{"id":3360,"date":"2026-09-08T09:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/codata.org\/blog\/?p=3360"},"modified":"2026-09-08T10:41:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:41:38","slug":"from-checklists-to-crisis-response-codata-and-unesco-present-the-first-global-survey-on-data-policies-for-times-of-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/codata.org\/blog\/2026\/09\/08\/from-checklists-to-crisis-response-codata-and-unesco-present-the-first-global-survey-on-data-policies-for-times-of-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"From Checklists to Crisis Response: CODATA and UNESCO Present the First Global Survey on Data Policies for Times of Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crises rarely wait for institutions to be ready for them. Floods, epidemics, earthquakes and displacement events unfold across borders, sectors and time zones, and the organisations that respond to them succeed or fail depending on whether they can find, trust and share the right data fast enough. That simple observation sits at the heart of the <\/span>Data Policies for Times of Crisis (DPTC) Toolkit<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>developed jointly by UNESCO and the International Science Council’s Committee on Data (CODATA)<\/span><\/a>, and it was the common theme of two sessions to which CODATA contributed at the <\/span>2026 Global Conference of the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (IDSSD) in Paris<\/span><\/a>: the ISC session on 16 July \u2018Resilient Science for Resilient Societies: Protecting Knowledge and Scientists in Times of Crisis\u2019, and the dedicated UNESCO\u2013CODATA thematic session on 17 July \u2018Data policies for times of crisis: Enabling open science for coordinated response\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two sessions, one message<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>CODATA’s DPTC work was presented first at the ISC session on 16 July. In the first panel, Prof Virginia Murray, as chair of the UNDRR-ISC HIP Steering Committee, shared <\/span>the UNDRR-ISC Hazard Information Profiles update 2025 (HIPs)<\/span><\/a>. In the second panel, Prof Bur\u00e7ak Ba\u015fbu\u011f gave examples from the recovery process after the 2023 Kahramanmaras earthquakes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On 17 July, the thematic session at UNESCO Headquarters brought the need for data in times of crises\u00a0 (DPTC) message to a dedicated 75-minute hybrid slot in Room XI, opened by Dr Ezra Clark (Chief of Section, Research, Governance and Diplomacy, UNESCO) and closed by Dr Simon Hodson (Executive Director, CODATA). Together, the two sessions made the case that open science is not an abstract ideal for times of crisis \u2014 it is operational infrastructure, and the DPTC Toolkit is one attempt to help build it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>DPTC Toolkit<\/span><\/a> itself \u2014 a <\/span>factsheet<\/span><\/a>, a <\/span>guidance document<\/span><\/a> and a <\/span>checklist<\/span><\/a> \u2014 was published as part of the UNESCO Open Science Toolkit in June 2025. It is grounded in the <\/span>2021 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science<\/span><\/a> and aligned with the <\/span>FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable)<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>CARE (Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, Ethics)<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>TRUST (Transparency, Responsibility, User focus, Sustainability, Technology)<\/span><\/a> principles \u2014 three frameworks that, taken together, ask not only whether data can be shared, but whether it should be, and on whose terms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Putting the Toolkit to the test: the first global survey<\/b><\/p>\n

The centrepiece of the 17 July session was the presentation of findings from <\/span>the first global UNESCO-CODATA survey on the implementation of data policies for times of crisis<\/span><\/a>, conducted between March and June 2026 and presented by Ms Rania Sabo (UNESCO) and Prof Bur\u00e7ak Ba\u015fbu\u011f Erkan (METU Department of Statistics; Co-Chair, CODATA International Data Policy Committee).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The response itself was a small victory for the open science community the DPTC Toolkit is trying to serve: 146 completed responses from 60 countries, spanning all five UNESCO regions. Academic and research institutions made up the largest share of respondents (79), followed by the public sector (28), non-profit and civil society organisations (14), the private sector (12), international organisations (7) and others (5) \u2014 a spread that suggests crisis data governance is very much everybody’s problem, not a niche concern for any one sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

One figure captured the gap between principle and practice neatly: 78% of respondents believe a crisis-data checklist would be beneficial, but only 22% report already having one. The open-ended responses filled in why. Respondents converged on capacity building and training (43%), risk governance (40%), interoperability and real-time systems (38%), ethics, TRUST and CARE (36%), operationalisation (36%), and funding and infrastructure (33%) as the areas most in need of attention.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Behind the percentages were voices that made the gap concrete.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n