Regional Hubs

The UN Global Platform has physical satellite campuses all over the world. These Regional Hubs are the home for regional projects, trainings and capacity building.

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UN Global Platform

A global community of statisticians and developers working on and sharing Big Data resources together in the cloud.

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Task Teams

Global partners working together to explore, develop, and share new methods, techniques and best practices for working with Big Data.

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Latest News

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  • 10-14 JUNE 2024
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  • BILBAO, SPAIN

Informing Climate Change and Sustainable Development policies with integrated data

As the world grapples with numerous global challenges, including environmental issues, climate change, health crises, food insecurity, economic recovery, and human displacement, the need for knowledge integration has never been more critical. Amid a data landscape with fast-increasing volumes of data, information remains compartmentalised to pre-defined scales and fields, rarely building its way up to collective knowledge. The statistical community, the data science community, the geospatial community and the modelling community are tasked with delivering this integrated knowledge, to shed light on the ongoing "wicked problems"—intertwined, multistakeholder and with potential solutions dependent on subjective, competing interests.

The purpose of the conference is to address and share knowledge on these emerging issues that require the timely and flexible production of integrated scientific, statistical and geospatial information. This involves collaboration with strategic partners from the public and private sectors, as well as from academic and research institutes, and needs a paradigm shift that will favour open synthesis to contribute and reuse knowledge and apply it toward decision making. The conference will consist of a ministerial opening, high-level panels, technical sessions as well as a several workshops. The overall theme of the conference is "Informing Climate Change and Sustainable Development policies with integrated data".

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5th seminar
  • 28 - 31 May 2024
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  • VIRTUAL

Measuring the Digital Economy
5th International Seminar on Big Data for Official Statistics

The digital economy heavily relies on ICT for information management, enhancing productivity supported by ICT goods, services, and trade. This economy is characterized by core technologies (e.g., semiconductors, computers), enabling infrastructures (e.g., the Internet), and digitalized sectors like finance and media. Despite widespread digitalization, traditional economic metrics often overlook digital aspects. The Digital Supply-Use Tables (SUTs) framework addresses this by incorporating digital products and actors into national statistics.

The 5th International Seminar aims to equip staff from developing countries' NSOs with skills to produce high-quality digital economy statistics, supporting informed policymaking and sustainable development.

  • 2 MAY 2024
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  • VIRTUAL EVENT

What has changed in official statistics since using Big Data and data science for the last 10 years?

The Data Science Competence Center (DSCC) and the Unlocking the Power of Data Initiative at the Swiss Federal Statistical Office are pleased to invite you to the next webinar in the "Data Science and AI for Public Good" series.

What has changed in the global statistical community over the last 10 years? Learn about the results of a global survey with statistical institutes shown together with reflections from interviews with experts of statistical and related communities. Moreover, an overview will be given of several recent achievements as examples of the progress made. Finally, an indication of the next steps in the modernisation of official statistics will be presented.

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  • FEB-MAR 2024
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  • NEW YORK
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  • VIRTUAL

55th United Nations Statistical Commission Side Events

Enabling responsible access to sensitive microdata using privacy enhancing technologies
This webinar aims to explore cutting-edge approaches for handling sensitive microdata while preserving privacy. Experts will discuss state-of-the-art techniques, real-world applications, and collaborative efforts across international projects. Join us for insightful presentations, engaging discussions, and an open Q&A session.

Towards a Data Science Playbook
The members of the Data Science Leader's Network (DSLN), under the umbrella of the Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics, have agreed to develop a DSLN Playbook with the objective to provide a comprehensive guide for integrating data science into the work of National Statistical Offices, and to offer a systematic approach to piloting projects, pooling resources, documenting successes, and overcoming institutional barriers.

10-years of use of Big Data and Data Science - a review
The webinar is an overview of the report on the 10-years of use of Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics. The survey details will be described along with results and recommendation based on the survey.

International Seminar on Data Science for the Statistics and Transport Communities
  • 22 - 24 JAN 2024
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  • Dubai, UAE

Mobilizing Big Data and Data Science for the Sustainable Development Goals

Get practical insights into human-centric transformation of transport information systems and see how modern transportation information systems play a pivotal role in designing and implementing sustainable transportation policies utilizing new data sources and technologies.

The International seminar will also feature a workshops on Mobile Phone Data in transport statistics and hands-on GIS training for SDGs.

UN Datathon 2023
  • 3 - 6 NOV 2023
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  • VIRTUAL

UN Datathon 2023

Leverage technology and your expertise to develop innovative solutions for a more sustainable and equitable future. Join us on this journey of innovation, exploration, and problem-solving as we harness the power of data to create a more sustainable and resilient world.

Datathon participants will develop innovative data-driven applications, tools or statistical models combining geospatial data with other data sources to help advance the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

UN Guide on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies for Official Statistics
  • FEB 2023

UN Guide on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies for Official Statistics

This document presents methodologies and approaches to mitigating privacy risks when using sensitive or confidential data, which are collectively referred to as privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs). National Statistics Offices (NSOs) are entrusted with data that has the potential to drive innovation and improve national services, research, and social benefit. Yet, there has been a rise in sustained cyber threats, complex networks of intermediaries motivated to procure sensitive data, and advances in methods to re-identify and link data to individuals and across multiple data sources. Data breaches erode public trust and can have serious negative consequences for individuals, groups, and communities. This document focuses on PETs that protect data during analysis and dissemination of sensitive information so that the benefits of using data for official statistics can be realized while minimizing privacy risks to those entrusting sensitive data to NSOs.

