Papers by Emmanuel Letouzé
Regards croises sur l'economie, 2018
The Internews Center for Innovation and Learning and the Rockefeller Foundatio
EPJ Data Science
Intercensal estimates of access to electricity and clean cooking fuels at policy planning microre... more Intercensal estimates of access to electricity and clean cooking fuels at policy planning microregions in a country are essential for understanding their evolution and tracking progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 7. Surveys are prohibitively expensive to get such intercensal microestimates. Existing works, mainly, focus on electrification rates, make predictions at the coarse spatial granularity, and generalize poorly to intercensal periods. Limited works focus on estimating clean cooking fuel access, which is one of the crucial indicators for measuring progress towards SDG 7. We propose a novel spatio-temporal multi-target Bayesian regression model that provides accurate intercensal microestimates for household electrification and clean cooking fuel access by combining multiple types of earth-observation data, census, and surveys. Our model’s estimates are produced for Senegal for 2020 at policy planning microregions, and they explain 77% and 86% of variation in re...
Research Papers in Economics, 2017
Communications of the ACM, 2022
Since the onset of COVID-19 and its rapid spread throughout the globe, several actors and interna... more Since the onset of COVID-19 and its rapid spread throughout the globe, several actors and international players have expressed deep concerns about the effects of the pandemic on domestic violence. Although this problem has triggered commitment and cooperation between key actors in the international community to find concrete and durable solutions to address genderbased violence (GBV), from a data-driven solution perspective decisive actions remain to be. Gender data gaps mapped and identified by relevant organizations across key areas of development have shown that the availability, quality, and use of gender data, especially data on violence against women and girls (VAWG) need to be urgently addressed and resolved. Under this
Inspirados por la enciclica Laudato Si' del Papa Francisco, premios Nobel y expertos mundiale... more Inspirados por la enciclica Laudato Si' del Papa Francisco, premios Nobel y expertos mundiales plantean opciones concretas para avanzar en una eco-integracion regional donde la dimension social y ambiental del desarrollo sean prioritarias. Los compromisos adoptados para mitigar el cambio climatico en las cumbres de Paris y Marrakech requieren la cooperacion de distintas naciones en una labor conjunta para contrarrestar con firmeza el calentamiento global. America Latina tiene una enorme riqueza natural que representa una oportunidad, pero tambien una gran responsabilidad: proteger el planeta y al mismo tiempo encontrar los caminos para reducir las inequidades que caracterizan a la region. La nueva edicion de la revista Integracion & Comercio, del BID-INTAL, brinda propuestas creativas, analiza los desafios de gobernanza que ofrece el actual escenario, describe modelos sostenibles de comercio, examina el impacto del cambio climatico y traza puentes para avanzar en una ecologia in...
El Big Data como fenomeno sociotecnologico tiene el potencial de generar una nueva interpretacion... more El Big Data como fenomeno sociotecnologico tiene el potencial de generar una nueva interpretacion del funcionamiento y la interaccion de los ecosistemas naturales y humanos. En particular, el fenomeno de los macrodatos o Big Data puede mejorar nuestra comprension del modo en que las sociedades se enfrentan a los shocks relacionados con el cambio climatico y generar informacion util para la adopcion de politicas y acciones que promuevan mecanismos de adaptacion. No obstante, los efectos positivos no se produciran automaticamente y sera necesario realizar inversiones que permitan superar las barreras tecnologicas, humanas y eticas del fenomeno Big Data. Este articulo presenta un analisis y algunas recomendaciones referidas al potencial, los impedimentos y los requisitos para aprovechar los Big Data en favor de la resiliencia ante el cambio climatico en America Latina y el Caribe.
ArXiv, 2020
This paper describes how mobile phone data can guide government and public health authorities in ... more This paper describes how mobile phone data can guide government and public health authorities in determining the best course of action to control the COVID-19 pandemic and in assessing the effectiveness of control measures such as physical distancing. It identifies key gaps and reasons why this kind of data is only scarcely used, although their value in similar epidemics has proven in a number of use cases. It presents ways to overcome these gaps and key recommendations for urgent action, most notably the establishment of mixed expert groups on national and regional level, and the inclusion and support of governments and public authorities early on. It is authored by a group of experienced data scientists, epidemiologists, demographers and representatives of mobile network operators who jointly put their work at the service of the global effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Containing crime without affecting the livability of the urban environment is a major challenge i... more Containing crime without affecting the livability of the urban environment is a major challenge in our society. Traditionally, researchers relate crime to socio-economic disorganization and people’s routine activity, as it influences effective control and suitable targets. An important open question is what the role the urban fabric plays. Although empirical research has shown that the physical urban environment is an essential factor for urban vitality and health, we lack evidence of any clear relationship between the structural characteristics (e.g. roads and land use mix) of neighborhoods and crime. Here, by using open data and mobile phone records, we explore this link with a spatial regression model that analyzes the environmental and the social conditions to which each part of the city is exposed. We found that physical characteristics of the city connected to higher urban diversity better explain the emergence of crime than traditional socio-economic conditions and, together,...
