower- and middle-income analysis to assessing food
countries, this information insecurity in South Sudan,
informs evidence-based to the mining of social
decision-making that empowers media posts and videos to
policymakers to both plan for gain insight into the militant
forced migration flows by groups of the Syrian Civil
mobilizing resources and War, there is potential for
response efforts efficiently, as big data to improve the
well as identify, investigate, and design and implementation
potentially remedy the root of development operations.
causes of their displacement.
While these cases
For crisis responders to be more demonstrate examples of
effective, high-quality data must its application to forced
be made available to help migration, big datas
policymakers understand the scalability for intervention
drivers and implications of efforts can still be
forced migration. Good data are challenging. Datasets
essential for identifying areas of essential to this type of
need and opportunity for operationalization may
refugees and internally displaced often spark individual
persons (IDPs), relief, privacy concerns or be
infrastructure, resilience- proprietary to governments
building initiatives, and or companies. Furthermore,
movement toward conflict development institutions
resolution. Good data are may often need to establish
indispensable to benchmarking partnerships with private
initial conditions and monitoring sector data science
the effectiveness of humanitarian and Big data from an array of sources such as expertise and technological tools to derive
development interventions. Consequently, a satellite remote sensing, mobile phones, meaningful insights from big data.
data-based intervention agenda that social and online data, ground sensors,
focuses on gathering high-quality data on video cameras, and crowdsourced data Leveraging big data is a promising tool
forced migration flows and connecting it to are at the forefront of innovations to toward building better understanding of the
relevant policy areas (for example, harness insights that were previously core drivers of forced displacement, as well
humanitarian aid, disaster relief, food inaccessible. These approaches are being as in formulating more effective actions.
security) provides a stronger foundation for used by policymakers to formulate more The main challenge now is to make use of
designing relief efforts to help those effective mitigation, adaptation and these new data sources in ways that
affected. response efforts through a better maximize development impact.
understanding of:

Is Inequality Underestimated in Egypt?
Evidence from House Prices
Roy van der Weide
Christoph Lakner
Elena Ianchovichina
World Bank
All authors are from the World Bank. Contact
information: rvanderweide@worldbank.org,
clakner@worldbank.org and
eianchovichina@worldbank.org. This is a background
paper for the report entitled Inequality, Uprisings, and
Conflict in the Arab World led by the World Banks Chief
Economist Office for the Middle East and North Africa
region.
World Bank Policy
Research Working Paper #7727
This study examines the importance of
using multiple sources of big data to
estimate income inequality. Household
income surveys often fail to capture top
incomes, which leads to an underestimation
of income inequality.
For the estimation of income inequality,
having good data regarding top incomes is
crucial. A popular solution is to combine the
household survey with data from income
tax records, which has been found to result
in significant upward corrections of
inequality estimates.
Unfortunately, the availability of the income
tax data is rather limited, particularly in
developing and emerging economies. For
example, the World Top Incomes Database
(Alvaredo and others 2015) includes no
countries from the Middle East and North
Africa region. Furthermore, data derived
from tax records are less useful in places
where tax evasion is more pervasive, as is
the case in many developing countries.
In the absence of data from tax records, this
study explores the feasibility of using data
regarding housing prices to estimate the top
tail of the income distribution. Market
house price data can often be obtained
more easily and, most importantly, it tends
to be available in the public domain. This is
in contrast to tax administration data, which
are subject to important condentiality
concerns and require cooperation from
governments.
An empirical application to Egypt provides a
good testing ground for the inclusion of
housing price data. In addition to being a
major Arab country, inequality in Egypt is of
considerable interest not least because it
has been cited as one of the factors behind
the Egyptian revolution (Hlasny and Verme
2013). Estimates of inequality based on
household surveys suggest that inequality is
declining and low in Egypt, as well as by
international standards.
Using publicly available data from real
estate listings to estimate the top tail of the
income distribution, there is strong
21
evidence that inequality in Egypt is being
underestimated. The household survey data
are used for the bottom part of the
distribution and are combined with another
data source that provides a better coverage
of the top tail. This method permits a much
larger set of data for the top tail; the only
requirements are that the data:
(i) contain a good predictor of household
income, and
(ii) provide a good coverage of the top tail.
Thus, the Gini index for urban Egypt is found
to increase from 36 to 47 after correcting
for the missing top tail. A natural next step
would be to use data on house prices to
estimate the top tail of the wealth
distribution, and extend the analysis to
other countries.
References
Alvaredo, Facundo, Anthony B. Atkinson, Thomas
Piketty, and Emmanuel Saez. 2015. The World Top
Incomes Database.
http://topincomes.gmond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/.
Hlasny, Vladimir and Paolo Verme. 2013. Top Incomes
and the Measurement of Inequality in Egypt. Policy
Research Working Paper Series 6557. World Bank,
Washington, DC.
For the full Working Paper, see:
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/2
4645
 22
Utilizing Big Data to Solve
Cairos Traffic Congestion

Most Congested City in Middle East causes, associated economic costs, and are accessible within a given time frame,
and North Africa (MENA) potential solutions. using only the transit network (see Map 1).

