About the initiative

The Data Powered Positive Deviance Initiative (DPPD), a joint alliance between the UNDP Accelerator Labs Network, the GIZ Data Lab, the University of Manchester Centre for Digital development, and UN Global Pulse Lab Jakarta, is rooted in the belief that knowledge on how to tackle complex sustainable development challenges is best informed and spread by people who face those challenges and find their own solutions. The Initiative is testing a new Data Powered Positive Deviance method for sustainable development through a series of pilots, which combine traditional and non-traditional data sources to identify positive deviants in new and enhanced ways.

Positive Deviance assumes that in every community, there are individuals or groups who develop uncommon practices to cope with the challenges they face, which sets them apart from peers who have access to the same resources. Identifying these positive deviants and empowering them to share their practices with the rest of their communities is at the heart of Positive Deviance work and has already proven successful in several countries and sectors.

The DPPD method is novel in that it uses readily available data—satellite imagery, biophysical data, or any other source of digitally recorded data—to narrow down the search for possible positive deviants across large geographic areas and timeframes before going to meet them in their environments.

Four initiatives: Ecuador, Mexico, Niger, Somalia