Dialing up the use of mobile phone data for statistics in the South African development community

Imagine repurposing anonymized network data from everyday mobile phones into better statistics that could improve policy. That is what the participants in the recent Putting Mobile Phone Data (MPD) to Work for Statistics in the South African Development Community (SADC) Workshop are now equipped to do.

The workshop—organized by the World Bank and the SADC Secretariat in mid-May in Johannesburg, South Africa— was attended by over 115 delegates from all SADC Member States. Country delegations consisted of representatives from the National Statistical Offices, Ministries of ICT, Data Protection Agencies, and Mobile Network Operators. In addition, implementing agencies from SADC and academia participated in the workshop.
 

❝Participation in this workshop is about becoming proactive contributors to SADC's digital transformation efforts. By working together, the region can enhance the credibility and utility of its data.❞

—James Madya, Deputy Director, Zimbabwe

From Core Concepts to Country Action:

Participants learned the entire MPD for Policy lifecycle:

• Planning MPD Initiatives: Mastering the essentials of designing an MPD initiative, from defining purpose to engaging stakeholders.
• MPD Fundamentals: Understanding Call Detail Records (CDRs), ensuring data quality, and top use cases for statistics and policy.
• Formalizing an MPD Pipeline: Understanding the processes and governance arrangements to transform raw data into policy-relevant statistics, with a focus on data safeguards and privacy preservation.
• County Action Plans: Most importantly, each country team developed concrete action plans with timelines, stakeholder engagement strategies, and specific policy applications to put MPD to Work for Statistics.

The workshop learning program was delivered by a consortium coordinated by the World Bank’s Global Data Facility-Mobile Phone Data (GDF-MPD) window and support program, pooling decades of expertise (Flowminder, Positium, University of Tokyo, Nommon, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data) in MPD for Policy. The GDF-MPD program is a vital partnership between the World Bank, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and the Government of Spain. The program presentations are available to the public.
 

❝This foundational training is more than just a workshop, it's a launchpad. We're thrilled to see these empowered leaders return to their countries ready to convert mobile phone data into a cornerstone of evidence-based policy and a driver of national development.❞

—Jagai Deepchandsingh, Senior Program Officer, SADC Secretariat 

What's Next?

Putting MPD to work for Statistics in SADC will complement several flagship initiatives implemented by the SADC Secretariat to drive digital transformation in the public sector. With mobile penetration hitting 95.2% across SADC member states, the region is well positioned to turn phone data into policy insights.

The MPD Action Plans developed by the SADC country teams were not just wish lists, they will have the opportunity to apply for seed funding through the GDF-MPD window and further downstream technical assistance through the World Bank SADC Regional Statistics Project:

• GDF-MPD, SADC Cohort: Expressions of Interest for seed funding opportunities open in summer 2025.
• SADC Regional Statistics Project: Further online training (Practitioner and Technical tracks in Q2 2026) and in-depth Technical Assistance will be available to deepen skills and generate tangible MPD insights for official statistics.

The workshop marked a beginning, not an end. The SADC Secretariat report includes recommendations for inter-agency collaboration at the highest levels to establish robust institutional capacity to integrate MPD into national data systems.
 

Useful Links:

• Working Together — Launching the World’s Largest Country Cohort working on Mobile Phone Data for Policy
• Putting Mobile Phone Data to Work for Official Statistics
• Global Data Facility — Mobile Phone Data for Policy Program
• SADC statistics

The GDF-MPD window is a multi-partner window funded by the Spanish Government, Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business. The GDF-MPD program is jointly managed by DEC (DECDG, DIME), Poverty and Digital Development Global Departments in technical partnership with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).