The Greater Cairo Metropolitan Area
(GCMA), with more than 19 million
inhabitants, is host to more than one-fifth
of Egypts population. It is the largest urban
area in Egypt, Africa and the Middle East
and among the most populous metropolises
of the world. The GCMA is also an important
contributor to the Egyptian economy in
terms of gross domestic product (GDP) and
jobs. The population of the GCMA is
expected to further increase to 24 million
by 2027, and correspondingly its
importance to the economy will also
increase.
Utilizing Big Data to Analyze and
Improve the GCMAs Bus System
The World Bank-supported study in part, to
address traffic congestion, including
improvements to the citys bus system,
making it easier for residents especially
the poor to better access jobs, health,
education and other services.
In order to calculate the accessibility effects
of the corridors, the team used the digital
map of all transit routes to find the bus and
microbus routes that currently use the
corridors (306 routes). They then estimated
the changes that would arise from an
increase in speeds (and operations) in these
routes. The analysis demonstrates that with
improved bus operations, the corridors
could increase the number of jobs available
within 60 minutes of total commuting time
by as much as 20 percent. Once the corridor
improvements are finalized and operations
between routes have been coordinated,
1.24 million jobs may be accessible in the
same amount of time in the best-case
scenario; further evidencing a potential
projects to help disadvantaged groups
access more formal income-generating
opportunities within the same travel time.

In determining employment accessibility,

the team calculated the efficiency of the
Recently, the World Bank embarked on a labor market by estimating the percentage
study of the Cairo area and bus routes using of total jobs available within a 60-minute
digital maps, General Transit Feed commute for the average Cairo resident
Specification (GTFS), and satellite imagery. using only the public transportation
To analyze the accessibility implications of network. The results below show the
improving bus corridors in Cairo, the team increase in the efficiency of the labor
estimated employment opportunities that market that can be achieved with the
the transport network makes available in corridor improvements for all of Cairos
each part of the city both before and after a residents and specifically for the poor
Despite the massive efforts by the Egyptian
potential improvement project. Combining population (see Table 1).
government to tackle traffic congestion and
travel times for every origin destination
environmental deterioration, by introducing
point with the spatial distribution of Similarly, the same technique was utilized
a metro system and a comprehensive bus
employment, population and other to determination the accessibility of other
network, traffic congestion remains a
opportunities, the team calculated the destinations/locations in the city. The
serious problem in the GCMA with
number of job, or other opportunities that population accessibility calculates the
substantial adverse effects on personal
travel time, vehicle operating costs, air
quality, public health, the business
environment and business operations. The
causes of traffic congestion are complex, as
are the range of possible policies and
investments that could be implemented to
address the problem.

In recognition of the seriousness of the

problem of traffic congestion, and upon the
request of Government, the World Bank
funded an investigation into its magnitude,
causes, and potential solutions in the
GCMA. The objective of the study was to
conduct a macro-level investigation of
congestion in the GCMA: its magnitude,

amount of people that can travel to a
specific location within a 60-minute travel
time. The results show that the residences
of poor people are made much more
accessible with the implementation of the
corridor improvements (see Map 2).
23
Furthermore, the team over-laid this Thus, big data can contribute to analyzing
information with the location of educational and implementing transportation solutions
and health centers (extracted from for cities around the world, including Cairo.
OpenStreetMaps) to highlight the fact that
the locations made more accessible by the
corridor include most of the educational
and health facilities in the city (see Map 3).

Table 1: Efficiency of the Labor Market

Current Network With Corridor Improvements
(number of people) (number of people)
People Poor People People Poor People
Current Operations 329,264 320,003 675,681 627,621
With Operational Improvements 498,676 476,487 1,246,820 1,142,532

Current Network
With Corridor Improvements
(in % terms)
(in % terms)
People Poor People People Poor People
Current Operations 7.99% 7.77% 16.40% 15.23%
With Operational Improvements 12.10% 11.56% 30.26% 27.73%

Source: Author calculations; Population: WorldPop; Employment census.

Map 1: Number of Jobs that can be accessed within 60 minutes of Travel Time (from candidate corridors)

Source: Author calculations; Population: WorldPop.

 24
Map 2: Increase in Number of People able to reach a Specific Destination within 60-Minutes Travel Time (after the implementation of
project with operational improvements)

Source: Author calculations; Population: WorldPop.

