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Long-term Insights Briefing 2023

Long-term Insights Briefing 2023

Public service agencies are required to develop a Long-term Insights Briefing at least once every three years and they are intended to be ‘think pieces’ that look at least ten years into the future.

Briefings aren’t government policy and are independent of ministers. They are a statutory duty of departmental chief executives under the Public Service Act 2020.

The Ministry’s inaugural briefing

We chose the topic Improving Pacific data equity: Opportunities to enhance the future of Pacific wellbeing for our first briefing.

We look at government’s current data eco-system and how past and current ways of collecting, processing, analysing and interpreting data have led to inequities for Pacific peoples.

Our briefing also outlines three focus areas that can help pave the way to achieve data equity for Pacific peoples in the future:

  1. Partnering with Pacific peoples and communities for example collaborating with Pacific communities, enabling Pacific-led and Pacific-driven data collection, co-designing and partnering with Pacific data experts, and tailoring the data collection process to reflect the diversity of Pacific peoples.
  2. Monitoring and improvement of Pacific data for example implementing an all-of-government approach to Pacific data, measuring, and monitoring progress across government agencies, and evaluating and measuring Pacific data equity through existing indigenous frameworks and principles.

Read the Ministry's inaugural briefing

(The final version of this briefing has been updated from the Ministry's 2023 Reports webpage.)

Scoping out the topic and the first round of public consultation  

We started by scoping topics that would have a significant impact on the wellbeing of Pacific peoples for at least the next ten years.

We then selected ‘Improving Pacific data equity: Opportunities to enhance the future of Pacific wellbeing’ as our topic and went out for public consultation on our topic from November 2021 to January 2022.

We received 10 submissions in total on our proposed topic, all of which were in support of us developing this into a full briefing.

Submissions came from across government agencies, non-government agencies and community groups.

Developing the content of the brief

We held a series of talanoa ‘a kāinga to gather insights on key issues and opportunities relating to Pacific data equity. 

Talanoa ‘a kāinga is a Tongan concept used in our engagement process. It translates to “rolling out the mat so that the family can dialogue”. This process is underpinned by mutual respect for each person in the talanoa.

We engaged with government agencies; and with Pacific and indigenous data experts to help us complete a draft briefing.

Second round of public consultation

With our draft briefing ready, we carried out a second round of public consultation from November to December 2022.

Key issues raised in the draft report were:

  • the lack of standardisation across agencies in the collection of Pacific data;
  • the difficulties with data access
  • the dominant Western lens and practices in data systems; and   
    the workforce issues.

We received six online submissions and held discussions with over 70 participants in talanoa sessions.

Feedback from the second round of public consultation

 The feedback supported the need to improve the data system by: 

  • increasing the Pacific workforce within the data system
  • involving Pacific communities in the data cycle
  • standardising the collection and analysis of Pacific data
  • having culturally robust processes for measuring data quality; and
  • ensuring consistent processes of disseminating data back to the communities.

Feedback from the consultation informed the final briefing and we released our final briefing in August 2023.

For any questions about the Long-term Insights Briefing, please contact us at [email protected]