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Information Technology for Development

Author ORCID Identifier

Marie-Louise Wijne: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0407-571X

Abstract

Digital data play an increasing role in development projects in the Global South, yet ensuring that the data needs of local communities (particularly marginalized groups) are met remains a critical challenge. Building on Richard Heeks’ structural data justice model, this paper conceptualizes data governance as the locus where power relations materialize into data (in)justices. It introduces the Participatory Data Governance (PDG) framework, which operationalizes data governance into four key elements and provides an analytical tool to examine how and to what extent community members influence decision-making on the data systems that shape their lives. Applying the PDG framework to case studies in the Global South shows that participation varies across key data governance elements within single projects and enables a more fine-grained and critical analysis of how institutional contexts structure opportunities for meaningful participation and progress toward data justice.

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