Map 3: Increase in Number of People that can reach Health and Education Facilities within 60-Minutes Travel Time (after the
implementation of project with operational improvements)

Source: Author calculations; Population: WorldPop; Points of Interest (POI): OpenStreetMap (OSM).
 25
Big Data
Putting Big Data Innovation
into Action at the World Bank
i
A United Nations publication figure). For example, a pilot to
speaks of a data revolution that use satellite remote sensing to
is underway in the field of predict crop yield was
economic development one discovered through a practice-
that is driving waves of data- level challenge. The program
driven innovation and awarded funding and technical
experimentation. At the World assistance to support field
Bank, too, there has been a studies to validate and
marked increase in the use of calibrate the approach in
data from satellites, ground Uganda.
sensors, social media and mobile
phones to capture development The program also helped to
trends and provide insights. feature the approach in
knowledge exchange events by
The pace of the data revolution sharing the early results and
creates challenges for any large building coalitions around the
organization. These new solutions. Once the solution is
applications require testing and validated, the program works
validation to ensure the to productize the knowledge
solutions are robust. For that is capturing the data
instance, socio-economic arrangements, algorithms,
insights derived from mobile good practice, and learning
resources to help World Bank practices and
phone data may be prone to biases that materials into knowledge and code
teams incubate and scale big data solutions
must be rigorously understood and 1 repositories so others can easily
for development effectiveness . To date,
corrected. Big data also presents significant understand, reuse and adapt the solution.
the programs data scientists have
practical challenges and requires the
supported over thirty operational pilots,
upgrading of skills and technologies to The big data revolution is a stimulus for
including those profiled in Big Data
access, manage and analyze the data. In organizations such as the World Bank to
Innovation Pioneering Approaches to Data-
short, operationalizing a capability in big 2 upgrade development solutions into our
Driven Development . The program also
data is a process of learning by doing one increasingly connected and data-filled
works through broad engagements with the
that involves data scientists, economists, world. The big data program has learned
World Bank Global Practices. It combines
and sector specialists working together to that big data is a team sport. Putting big
several activities, including pilots,
approach solutions and challenges in an data solutions into practice requires
workshops, events and other knowledge
interactive manner. collaboration and persistence between data
initiatives to accelerate broad-based action
scientists, technologists and sector
to operationalize big data capabilities in the
In response to the challenges of the big data specialists in a process of learning by doing.
various Global Practice areas.
revolution, the World Bank launched
Innovations in Big Data Analytics in 2014. Footnotes
Taking a big data solution from idea to scale 1
http://www.undatarevolution.org/report/
The program delivers data science 2
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/21325
can be understood as a process of 3
expertise, knowledge services, and technical https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/25102
Discovery, Incubation, and Scale (see

Discover Incubate Scale

Discover research opportunities to Pilots are done in operational settings to Integration into institutional processes,
accelerate solutions test and validate methods. country systems and public goods.
through competitions, Productize and curate data, algorithms,
workshops, and events. knowledge, learning,
and cases for ease of reuse.
Knowledge Exchange includes workshops,
conferences and knowledge activities
to position for scale.

Events
2017 World Government Summit
Big Data in Action Workshop
Technology and globalization are sources
of disruption and creation...
But the transition from technological
promise to the solution of public sector
problems is not going to happen
automatically.
It will require effort on the part of
governments to better articulate what
problems technology could help them solve,
an enabling policy environment for
technological solutions, better public-private
partnerships and, lastly, a mindset and
cultural shifts to form the right attitudes for
change.
Renaud Seligmann
Governance Practice Manager, Middle East
and North Africa, World Bank Group
The 2017 World Government Summit had as
its theme: Shaping Future Governments. partnered with the Big Data Program in
The World Government Summit is the
largest global platform dedicated to
exploring the future of governments driven
by technological advances and evolving
citizen expectations. As such, it showcases
future trends in government services,
leadership, and innovation. The summit
brings together over 3,000 world leaders,
policymakers, academics, and key
representatives from international
organizations from over 130 countries. It
creates an exciting opportunity to exchange
information about innovations and
experiences, and builds strong networks of
collaboration. The World Government
Summit is organized in partnership with key
international organizations including the
United Nations, the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations
Foundation, and the World Economic
Forum.
The World Bank Governance Global Practice
(GGP) supports client countries to help them
build capable, efficient, open, inclusive, and
accountable institutions. This is critical for
countries to underpin sustainable growth,
and is at the heart of the World Banks twin
goals of ending extreme poverty and
boosting shared prosperity.
26
The World Banks Governance Practice
Global Operations Knowledge Management
and SecondMuse to deliver a Big Data in
Action workshop and high-level panel. Both
activities explored the opportunity to use
big data applications in government service
delivery, policymaking, and citizen
engagement.
The workshop gathered 25 big data experts
from the public and private sectors to
advance thinking on these areas. The
workshop included:
Seven lighting talks featuring case stories
of big data in government.
An exercise to identify high priority areas
for applications of big data within service
delivery, policy-making, and citizen
engagement.
Team-based exercises to design practical
big data prototypes in areas such as public
health, transport, government integrity/
accountability and jobs.
Main Insights
Big data is not just about the size or
quantity of the data now available. It is also
about how governments use data-driven
capabilities to gather citizen feedback about
services, and then put it into action to
achieve more responsive and proactive
 27
service delivery. It enables governments to
continuously improve public service delivery
and build citizen trust.

As governments look into adopting the

use of big data, we need clear regulations
and guidelines developed for data use, data
ownership, privacy, civil liberties and
equality.

