AAPI Data, in partnership with the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), is excited to announce the launch of the 2022 Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Roadmap for Data Equity in Federal Agencies . The full-text of the report can be found at aapidata.com/reports.

This report is largely centered on the concept of “Disaggregation Plus”, meaning that improved federal standards for data collection by detailed origins remain a high priority, but that the focus has expanded to include other important aspects of data equity such as timeliness, accessibility, human-centered design, community inclusion, and federal agency recognition of subject-matter expertise and population expertise among community organizations and researchers alike.

Overview

This is the first in a series of reports from AAPI Data and NCAPA discussing data equity as it pertains to Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) communities. This report is a scan of publicly available information, supplemented with correspondence with community organization leaders, on past activities and current plans to advance data equity for AANHPI communities at the federal level.

At a high-level, the report:

1. Defines what data equity means for our communities, researchers, and federal government agencies
2. Provides a brief review of some recent data equity initiatives from AA and NHPI community organizations and researchers
3. Describes and summarizes the interagency work of prior presidential administrations that sought to advance data equity for AAs and NHPIs
4. Provides an overview of the current state of data equity efforts at federal agencies that collect data on issues most relevant to AA and NHPI communities, establishing a baseline of knowledge to inform the next steps and future engagement with those agencies
5. Concludes with a series of recommendations that aim to achieve large-scale impact, through the framework of “DNA: Data, Narrative, Action.”

Key Recommendations

The report outlines ten key recommendations to advance data equity in AA and NHPI communities:

1. Create additional case studies and pilot research and implementation programs by the Equitable Data Working Group that are specific to AA and NHPI communities and that can offer insights that can inform the work of various federal agencies
2. Update the federal minimum standard for data collection across all relevant agencies that expands upon the categories used in the 2020 Census and American Community Survey, so as to include smaller Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations
3. Create pilot program(s) or incentivize agencies to expand their current data collection categories for AA and NHPIs beyond the newly created federal minimum standard
4. Ensure adequate discretionary funding to all federal agencies to meet new data equity standards and requirements
5. Commit the Domestic Policy Council to submit an annual public report regarding federal agencies’ data practices and progress federal agencies are making towards the disaggregation of AA and NHPI data into recommended expanded categories
6. Ensure the inclusion of community and scientific expert voices, in all stages of federal statistical data collection, including its design and development, collection, compilation, processing, analysis, dissemination, and preservation
7. Create and support a scientific advisory committee and a community advisory committee on data equity, similar to the structure adopted by the U.S. Census Bureau, with significant representation by Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders
8. Prioritize timeliness between completion of data collection and reporting data back to community members
9. Lift up community narrative, in line with the framework of DNA: Data, Narrative, Action
10. After the dissemination and outreach phase associated with data products, engage with community members and researchers on evaluation and changes to data criteria and data systems

To read the full text of the report, visit aapidata.com/reports. To access the social media shareables for the report, see here.