Shaida Badiee is a former director of the World Bank’s Development Data Group and now leads an NGO, Open Data Watch. Credit: IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth
After nearly two decades running the World Bank’s Development Data Group, Shaida Badiee now works to help developing nations improve their data systems. And she has a clear message for donor countries: individual aid projects can be helpful, but the real need is for basic data infrastructure
During her long career in strategic data management, Shaida Badiee has had some diverse jobs. For 18 years, she was director of the World Bank’s Development Data Group – establishing the organisation from scratch in 1993, and building it up to a 200-strong team. And for the last eight years, she’s run Open Data Watch, a small non-governmental organisation (NGO) that campaigns to improve global access to high-quality development data.