The private sector is generally the owner

of the most valuable datasets. Public-
private data collaboratives are emerging
that provide access to private sector data
for both the public and social good. These
arrangements will be critical in moving
forward to ensure that big data can be
accessed and responsibly used.

Big Data Immersion

The first half of the workshop provided

participants with a grounding in big data in
Governance. Seven lightning talks were
delivered.

Stefaan Verhulst, Co-founder of GovLab,

spoke about the role of data collaboratives
in making data more liquid. He highlighted
the impact of data collaboratives in the
following five areas: situational awareness
and response; public service design and
delivery; knowledge creation and transfer;
prediction and forecasting; and impact
assessment and evaluation. He shared
examples in which big data was used for:
emergency response in Nepal; improving
access to electricity in India; and preventing
new outbreaks of Ebola in West Africa. He
also noted six key incentives for the private
sector to share data: reciprocity, research
and insights, reputation, revenue,
regulatory compliance, and responsibility.
Rhiahanan Price, Director at Digital Globe,
spoke about the value of high resolution
imagery and geospatial analytics for
governments. She shared Digital Globes
work in household enumeration to help
governments prioritize deployment of
resources to curb malaria. In Zambia, this
work involved crowdsourcing to narrow
down the dataset and cover over 500,000
square kilometers in four months. She also
shared her teams work in helping the
Indonesian government prevent forest fires
from spreading by leveraging
crowdsourcing, high-resolution short-wave
infrared imagery, and real-time analytics.
She spoke too about the opportunities that
lie ahead in terms of machine learning and
convergence of data, and emphasized the
need for new business models and data
licensing agreements.
Steve Adler, Chief Data Strategist at IBM,
spoke about the importance of paying
attention to culture, emphasizing that when
we try to adjust the culture to change with
technology; our results are not as good as
they would be if we adjusted technology to
fit the culture. He shared lessons from his
time serving as Chief Data Officer for the
city of Medellin, Colombia. His experience
planning a data show for the citys residents
illustrated the importance of understanding
and addressing the habits and
characteristics of different segments of
society. Among other things, this included
understanding the local populations
schedules, their perception of the value of
data in their lives, as well as reasons for the
limited engagement and understanding that
data analysts had with regard to the general
population.
Brooke Partridge, Chief Executive Officer of
Vital Wave, spoke about some of the
challenges that are evident in the area of
public-private partnerships in big data. They
include the lack of: an evidence base;
regulatory and policy frameworks;
sustainable, scalable business models for
the private sector to see opportunities; and
local and global capacity. She spoke of the
role governments can play in improving
such partnerships particularly by:
contributing to and requiring relevant use
cases and case studies; articulating the
value of data use to partners, civil servants,
and citizens; embracing risk-mitigation
strategies relating to privacy rather than
keeping a distance; and cultivating data
science as a skill set.

Chan Cheow Hoe, Chief Information
Officer, Government of Singapore, spoke of
how the Government of Singapore uses big
data for data-driven decision making. In one
case, the government estimated the level of
economic activity in an industry by analyzing
patterns in water and power usage, as well
as transportation patterns to and from the
industrial zone. In another case, the
government used data aggregated from
commuter travel cards to better understand
commuter travel patterns and design
express bus lines thereby reducing citizen
travel times and traffic congestion. He spoke
of the governments challenges around data
World Government Summit
High Level Panel Government of the Future
The Promise of Big Data Applications for Governments
Edouard Al-Dahdah
Senior Economist, World Bank
Introduction
Ninety percent of all world data was only
1
produced in the last two years . In 2020,
forty-four times more data will be produced
1
than in 2009 . Today, an average person is
exposed to as much data in one day as a
person in the 15th century would see in
3
his/her entire life .
sharing, creating a data mindset, and
recruiting and retaining talent. He also
highlighted opportunities for governments
and the private sector to turn data into a
service and to use data for dynamic
resource allocation.
Daniel Szomoru, Data Scientist, Uber, spoke
about Uber Movement, a website that uses
the constant stream of data generated by
Uber users to help urban planners make
informed decisions about their cities. He
shared current and future capabilities and
insights that such data can provide
including zone-to-zone travel times, traffic
patterns at different times of the day, street
The term big data refers to the vast
amount of information now being
generated and captured in a variety of
formats and from a number of non-
traditional sources. Big data is a term widely
used to describe the exponential growth of
data, particularly the data flowing from
mobile phones, satellites, ground sensors,
and social media. It also explains the rise of
the computing technologies and algorithms
that use big data for valuable insights. In the
public sector, big data typically refers to the
use of non-traditional data sources and data
innovations to make government solutions
more responsive and effective.
28
segment speeds, and data on dangerous
intersections and road quality.
Linus Bengtsson, Director at Flowminder,
spoke about how the organization uses big
data to support vulnerable populations
around the globe by providing data on the
number of people, their characteristics, and
their mobility through high-resolution maps.
He shared how the organization combined
traditional household surveys with micro-
censuses and extrapolation to help the
government of Afghanistan build population
models in the absence of a census. He also
explained how the organizations
capabilities complement traditional sources
of data with estimates of land cover,
temperatures, night lights, tweets, mobile
movements, and so on.
Workshop Outcomes
Overall, the workshop highlighted the
potential and need for public-private data
collaboratives to unleash data for the public
and social good. Participants also agreed
that while data accessibility is key, data can
only be as useful as the public sectors
capabilities to put it into action to improve
service delivery and build trust. Lastly, the
workshop also highlighted the need for clear
regulations and guidelines for data use,
ownership, privacy, civil liberties, and
equality.
The rise of big data requires new capacities
and processes to translate insights into
action.
Harnessing the power of big data is the next
frontier for governments. Big data analytics
uses data science and machine learning for
better understanding, tracking and
prediction of trends to improve government
delivery of public services in areas such as
education, procurement, public safety,
transportation, taxation and civic
engagement without compromising
citizen rights and privacy.

