GILPP Quarterly: Volume 3, Issue 4 How High-Quality Data Can Strengthen Nations

The December 2025 issue of GILPP Quarterly (Volume 3, Issue 4) focuses on how high-quality data can strengthen nations, examining the principles of data quality for effective governance and the institutional conditions required to turn official statistics into a reliable engine of accountability and decision-making in contexts of limited capacity. It begins with a letter from President Henry Deneen outlining the Geneva Institute for Leadership and Public Policy’s (GILPP) mission to equip global leaders through education, networking, and practical insight for sustainable development and self-sustaining public policy.

The publication features two main articles: one by Dr. Douglas Carr detailing the requirements of stakeholder-responsive and technically sound data—representativeness across communities, integration of quantitative and qualitative evidence, consistent definitions over time, rigorous validation and verification, and the governance questions public leaders must ask before acting on data; and another by Kumafan Dzaan describing the practical architecture needed to move from statistical archive to operational engine, drawing on the experience of the Benue State Bureau of Statistics (legal independence, ring-fenced funding, inter-agency data flows, community mapping with traditional leaders, and the Benue Integrated Agricultural Data System) and offering replicable lessons for officials building under real constraints.

Authors:
Henry Deneen: President of GILPP; author of the introductory letter.
Dr. Douglas Carr: Professor and MPA Program Director at Oakland University; founder of Management Analytics; author of “Data Quality for Effective Governance.”
Kumafan Dzaan: Statistician-General & CEO, Benue State Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria; GILPP 2026 Delegate; author of “From Archive to Engine: What it Actually Takes to Make Data Govern.”