Afrique contemporaine, 2016
“Well informed, people are citizens; ill informed, they become subjects,” wrote Alfred Sauvy. Wit... more “Well informed, people are citizens; ill informed, they become subjects,” wrote Alfred Sauvy. With only 0.5% of official development assistance (ODA) allotted to support the generation of statistics, official statistics are the poor man of international assistance. Africa is particularly affected by a deficit of socio-economic and demographic data, described as a “statistical tragedy” by some experts. Expectations and possibilities are high in the era of datafication – or making data out of – our lives and societies, a product and factor of the digital transition.
ArXiv, 2018
The Data for Refugees (D4R) Challenge is a non-profit challenge initiated to improve the conditio... more The Data for Refugees (D4R) Challenge is a non-profit challenge initiated to improve the conditions of the Syrian refugees in Turkey by providing a special database to scientific community for enabling research on urgent problems concerning refugees, including health, education, unemployment, safety, and social integration. The collected database is based on anonymised mobile Call Detail Record (CDR) of phone calls and SMS messages from one million Turk Telekom customers. It indicates broad activity and mobility patterns of refugees and citizens in Turkey for one year. The data collection period is from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017. The project is initiated by Turk Telekom, in partnership with the Turkish Academic and Research Council (TUBITAK) and Bogazici University, and in collaboration with several academic and non-governmental organizations, including UNHCR Turkey, UNICEF, and International Organization for Migration.
Afrique contemporaine, 2016
Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour De Boeck Supérieur. © De Boeck Supérieur. Tous droits r... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour De Boeck Supérieur. © De Boeck Supérieur. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.
Philosophy & Technology, 2017
The combination of increased availability of large amounts of finegrained human behavioral data a... more The combination of increased availability of large amounts of finegrained human behavioral data and advances in machine learning is presiding over a growing reliance on algorithms to address complex societal problems. Algorithmic decision-making processes might lead to more objective and thus potentially fairer decisions than those made by humans who may be influenced by greed, prejudice, fatigue, or hunger. However, algorithmic decision-making has been criticized for its potential to enhance discrimination, information and power asymmetry, and opacity. In this paper we provide an overview of available technical solutions to enhance fairness, accountability and transparency in algorithmic decision-making. We also highlight the criticality and urgency to engage multidisciplinary teams of researchers, practitioners, policy makers and citizens to co-develop, deploy and evaluate in the real-world algorithmic decision-making processes designed to maximize fairness and transparency. In doing so, we describe the Open Algortihms (OPAL) project as a step towards
Group Privacy, 2016
Until now, privacy protections have focused on guaranteeing individuals a measure of control over... more Until now, privacy protections have focused on guaranteeing individuals a measure of control over information relating to themselves. However, in the digital age, this protection has become less effective since data is constantly collected and stored in ways that make it difficult for the individual to have control over each piece of information. Furthermore, the information communicated by an individual, when processed in conjunction with other data points, may allow potentially harmful inferences to be drawn about other individuals and the groups to which they may belong. The potential of Big Data to harm groups, particularly in fragile contexts or areas of weak statehood, therefore raises a number of questions which this chapter seeks to explore: is there such a thing as group privacy, distinct from individual privacy? Is group privacy a workable concept? If so, should it be a legally enforceable right and how can it be protected? We begin by exploring various concepts of privacy and group; then discuss how to affirm and protect group privacy through a combination of traditional levers of power and better data management, security, and literacy.
Big Data, 2015
The wealth of information provided by real-time streams of data has paved the way for life-changi... more The wealth of information provided by real-time streams of data has paved the way for life-changing technological advancements, improving the quality of life of people in many ways, from facilitating knowledge exchange to self-understanding and self-monitoring. Moreover, the analysis of anonymized and aggregated large-scale human behavioral data offers new possibilities to understand global patterns of human behavior and helps decision makers tackle problems of societal importance. In this article, we highlight the potential societal benefits derived from big data applications with a focus on citizen safety and crime prevention. First, we introduce the emergent new research area of big data for social good. Next, we detail a case study tackling the problem of crime hotspot classification, that is, the classification of which areas in a city are more likely to witness crimes based on past data. In the proposed approach we use demographic information along with human mobility characteristics as derived from anonymized and aggregated mobile network data. The hypothesis that aggregated human behavioral data captured from the mobile network infrastructure, in combination with basic demographic information, can be used to predict crime is supported by our findings. Our models, built on and evaluated against real crime data from London, obtain accuracy of almost 70% when classifying whether a specific area in the city will be a crime hotspot or not in the following month.
Enterprise Development and Microfinance, 2015
Migration not infrequently gets a bad press. Negative stereotypes portraying migrants as 'stealin... more Migration not infrequently gets a bad press. Negative stereotypes portraying migrants as 'stealing our jobs' or 'scrounging off the taxpayer' abound in sections of the media and public opinion, especially in times of recession. For others, the word 'migrant' may evoke images of people at their most vulnerable. This year's Human Development Report, Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development, challenges such stereotypes. It seeks to broaden and rebalance perceptions of migration to reflect a more complex and highly variable reality. vi HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2009 Overcoming barriers: Human mobility and development Foreword This is the first Human Development Report for which as Administrator I am writing the foreword. Like all such reports, this is an independent study intended to stimulate debate and discussion on an important issue. It is not a statement of either United Nations or UNDP policy. At the same time, by highlighting human mobility as a core component of the human development agenda, it is UNDP's hope that the following insights will add value to ongoing discourse on migration and inform the work of development practitioners and policy makers around the world.
Uploads
Papers by Emmanuel Letouzé