Yogyakarta, January 30th 2023─The Institute for Policy Development (POLDEV) of the Faculty of Social and Political Science Gadjah Mada University (Fisipol UGM) created a website dashboard or the UniTrend platform which was launched on Tuesday (30/1). In the launching event, there was also a discussion titled “The Turbulence Towards Development in the Political Year” which was filled with many speakers such as Ignatius Ardhana Reswara, Project Manager UniTrend; Media Wahyudi Askar, Direktur POLDEV; Wahyudi Kumorotomo, as the Head of the MKP Public Policy DepartmentFadli Ramdhanil, the Program Manager of Perludem; Mirah Midadan Fahmid, INDEF Economist; and was moderated by Jefri Andika Pakpahan, Researcher of POLDEV.
With the “presenting data for better policy” mission as the basis, UniTrend has a goal to be the data center for the public sector which is updated in real-time. The development of the platform is a response to the lack of accessibility and quality of data used by the government. This is concerning when we notice that data is a crucial aspect to measure our progress and development. Furthermore, the lack of quality data can lead to the creation of policies with a shaky basis. Therefore, UniTrend can hopefully support the creation of data-based policy.
The media underlined the importance of alternative data from that of the government. According to him, the use of one data is not enough because it will give a limited perspective. “The more data we use, the better,” Media said. UniTrend uses four basis of data: Google Trends, social media, surveys as well as Key Opinion Leader.
“We hope this can be a useful feature, a basis for discussion as well as the strengthening of public policies in this political year.
Wahyudi openly welcomed the initiative from POLDEV to develop the UniTrend platform. Wahyudi hoped that the existence of that platform can help create a society that is wiser in analyzing what politicians are offering. “We create an analysis of public policy that is more accurate because the data we have is complete, up to date, and already analyzed,” Wahyudi said.