Alternative data sources, particularly administrative data and Citizen-Generated Data (CGD), offer opportunities to complement traditional statistical data collection, address data gaps and improve the availability of statistics for policy formulation and decision-making. However, their use in official statistics requires appropriate data access arrangements, adequate documentation and systematic assessment of their quality and suitability for specific statistical purposes. Data collected for administrative, operational or advocacy purposes may not always meet the requirements of official statistics in terms of population coverage, variable definitions, completeness, consistency and methodological soundness. In Kenya, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), as coordinator of the National Statistical System (NSS), has undertaken initiatives to facilitate access to and improve the use of alternative data sources. These include establishing Data Sharing Agreements (DSAs) and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with relevant institutions to facilitate access to administrative data, providing technical support to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in designing studies, and developing quality criteria and a scoring framework for assessing CGD for potential use in official reporting. This paper examines these practices and their contribution to assessing the quality and fitness-for-use of alternative data sources in official statistics. It discusses the role of institutional collaboration in facilitating data access, technical support in strengthening data production, and standardised data templates and documentation in improving the consistency and analytical usefulness of data. It further considers the application of established quality criteria in assessing data against the requirements of intended statistical outputs. Key considerations include the relevance of variables, population coverage, completeness, accuracy, consistency, timeliness and methodological soundness. These considerations are important in determining whether data can be used as received, require further validation or improvement, or are unsuitable for a particular statistical purpose. The paper highlights the importance of linking data access and quality assessment to the intended use of the data. It also considers the need to strengthen collaboration between KNBS and data-producing institutions to address identified quality gaps and improve the availability of relevant, reliable and comparable data. While the existing CGD quality criteria provide a basis for assessing citizen-generated data, their applicability to other alternative data sources requires consideration of the characteristics of each source and the requirements of the intended statistical output. The paper draws practical lessons from Kenya on strengthening the use of alternative data within the NSS. It emphasises the complementary roles of institutional arrangements, technical capacity, data standardisation and statistical quality assessment in supporting the responsible integration of alternative data into official statistics.