World Government Summits
Government of the Future held in
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The annual World Government Summit,
held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
brought together some 4,000 participants
and over 100 global leaders from over 120
countries around the theme of
Government of the Future. It is the
highest-profile, annual global event
organized in Dubai. The World Bank
supported the Government of the UAE in
gathering the global knowledge for this
years World Government Summit.
World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim,
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Managing Director, Christine Lagarde,
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio
Gutteres, and United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) Administrator, Helen
Clark, delivered the keynote addresses.
They exchanged insights with private sector
leaders, including Elon Musk, Chief
Executive Officer (CEO), of Tesla and Space
X, and Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn. They
highlighted the rapid and accelerating pace
of change confronting governments all over
the world a world in which artificial
intelligence, augmented reality, micro-
satellites, self-driving cars and personal
aerial vehicles are either production ready,
or will be much sooner than expected.
Purpose and Objectives
The objective of this high-level panel was to
discuss the state of big data in government
and the opportunities to utilize it to
improve the delivery and design of public
services. Key themes included:
Exploring the role of big data and big
data methodologies, such as advanced
analytics in improving the delivery and
development of public services (sample
sectors explored include:
transportation, financial regulation,
public security, and environmental
services).
Illustrating how big data, data science
and predictive analytics can drive
development in a range of issues and
sectors.
Showcasing the need to motivate.
Institutional arrangements (public-
private partnerships, citizen
engagement) to ensure big data is
accessible and responsibly used for
development purposes.
Promoting a responsible approach in
the use of big data and related
technologies in a way that is respectful
of privacy rights.
Audience
Audience participants included government
officials, private sector representatives, civil
society organization (CSO) representatives,
United Nations and World Bank Group staff,
and the media.
High-Level Panel
In this high-level panel, ministers, leading
business executives and the World Bank
Group shared their vision for how big data
will inform and transform governmental
decision-making, deliver new services and
help solve complex problems that were
once thought to be impossible. The World
Banks high-level panel and technical
workshop dealt with the topic of Big Data:
The Next Frontier of Government.
Organized by the Banks Global Governance
Practice and Big Data team, the high-level
panel was moderated and chaired by BBC
technology correspondent Roly Cellan-
Jones. Joining the panel to discuss how big
data can contribute to smarter, more
responsive public services, policy design,
and civic engagement were:
Cheow Hoe Chan, Government Chief
Information Officer, Singapore
Brandon Barnett, Director of Corporate
Strategy, Intel Corporation
Robbie Schingler, Co-Founder and Chief
Strategy Officer of Planet
29
Deborah Wetzel, Senior Director,
Governance Global Practice, World Bank
Singapore Chief Information Officer, Cheow
Hoe Chan, explained how the Government
of Singapore is using real-time data from
ground sensors and Radio-Frequency
Identification (RFID) chips to improve public
transport and citizen mobility. He also
shared an example of Singapores
experience in estimating the level of
economic activity in its semiconductor
industry in real time by combining data on
water usage, power usage, and
transportation patterns in a particular
industrial area.
Intel Director of Corporate Strategy,
Brandon Barnett, discussed strategy in
terms of systems transformation. He spoke
about how big data can help us not only
to find answers to questions we know to ask
but also to understand what questions
we should be asking, particularly given the
complexity of the world we live in. Big data,
with its capacity for granularity and texture,
allows for analysis of the myriad factors in
complex systems, and how we might
catalyze change in each of them.
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of
Planet, Robbie Schingler, spoke about how
advancements in sensor technology and
satellites can aid and improve the decision-
making capacities of governments and civil
society organizations. He noted, in
particular, the value of timely, granular
spatial data for effective action on issues
ranging from food security, to water
security, and urban and population growth.
Senior Director for the World Banks
Governance Global Practice, Deborah
Wetzel, shared examples of how the World
Bank is using big data to improve service
delivery in public health and procurement
reform. She underscored the importance of
public-private partnerships and strong
institutional environments to shape the
responsible use of big data for the public
good, as discussed in the World Banks the
2017 World Development Report.
FOOTNOTES
1
SINTEF. "Big Data, for Better or Worse: 90% of World's
Data Generated over Last Two Years." ScienceDaily.
ScienceDaily, 22 May 2013.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/1305220852
17.htm>
2
CSC. Big Data Universe Beginning To Explode
<http://www.csc.com/insights/flxwd/78931-
big_data_universe_beginning_to_explode>
3
BBC. Cities: How Crowded Life Is Changing Us, 15
May 2013.<
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130516-how-city-
life-is-changing-us>

