Petar Vojinovic
Published on: July 19, 2025
How did Data‑Pop Alliance originate, and how has it evolved since its founding in 2013?
Data-Pop Alliance (DPA) was founded in 2013 as a joint initiative of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, MIT Media Lab’s Connection Science program, and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). The goal was to create a space where academic rigor, development practice, and policy advocacy could intersect to harness the power of data for social change.
Since its founding, DPA has evolved from a research-driven coalition into an independent nonprofit organization with a global footprint. While our core values remain rooted in ethical, inclusive, and locally driven data practices, we’ve expanded our work to cover over 30 countries, particularly in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the MENA region. Our projects now span humanitarian response, gender data, AI tools and governance, data literacy, and climate action—each guided by our commitment to shaping a fairer, more sustainable world with data.
What motivated the partnership between Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, MIT Connection Science, and ODI to create DPA?
The founding partnership between HHI, MIT Connection Science, and ODI was motivated by a shared recognition that data was rapidly transforming society, yet its governance, use, and potential were deeply uneven. Each partner brought a unique lens: Harvard contributed expertise in humanitarian crises and ethical data use; MIT offered cutting-edge research in computational social science and big data analytics; ODI brought development policy and practice experience.
Together, they aimed to create a platform that would not only diagnose global challenges through data but also empower local actors to mobilize resources and transform systems through evidence-based, inclusive solutions.
How do the three pillars—Diagnose, Mobilize, Transform—shape your daily work and decision-making?
These three pillars form the backbone of our approach:
- Diagnose guides our research and analytical work—whether it’s using satellite data to assess flood risk or conducting qualitative interviews to understand gendered digital divides. It ensures we begin with deep, contextual understanding.
- Mobilize reflects our commitment to capacity strengthening and policy engagement. It shapes how we co-design workshops with local institutions, train civil society groups on AI ethics, or advise governments on data strategies.
- Transform is both our vision and our metric. We use it to guide project outcomes toward real-world change—supporting reforms in data governance, building open platforms for crisis response, or piloting scalable models of AI for social good.
Together, these pillars influence everything from how we scope new projects to how we allocate technical resources and design our team structures.
In what ways has DPA’s mission to “change the world with data” adapted to the evolving needs of the SDGs landscape?
As the global development agenda has shifted—with growing urgency around inequality, digital rights, climate resilience, and AI governance—so too has DPA’s strategy.
We’ve moved beyond just promoting the use of data, to critically interrogating its power dynamics and ensuring that data serves people—not the other way around. Our work today integrates feminist and decolonial approaches to data, focuses on the ethical use of AI and big data, and supports bottom-up innovation aligned with the SDGs.
We now work at the intersection of technology, policy, and social justice, developing tools, knowledge products, and platforms that help communities and institutions use data responsibly to solve real problems—from gender-based violence to forced displacement.
How do you ensure local impact and community relevance across your regional offices in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East?
We take a local-first approach to all of our work. That means designing projects with, not for, local actors—from government agencies to grassroots organizations. Our regional presence allows us to build long-term relationships, understand local political economies, and ensure our solutions reflect the realities on the ground.
We prioritize capacity development, invest in local talent, and structure our teams to be agile and culturally competent. In Latin America, for instance, we’ve co-developed data literacy programs with indigenous leaders. In the MENA region, we’re supporting youth-focused civic tech initiatives. This grounded engagement ensures our work is not only technically sound but socially embedded and locally owned.
What challenges and successes have you encountered in scaling from six full‑time staff in 2018 to over 35 team members globally?
One of the biggest challenges has been maintaining our values and collaborative culture while growing across multiple time zones and disciplines. Building a globally distributed, multilingual, and mission-driven team requires intentional communication, decentralized leadership, and shared frameworks.
But the success has been extraordinary: we’ve scaled not just in size, but in impact, diversity, and technical capability. Our team now includes data scientists, developers, gender experts, humanitarian analysts, and UX designers from across the globe. This diversity enables us to tackle complex challenges with holistic solutions. It’s also allowed us to take on larger and more systemic projects—such as regional gender data diagnostics, AI policy research, and platforms development—while still remaining agile and deeply engaged at the community level.
