Public Decision Accountability
Reviews the data, rules, eligibility systems, and automated processes behind public decisions, and identifies where people are excluded, misclassified, or left without a way to challenge an outcome.
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Data accountability for public decisions
Public decisions increasingly run through data. IIBD makes those systems accountable.
IIBD is an independent Canadian not-for-profit helping communities understand, question, and improve the data systems behind public decisions. We identify where data, algorithms, eligibility rules, and automated processes exclude people — then build practical tools to make those decisions explainable, challengeable, and fair.
Illustrative access gap
After review
Women
Children
Disabled people
Newcomers
0Fair access100%
After reviewBefore reviewFair target
Illustrative When decisions are reviewed, hidden barriers become visible — and fixable.
The Public Decision Pathway
Every public decision runs through the same path.
We review each step for who it counts and who it leaves behind — then help partners correct it.
01
Data collected
Who is missing?
02
Rules applied
Who is screened out?
03
Systems automated
Who can challenge it?
04
Outcomes measured
Did access improve?
05
Decision corrected
What changed?
Why this matters
These systems can look neutral while producing unequal outcomes.
A form can miss the people most affected; an eligibility rule can quietly screen people out; a report can show activity without showing whether access improved. IIBD works upstream, where these decisions are designed and measured.
About IIBD
An institute built to strengthen accountability.
IIBD is an independent Canadian not-for-profit established to strengthen accountability in the data systems behind public decisions. We combine applied research, community knowledge, systems analysis, and practical tool development, focused on decisions that shape access to public resources, services, and opportunities — particularly where people cannot easily see, understand, or challenge how a decision was made.
IIBD works with community organizations, public institutions, funders, and researchers seeking to understand how data, rules, and automated systems affect access to public resources and opportunities.
Programs
Three programs, working at the same level.
Each program applies data accountability to a different part of public decision-making — and each is home to focused initiatives.
Community Evidence & Data Capacity
Helps community organizations collect, interpret, and use evidence without reproducing extractive or exclusionary practices.
Explore programsApplied Systems Research
Examines how data systems affect employment, housing, benefits, infrastructure, and services — especially where existing data misses lived experience.
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Forthcoming initiative
Mapping Ontario's Community Data Ecosystem
How does community knowledge become public influence?
Ontario has extensive community knowledge, but it does not move through public systems equally. IIBD is developing a province-wide initiative to examine how community evidence travels through institutional relationships, funding structures, data infrastructure, and public decision-making — and where it loses influence along the way. Its purpose is not simply to produce another map or report, but to help communities and institutions identify where evidence becomes disconnected from decisions, and what can be done to strengthen that connection.
- 01
Map the ecosystem
Who produces, funds, interprets, and uses community knowledge.
- 02
Trace decisions
How evidence moves into funding, policy, and service decisions.
- 03
Identify accountability gaps
Where evidence becomes disconnected from institutional action.
- 04
Build practical tools
Methods for more transparent evidence-to-decision pathways.
Anticipated output
Ecosystem map
Anticipated output
Applied publication
Anticipated output
Decision-pathway case studies
Anticipated output
Practical accountability tools
A developing initiative
Ontario has extensive community knowledge. The challenge is ensuring that knowledge can travel, carry influence, and produce accountability.
This initiative is in development. We are inviting community organizations, public institutions, funders, and researchers to help shape its scope.
Selected evidence
Experience across the practice.
Economic Evidence for 2SLGBTQI+ Communities
Evidence supporting a clearer understanding of economic exclusion and its public-policy implications.
See evidenceComprehensive Sexuality Education Toolkit
Inclusive curriculum and facilitator resources for rights-based education.
See evidenceGlobal Theory-of-Change Synthesis
Translating complex, multi-country program activity into outcomes and accountability.
See evidence
How we work
Six steps, from decision to change.
Map the decision · Listen to those living with it · Review the data & process · Identify failure points · Build practical tools · Measure what changed.
Track record
Applied experience, honestly stated.
Our work has included community evidence, curriculum development, evaluation, strategic planning, data-capacity building, and public-policy analysis across Canada and the Caribbean.
Partner with us
Bring us the decision that needs to change.
You may know a system is causing harm but need help proving where and how. IIBD can help map the decision, build the evidence, create practical tools, and measure what changes.
Contact IIBD