State Department calls new Center for Analytics a ‘strategic milestone’
The State Department earlier this month launched a Center for Analytics intended to help about 75,000 employees across 200 posts worldwide make foreign policy and management decisions driven by data insights.
Led by the department’s acting chief data officer, Janice DeGarmo, the center plans to outfit everyone from diplomats to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with data tools and training.
The department said CfA already is informing State’s congressional and diplomatic engagements, forecasting fifth-generation wireless security trends, tracking foreign adversaries’ activities, and realigning resources to address policy challenges.
“Business and policy leaders today increasingly turn to analytics to help solve their most complex problems. In an age of information overload, only those who can leverage data as a strategic asset can win,” a State Department spokesperson told FedScoop. “The establishment of State’s first enterprise-wide data analytics organization is a strategic milestone for U.S. foreign policy.”
CfA officially opened Jan. 16 and is one of three directorates making up the Office of Management Strategy and Solutions.
The President’s Management Agenda stresses leveraging data as a strategic asset when crafting policy, including foreign policy, and CfA aims to become a global leader in that regard.
