LocationsUnlocking Iraq’s Innovation Potential Through Data: The iDATA Local Solution
April 21, 2025
Data digitalization is of crucial importance in Iraq to driving informed policies and sustainable development. It enhances accessibility to data, enabling quick analysis for evidence-based decision-making. Moreover, it fosters transparency, bridges information gaps, and empowers stakeholders to address challenges in various sectors.
As part of its ongoing efforts to promote innovative responses to national challenges, the UNDP Accelerator Lab in Iraq supported the scale-up of the iDATA platform. The initiative aligns seamlessly with the Lab’s mission to explore, test, and scale local solutions that directly respond to the country’s most pressing development needs.
In the age of data, Iraq is taking a bold step forward through homegrown solutions that places data at the heart of innovation and development. The iDATA platform, powered by KAPITA Business Hub, is an Iraqi initiative aiming to revolutionize access to and use of data across both public and private sectors. This platform stands as a powerful testament to the capabilities of local solutions in addressing critical challenges, such as youth unemployment, ecosystem development, and education reform.
Bridging the Data Divide-IDATA
One of the most persistent barriers to innovation and growth in Iraq is the lack of accessible, reliable, and interactive data. Key sectors — including education, entrepreneurship, and digital transformation — often suffer from data scarcity, leaving stakeholders with limited visibility into the ecosystem’s needs and opportunities. The iDATA platform directly addresses this gap by aggregating official data from the Iraqi government and the World Bank and presenting it through intuitive, interactive dashboards.
Currently, the platform features six dashboards — Including State Budget Dashboard, the Country Profile Dashboard, and the Digital Economy Actors Mapping in Iraq Dashboard . These tools already attract significant user engagement, with over 1,000 visitors in the first week of the beta launch.
A Data-Driven Vision for Iraq’s Future
The iDATA platform is more than just a digital tool — it is a transformative initiative with the potential to reshape Iraq’s data and innovation landscape. By centralizing sectoral data and presenting it in a format that is accessible, Interactive and actionable; iDATA empowers policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and citizens to make informed decisions.
The UNDP-AccLab supported the development of two dashboards to further strengthen IDATA platform in providing accessible and interactive data:
- The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Dashboard: a dashboard thattracks startup activities, investment trends, innovation hubs, co-working spaces, and regulatory frameworks. This dashboard is now a key resource for understanding and strengthening Iraq’s startup environment.
- The Education Ecosystem Dashboard: a dashboard that provides insights into student demographics, university specialization, skill development, and technology integration in education. It aims to bridge the market-skill gap that contributes to high youth unemployment rates in Iraq.
A Locally-Led Innovation, Globally Supported
The iDATA initiative reflects the transformative power of partnerships, innovation, and digital solutions in addressing Iraq’s most pressing challenges. By supporting the scale-up of iDATA, UNDP Accelerator Lab is championing a new model of development: one that puts local innovators at the forefront, backed by the power of data, partnerships and the promise of sustainable progress.