An approach to management of reference Data

The approach can help  keeping a consistent reference data repository management in the following ways :-

Defining Essence:The clear definitions of attribute is kept while receiving the data from other systems. This can be defined by the user by mapping the attributes received and attribute definition in the system. While receiving and maintaining the entities into the system, it shall be made sure to not allow duplicates in the system. The clear definitions of the business and process rule is kept and maintained as consistent to the Markets in this continuously changing environment so that  they can be applied on data entities and keep them up- to-date.
Relationship mapping: Clear relationship charts and hierarchy relationships between the entities. Flexibility in the definition of entities to insulate downstream applications for changes.
Auditing: As one of the important aspects for reference data is to keep audits of the changes done by the users and the audit of source evidences for those changes.
Ownership: Clear owner defined, both in terms of users and/or functions. The Attribute values are manged by the users and correctly updated to the system.If multiple systems create and maintain the same entity, need to ensure mutually exclusive data sets.
Change management process: Clear change management process should be defined to ensure Continued Quality of data moving forward. The actions and action types are well audited and the maintenance cycle will be there.
Security: The valid user can access and change the data and the data is correctly deployed later to the valid system.

All this requires to have system with centralized repository, good workflow management, change management and built-in security.
In the era of globalization there might be possibilities to have multiple repository and transactional systems existing around the globe. To maintain this the well managed system is required to decide the entities scope and make them exclusively available to change them by in scope market users and availability of all entities to all the markets to refer and keep the relationships intact  between all the entities around the globe.
Finally, the proper management of the continuously growing data should be there, the out dated data needed to be purged from the system as per the policies defined and can be visible or retrieved back whenever is required by the user groups to review historical data.