Cross-Cutting
When speaking on the phone or buying
clothes online, people contribute to the
nearly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data that are
produced worldwide every day. Today, data
are everywhere. Indeed, we are at the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution of
Data. Those quintillion bytes of data are
used by companies, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), and governments to
analyze an array of behaviors and linkages,
including buying habits, traffic patterns,
movements of refugees, and correlations
between food and fuel prices.
Governments are increasingly using big
data, or very large datasets, to improve
transparency and accountability in public
procurement.
Public Procurement
Public procurement is the process through
which the public sector purchases goods,
services, or works from the private sector. It
is a key economic activity of governments,
totaling approximately US$9.5 trillion
annually. As such, it is vulnerable to
corruption. In this regard, it is estimated
that 20-25 percent of procurement funding
is lost to corruption in developing countries.
Big data has the potential to be
transformational in public procurement
because it could bring to light fraud or
corruption in the procurement process.
Alternatively, it could be used to improve
performance and service delivery and
drive down the costs of goods that
governments purchase. For example, an
analysis could be conducted on data used in
government bidding processes, such as
which firms bid and which firms win
contracts. Big data can also include other
30
Big Data and
Procurement
kinds of firm information, such as financial strategies that brought about significant
disclosures and political affiliations, to savings in the public procurement process.
determine patterns or correlations. These in
turn could lead to an awareness of how Big Data in MENA
public funds are spent and potentially
drive policy reforms.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
region has not yet fully embraced the use of
The State of Amazonas in Brazil is one
big data in either the public or private
example of how the public sector is using
sector. However, given the positive
big data to improve performance in
outcomes from the State of Amazonas in
procurement. Data from more than 150,000
Brazil, governments in MENA and elsewhere
contracts and 450,000 payment processes
should be encouraged to use big data to
were analyzed and showed that the
improve their public procurement systems.
government was able to save a statistically
Indeed, public procurement is a key
significant amount of money in bidding
economic activity for the MENA region
processes with six or more bidders, as
estimated at 15-20 percent of gross
compared to processes with fewer than six
domestic product (GDP). This makes it
bidders. The analysis of the data also
vulnerable to corruption. Governments in
indicated that in certain sectors
the MENA region, including Egypt, Jordan,
procurement took longer, and that certain
Morocco and Tunisia, are making efforts to
factors were leading to many small
improve their public procurement systems.
purchases. This resulted in the adoption of
In this regard, the World Banks MENA
procurement team is also working to

