Implementation of Enterprise Data Strategy Takes a Mission-Driven Approach

The Department of State’s implementation of its first-ever Enterprise Data Strategy (EDS)  is currently underway through a series of data campaigns. Every six months, these data campaigns focus on one mission and one management themed priority. Data science, financial, and other resources are surged toward the two concurrent data campaigns with the goal to increase data maturity and deliver solutions to as many as a dozen Department priorities over the next three years. This timetable allows for flexibility should priorities shift.

The Department’s Chief Data Officer, in consultation with the Enterprise Data Council (EDC), propose data campaign topics to the Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources who makes the final decision.  The EDC is overseeing the strategy and its implementation to ensure they remain relevant to the Department’s priorities and core values.

Fall 2022 Campaigns

Management Theme: Global Operations

The Global Operations Data Campaign will positively impact Department employees in every bureau and overseas embassy by improving interoperability and access to data thereby increasing efficiency and transparency of decisions and operations.

Mission Theme: Climate

The Climate Data Campaign will create analytical tools to position the climate at the center of U.S. foreign policy and focus efforts to keep global warming within 1.5°C and adapt to the devastating climate impacts already underway.

Spring 2022 Campaigns

Management theme: Cybersecurity

The Cybersecurity Data Campaign helped the Department comprehensively leverage cyber data as a strategic asset in managing the Department’s cyber risk, driving analytics, increasing compliance, and strengthening security posture. This collaborative effort involved team members from more than 50 offices across multiple bureaus. They achieved tangible results with the immediate implementation of security improvements. The campaign also reached success with the building of new analytic products related to system risk and human behavior, a new architecture plan to integrate disparate data sources, and a high priority cyber policy.

Mission Theme: Multilateralism

The Multilateralism Data Campaign brought together cross-functional teams from the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, the Executive Secretariat, and the Office of Management Strategy and Solutions’ Center for Analytics to leverage data to strengthen engagement in multilateral diplomacy. The team produced a series of analytics solutions to track U.S. engagement with and financial contributions to international organizations, compare the voting patterns of the other UN member states with the United States, and improve U.S. Citizen advocacy and influence. These tools were used to great advantage by Department leadership during the recently concluded UN General Assembly’s annual High Level Week.

Fall 2021 Campaigns

Management Theme: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA)

The DEIA campaign team created a new DEIA data policy to accelerate decision-making and increase data transparency while safeguarding privacy. Working with the Secretary’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, they developed a groundbreaking, interactive Demographic Baseline report and dashboard, which will be updated annually.  The Department will employ this demographic baseline to help benchmark progress, identify potential barriers to equal opportunity, inform policy responses, and promote accountability in recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce.

Mission Theme: Strategic Competition with the People’s Republic of China (PRC)

The Strategic Competition campaign focused on using data to understand the nature and scope of the global activities of the PRC to better inform the Department’s strategic planning and foreign assistance. In support of this effort, the team developed a new suite of analytics tools, leveraged data to inform foreign assistance project selection processes, and added dozens of relevant datasets to the Department’s data catalog which made them accessible to Department stakeholders and the interagency. The initiative packaged the data into digestible, data-rich yet easy-to-use formats for busy policymakers.

For additional information, please contact cfa@state.gov.