Even while the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of data and statistics, it has highlighted the global divide in statistical capacity, and in many cases, exacerbated it. Across Africa, for example, incomplete death registration systems have hampered efforts to track the virus. And according to recent surveys of national statistical offices (NSOs), nine out of ten NSOs in low and lower-middle-income countries may not fully be able to meet their international reporting requirements. To address these issues, countries are now being presented with an array of private sector data solutions and other non-traditional sources of information to fill these data gaps. Yet as global institutions seek to empower with data, we must be wary of “data colonialism” — the potential for the powerful, data-rich countries and corporations in the Global North to undercut capacity development in the Global South by failing to recognize the local contexts.

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