improve transparency and accountability in
public procurement, including support for
public procurement reforms, modernization
of public procurement frameworks, and
building capacity of procurement among
civil servants.
Major milestones have been achieved. For
example, in Morocco, public procurement
decrees that incorporate international best
practices have been enacted. Despite a
general improvement in public procurement
systems across the MENA region, though,
there remain a series of challenges many
of which big data could help resolve.
According to a 2013 Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) survey of MENA governments, areas
that continue to require improvement
include: transparency in procurement;
preventing and detecting irregularities and
corruption in procurement; strengthening
accountability; and improving the
professionalization of the public
procurement function.
Big data alone will not necessarily bring
about the transparency and accountability
that is needed to create well-functioning,
Leveraging Big Data
to Help Competition Agencies Tackle
Anticompetitive Behavior
Georgiana Pop
Senior Economist, World Bank
Andrew Michael Whitby
Data Scientist, World Bank
Introduction
Big data data that is vast at an
unprecedented scale comes from a range
of new and old sources. It is extremely high
in frequency and can now be analyzed and
combined in very sophisticated ways. In this
regard, it has the potential to augment the
efforts of institutions like the World Bank
Group working to deliver high-impact
development solutions to countries around
the world.
Within the Bank Groups Trade &
Competitiveness Global Practice,
investigating the potential of big data for
development is a worthwhile pursuit in
supporting countries to boost their volume
and value of trade, enhance their
well-governed public procurement systems.
It needs to be part of a holistic,
comprehensive approach to improving
public administration. This includes:
modernizing legal frameworks;
implementing e-procurement; adopting
open data standards; and involving citizens
in the public procurement process. Thus, big
data in public procurement remains a
relatively new phenomenon, and has the
potential to have a transformational role in
improving procurement performance and
service delivery.
References
Fazekas, Mihaly. 2015. Corruption in Public
Procurement. See:
http://www.publicprocurementpodcast.eu/new-blog-
avenue/2015/9/16/7-mihaly-fazekas
IBM. Bringing big data to the Enterprise. See:
https://www-01.ibm.com/software/au/data/bigdata/
International Anti-Corruption Conference. 2016. Using
Data and Transparency to Change the Game in Public
Procurement: New Initiatives from Local and Global
Players. See: https://17iacc.sched.com/event/8SC5/using-
data-and-transparency-to-change-the-game-in-public-
procurement-new-iniatives-from-local-and-global-players
McKinsey Global Institute. 2011. Big Data: The Next
Frontier for Innovation, Competition and Productivity.
See: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-
mckinsey/our-insights/big-data-the-next-frontier-for-
innovation
The National. 2015. Big data can play an immeasurable
role in helping Middle East firms to compete globally.
http://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/big-data-
can-play-an-immeasurable-role-in-helping-middle-east-
firms-to-compete-globally
investment climates, improve
competitiveness in sectors, and foster
innovation and entrepreneurship.
Big data solutions have the potential to
accelerate this work by deriving timely,
accurate, and actionable insights from
alternative data sources in order to close
31
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD). 2016a. Strengthening Governance and
Competitiveness in the MENA Region for Stronger and
More Inclusive Growth. See:
http://www.oecd.org/publications/strengthening-
governance-and-competitiveness-in-the-mena-region-for-
stronger-and-more-inclusive-growth-9789264265677-
en.htm
______. 2016b. Stocktaking Report on MENA Public
Procurement Systems. See:
https://www.oecd.org/governance/ethics/Stocktaking_ME
NA_Public_Procurement_Systems.pdf
______. 2010. Private Sector Development in the Middle
East and North Africa. United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP). 2016. Data-Driven Innovation:
Middle East and North Africa. See:
http://www.eg.undp.org/content/egypt/en/home/pressce
nter/events/2016/february/big-data.html
United Nations Global Pulse. 2014. Mining Indonesian
Tweets to Understand Food Price Crises. See:
http://www.unglobalpulse.org/sites/default/files/Global-
Pulse-Mining-Indonesian-Tweets-Food-Price-
Crises%20copy.pdf
______.2012. Big Data for Development: Challenges and
Opportunities. See:
http://www.unglobalpulse.org/sites/default/files/BigDataf
orDevelopment-UNGlobalPulseJune2012.pdf
World Bank. 2016. Making Procurement Smarter: Lessons
from the Amazon. See:
http://blogs.worldbank.org/governance/making-
procurement-smarter-lessons-amazon
_______.2013. Financing for Development Post-2015.
See:
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documen
ts/2059fincaning.pdf
World Bank Group. 2014. Big Data in Action for
Development. See:
http://live.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/Big%20Data%
20for%20Development%20Report_final%20version.pdf
World Economic Forum. 2012. Big Data, Big Impact: New
Possibilities for International Development. See:
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TC_MFS_BigDataBi
gImpact_Briefing_2012.pdf
data gaps and inform policymaking. For
example, pilot projects underway in the
Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice
are exploring the use of data science
techniques to harness publicly available
government data to aid competition
authorities in systematizing information on
anti-competitive practices. This also

