Page 395 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2
P. 395

STS507 Vince G. et al.
            7.  Reflections
              The wider environment matters, but demonstrating value matters more
                The  explicit  system  mandate  is  useful  in  our  discussions  but  having
            examples and successes to point to helped demonstrate the benefits of our
            potential contributions. Activities like the algorithmic transparency review are
            very valuable for helping focus analysts in other agencies on the obvious need
            for collaboration.
                The early focus of the IDI on adding large amounts of data over building a
            perfect  infrastructure  has  led  to  a  huge  growth  in  the  use  of  integrated
            administrative data in government policy. This would not have been possible
            without  jumping  on  opportunities  provided  at  the  time.  All  this  work
            progresses best when there is an imperative to act and so we took a deliberate
            decision to be opportunistic.
                As a result the IDI became central to the process for bidding for new money
            in  the  social  sector.  Evidence  from  analysing  IDI  challenged  critical
            assumptions that had historically underpinned public policy. People working
            in social agencies now have both a sense of considerable untapped potential
            and wanting to contribute to helping the IDI develop further.
                   NSO’s  need  to  be  a  part  of  the  user  community,  and  significant
            technical challenges need community solutions
                With so much changing about how Government agencies intend to go
            about their work, there is a question of how perfectly Stats NZ needs to be
            able to answer questions around what is possible and what is needed, before
            it  can  start  to  add  value.  There  used  to  be  a  lot  of  dialogue  about
            understanding user need in NSOs. It seems these days “what is needed” isn’t
            sitting there to be discovered – user need is being continuously created, and
            NSOs  need  to  figure  out  how  to  be  part  of  this  continuously  evolving
            conversation.
                In our work with agencies trying to predict the impact of long-term policy
            changes and in working with communities to help illuminate cause and effect
            playing out in very local environments we have encountered limits to what
            data can explain. Which of the limits are inherent and which can be overcome
            with different approaches will need well focussed collaboration to understand.
            Everyone is more inclined to document great success than efforts that didn’t
            work but it seems that these limits need to be found by trial and error. This
            will be a better process when everyone can see what has worked and what
            hasn’t.

            8.  Concluding Remarks
                The famous physicist Heisenberg said that “Whenever we proceed from
            the known into the unknown we may hope to understand, but we may have
            to learn at the same time a new meaning of the word “understanding””.

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