HOME 5 Acquiring & Working with Data 5 Using Data: Learning and Reporting

USING DATA: LEARNING AND REPORTING

FIRST NATIONS INFORMATION GOVERNANCE CENTRE: Regional Health Survey Phase 2 youth section music video

Real Case Study

To make the data from the youth section of their Regional Health Survey (RHS) more accessible and engaging to youth, the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC) hired Ojibwe musician and media host Wab Kinew to create a rap music video explaining the survey results.

The learning and reporting stage is where you show why data work is so important. In this step, you turn data into knowledge. Using that knowledge helps your government make informed decisions and report internally and externally.

This page describes how you can report your data and analysis. We provide guidelines, examples, and additional resources.

Reporting and Knowledge Translation

Knowledge translation involves synthesizing data with Indigenous ways of knowing and doing. It includes communicating knowledge to knowledge users through a variety of methods, such as story-telling and visualizations. Reporting and knowledge translation may be directed towards different audiences, including citizens, staff, other SGIGs, Canada, and the provinces and territories. Reporting involves showing the status of various indicators, including progress towards targets, change from baseline, and differences from comparison populations.

Presenting Data to Support Decision Making

One of the most important reasons to collect data is to inform your government’s decision making processes. Your data will show you where the greatest needs are in your community. This information will help decision makers make well-informed decisions about which areas to prioritize.

Over time, your data will show you which programs and services are making an impact, and which ones are less successful. This information will help your decision makers determine which programs to continue and where programs might be improved.

Presenting Data to Citizens

Reporting to citizens is a key accountability for governments. Citizens will be interested to see outcomes on socioeconomic indicators, especially if they were involved with selecting the indicators and completing a survey.

Suggested guidelines for reporting to citizens include:

Report annually.
Use plain language and definitions.
Explain each objective, indicator, and target.
Provide context on work that has been done to move towards each objective.
Compare current indicator measures to baseline measures and targets.
Communicate outcomes using a variety of methods that cater to different learning styles, including visuals, text, audio, and/or video.

Reporting Resources

Inuvialuit Indicators is an Inuvialuit-run database of statistics specific to the Inuvialuit populations in the six communities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. The data illustrate the current social and economic conditions in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. This is an example of how indicators can be reported to the public.

The 7 Cs: A First Nations’ Guide to Planning and Reporting Standards outlines seven categories of standards for planning and reporting. For each category, the document includes a value statement, a standard for planning, a standard for reporting, and one or more expected outcomes. This document is a BC First Nations Data Governance initiative.

The BC Ministry of Health Annual Service Plan Report reports on progress towards goals and objectives. This is an example of how indicators can be reported to citizens.

Dashboards

Dashboards are tools to pull data from multiple sources across an organization to show data on all key indicators in one place. Dashboard apps can be used to provide citizens and other external users a way to access statistical data online in a dynamic way through your website. Rather than creating a static report or requesting technical staff create multiple data visualizations, most dashboard apps allow non-technical audiences to see and compare data in a user-friendly interface. This allows a wider audience to explore relationships between data, trends over time, or multiple visualizations, tables, or statistics without directly accessing or manipulating record level data (see IT Systems for tools).

Open Data

Open Data refers to the concept of proactively making your statistical data available publicly, rather than only releasing it when an individual citizen requests it. The Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC has an investigation report that may be useful for SGIGs considering “open data” legislation or programs.

In British Columbia (Open Government Initiative) (Re), 2013 BCIPC 19 (CanLII), the Commissioner evaluated the government of BC’s open data program. She was looking at how well this program promoted transparency and accountability. The Commissioner found that “open government is a key element of a healthy democracy” (section 5.0). She makes the following recommendations in the report:

For open data to work, datasets need to have content, not just interesting information, or information to spur innovations.
Websites need to be updated regularly.
Websites need to be archived and there should be an archiving policy so citizens can continue to access records that have been removed from the website. Archive indices and the archiving policy should be posted on the website.

Types of records that could be disclosed are provided, including examples from the UK and Australia.