includes mining Internet data to measure
innovative economic activity in cities so that
agencies can make better informed policy
decisions.
Of course, there are limitations to
operationalizing big data to inform this
work navigating privacy policies and
other challenges to access, for example.
However, it is worth pursuing because big
datas potential can support the World Bank
Groups goals of ending extreme poverty
and promoting shared prosperity.
Project Summary
Anticompetitive practices have been found
to yield negative effects on productivity
growth in developed and developing
economies alike. Cartels across the world,
for instance, negatively impact consumer
welfare through price overcharges on the
order of billions of dollars. However,
detecting these practices requires a better
understanding of the nature of such
anticompetitive practices across various
markets and jurisdictions. This is not an easy
task. Currently, competition authorities and
researchers who study effects of
anticompetitive behavior may have to
gather this data manually, which is both
time-consuming and inefficient.
In response to these challenges, the World
Bank supported a special project on
Leveraging Big Data to help Competition
Agencies Tackle Anticompetitive Behavior
(undertaken by the Trade & had published documents in either
Competitiveness Global Practice, Trade and
Competition Unit, Competititon Policy
Team). The project aimed to develop a
database of key decisions by the
competition authorities relating to
anticompetitive practices. Using machine
learning and web-scraping techniques, the
project automates the collection and
organization of data from sixteen pilot
countries. The database would serve as an
essential infrastructure for future
visualization and analyses to identify signals
of anticompetitive behavior.
Challenge
Data on anticompetitive practices is an
integral part of competition authorites
work. For example, in the case of cartels,
such data may cover data about market
characteristics, specific regulations,
conduct, decisions, and sanctions imposed
by the competition authorities. However,
often, competition authorities do not yet
have ready access to cross-market, cross-
jurisdictional data on all types of
anticompetitive practices. This is because
this type of data is often collected manually
from public sources such as competition
authorities websites, the media, and
specialized international organizations and
consultancies. Moreover, building and
maintaining a repository of this data "by
hand" is time consuming and it can yield
imperfect results.
Innovation
Using machine-learning techniques and web
scraping, this project aimed to automate
the collection and organization of key
information about anticompetitive practices
from sixteen pilot countries.
The database would allow competition
authorities to better understand, detect,
and take actions against actors that
systematically engage in anticompetitive
practices. At the World Bank Group, it
would allow the Competition Policy Team to
further develop its analytical tools and
systematize its body of evidence regarding
the effects of anticompetitive practices in
developing economies.
Further, this initiative could potentially be
expanded to the analysis and
implementation of other policies, for
example, state-aid control policy and
investment policies.
Process and Results
The team initially started out with a set of
countries where competition authorities
English or Spanish relating to
anticompetitive practices. This initial set
was narrowed down to sixteen pilot
countries for which a comprehensive set of
records about past decisions was available.
The pilot focused on the following sixteen
countries: Albania, Argentina, Bosnia-
Herzegovina, Botswana, Chile, Costa Rica,
India, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Pakistan,
Peru, Romania, Serbia, Seychelles, and
Uruguay.
In the first phase of the project, the team
worked with a partner organization with
technical expertise in machine learning and
web-scraping to scan thousands of pages of
documents and gather semi-structured data
about anticompetitive practices. This
involved the creation of an algorithm that
drew relevant information from 5000
documents including the actors involved,
type of anticompetitive practices,
products/markets affected, decisions taken,
and sanctions, if any. This phase required
the imposition of both automated and
manual checks, as well as troubleshooting,
32
to ensure the credibility and quality of the
data collected.
The second stage, which is in progress,
involves the extraction and structuring of
this information so that it is ready for
analysis.
In the third phase, the Team hopes to use
this database to gather insights about anti-
competitive behavior. This could potentially
include: (i) snapshots of anticompetitive
behavior by product/market type; (ii)
network mapping and analysis to identify
companies linked to previous record-
holders across different markets,
jurisdictions, and geographies; and (iii)
likelihood analysis of potential
anticompetitive behavior for companies
with links or previous records, and so on.
Lessons Learned
1) Allocate time and resources to
communicate domain knowledge with
technical experts. Machine-learning
and web-scraping expertise needs to
be complemented by a transfer of
domain-specific knowledge to
technical experts. In this context, the
team found it important to allocate
sufficient time and resources to make
explicit to technical experts the sector-
specific terms and analytical
approaches/ practices used.
2) Human oversight is crucial in ensuring
quality. There is no perfect analytical
technique when it comes to
unstructured data because so much
depends on the quality of documents
available online. Since there is a lot
that needs to be taught (inputted) to
the machine, the human factor is very
crucial in ensuring the quality of
outputs. For example, while a human
expert may intuitively place the terms
cartel, price agreement, and
horizontal agreement in the same
category of anticompetitive practice, a
machine has to be explicitly taught
that this is the case. Disaggregating
what a person does into concrete steps
and feeding it to the machine takes
time both in terms of algorithm
design and cross-checking. Therefore,
the process cannot be entirely
automated at this time.
3) Anticipate adjustments to time-frame.
From database creation to completing
complex analyses, each phase of the
project builds on the previous one. The
Team found it important to factor in
additional time so that quality can be
adequately ensured throughout the
project lifecycle.
 33
NEW BOOKS & REPORTS
Big Data

Big Data Innovation Challenge: Pioneering Approaches to Data-Driven Development

World Bank.

Big data can sound remote and lacking in human dimension. There may be few obvious links to development and
impact on the lives of the poor. Concepts such as anti-poverty targeting, market access or rural electrification seem
far more relevant and easier to grasp. Yet, some of todays most groundbreaking initiatives in these areas rely on
big data. This publication profiles these and more, showing how data on an unprecedented scale has the potential to
improve lives in unprecedented ways. The featured case stories illustrate the diverse range of big data applications in
development. For the World Bank, with its twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity, big
data is big news and this is just the beginning. The Big Data program brings together data scientists, social scientists
and sector specialists in a work program with two main objectives: (i) to accelerate organizational capabilities in big
data analytics for use in research and operations and to help the World Bank Group better work toward ending
extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity; and (2) to position the World Bank Group as a leader in the use of
big data solutions in development. The program aims to scale early pilots into projects that solve significant
development challenges, and to establish best practices for using big data analytics to steer evidence-driven
development. Launched in September 2014, the Big Data Innovation Challenge has been key in encouraging big data
approaches. Exceeding all expectations, it attracted 131 innovative proposals and awarded 14 with funding and
expertise to enable big data analytics in their projects. The winning initiatives cover an exciting range, from using
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extraordinary initiatives from the Innovation Challenge winning teams and finalists. The case stories examine the
application of big data analytics and how it can help achieve project goals.

Big Data in Practice: How 45 Successful Companies Used Big Data Analytics to Deliver
Extraordinary Results
by Bernard Marr

Big data is everywhere. Everyone understands its power and importance, but many fail to grasp the actionable steps
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For each company profiled, the book explains what data was used, what problem it solved and the processes it put
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Big Data: The Beginners Guide to Understanding the Analytical World

by Ronald Davis

The world of business is changing at an ever-accelerating rate. Businesses that choose not to adopt the latest
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are more software solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses than ever before.
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Comic Relief
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