7th International Conference on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics
  • 7 - 11 NOV 2022
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  • YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA

Global Challenges and the Importance of Relevant and Timely Data
7th International Conference on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics

Emerging issues require timely and flexible production of indicators often in collaboration with strategic partners from public and private sector as well as academia. The Big Data Conference, which will take place from 7 till 11 November 2022 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, will focus on the use of new data sources and use of data science in dialogues with decision makers and experts from all stakeholder communities. It will also include the 2022 Big Data Hackathon.

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  • ONGOING

UN PET Lab Open House

The UN PET Lab brings together a community of practitioners in the field of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) who would experiment, learn, and share their insights with a focus on use cases for official statistics. The UN PET Lab actively explores projects dealing with relevant, real challenges for the community of official statistics. Statisticians and academic researchers collaborate with PETs technology providers using safe (publicly available) data and environments to implement a variety of different PETs while maintaining a technology agnostic approach.

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  • MAY 2022

Big Data Training Catalogue

The Task Team on Training, Competencies and Capacity Development has published a Big Data Training Catalog, containing more than 270 training courses relevant for different aspects of Big Data-related work. Apart from various search criteria, the catalog offers the selection of a Personal Learning Path, identifying courses based on one's work setting, current knowledge, areas of interest and planned goals. The task team will continue to update this catalogue, and also invites new proposals for additions.

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  • FEB 2022
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  • VIRTUAL

53rd United Nations Statistical Commission Side Events

The role of the Regional Hubs in mainstreaming Big Data and data science in official statistics
The main objectives of the Regional Hubs are the facilitation of innovation projects, the sharing of methods, algorithms and tools, and the provision of training in the use of Big Data and data science for the community of official statisticians in their respective regions.

What is the UN PET Lab and why is it important?
The lab will demonstrate that PETs can make fully compliant data sharing between organizations possible. PETs help data providers and data users to safely share information by using encryption and protocol

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  • 6 - 8 DEC 2021
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  • VIRTUAL

UN Youth Hackathon

Together with the United Nations Statistics Division, and the global platform regional hubs of Rwanda, UAE, Brazil & China, The Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY) organized a virtual UN Youth Hackathon to create solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems using data.

During this hackathon, the UNSD, regional hubs and partner organizations looked for disruptive and innovative solutions that use data, machine learning and artificial intelligence to fast track progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Mobilizing Big Data and Data Science for the Sustainable Development Goals event at EXPO2020
  • 25 - 27 JAN 2022
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  • VIRTUAL

Mobilizing Big Data and Data Science for the Sustainable Development Goals

The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC) of the UAE together with the United Nations Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD) welcome the world to explore data science and big data during a three-day event at Expo 2020. FCSC also invites everyone to witness the ceremonial launch of the Regional Hub for Big Data and Data Science in UAE, which serves the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region.

  • 12-14 OCT 2021
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  • VIRTUAL

Workshop on Scanner Data and Web Scraping

Eurostat together with the Scanner Data Task Team of the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics will organize a workshop on scanner data and web scraping on 12-14 October 2021. The objectives of the workshop are to exchange on practical experiences related to the use of new data sources in consumer price statistics, and to present and discuss some of the work conducted by the Task Team and by the European Statistical System.

  • JULY 2021
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  • VIRTUAL

Invited Paper Sessions on using Mobile Phone Data for Official Statistics
ISI World Statistics Congress 2021

Two Invited Paper Sessions on using Mobile Phone Data for Official Statistics were presented at the ISI World Statistics Congress 2021:

  • Exploring Statistics on Tourism, Migration, Population and Displacements by Using Mobile Positioning Data
  • Towards 2030 Agenda: The Use of Mobile Data to Measure SDGs Indicators on Information Society
Road to EXPO2020
  • 30 JUN 2021
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  • VIRTUAL EVENT

Data Science and Official Statistics
Part of the "Road to Bern" Webinar series

The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) of Switzerland together with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and Facebook are organizing a webinar on the topic of Data Science and Official Statistics. FSO recently established a Data Science Competence Centre which will benefit all government departments of Switzerland, while UNSD has been supporting the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics since 2014. Facebook uses Data Science in developing market strategy, but also to support a large Open Source community, called PyTorch, which has developed a machine learning framework that accelerates the path from research prototyping to production deployment.

  • 6 MAY 2021
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  • VIRTUAL EVENT

Measuring the information society using new data sources
Partnership session of WSIS 2021

Over the past decade, national statistical offices have been tasked with producing accurate, high quality statistics faster, more frequently and with a reduced burden on respondents. Yet they are expected to achieve this within the same or even a smaller budget. To face this challenge, national statistical offices can turn to innovative data sources like passive mobile positioning data (MPD).

Even though the private sector was the first to harness big data, the practice has now expanded to the global statistical community. The United Nations Statistical Commission and national statistical offices are looking into ways of using big data sources to complement official statistics and better meet their objectives for providing timely and accurate evidence for policy-making.

A project, led by ITU, was conducted in 2020 to demonstrate how big data can be used to produce internationally agreed ICT SDG indicators 9.c.1 (Proportion of population covered by a mobile network) and 17.8.1 (Individuals using the Internet). The feasibility of using MPD for both indicators was tested in both Brazil and Indonesia, one of each presented in the case studies. The collaboration showed that public and private sector organisations can work together for societal interest to leave no one behind.

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  • 20 April 2021
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  • VIRTUAL

Oman's Experience in Utilizing Mobile Positioning Data for Official Statistics

The use of mobile positioning data allows to reduce the volume of field surveys, reduce frequent visits to families and companies to conduct field surveys, and increase the speed of response to the requirements of development plans. This achievement of using Big Data is a paradigm shift in the production processes of high-quality official indicators.

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  • 11 MAR 2021
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  • VIRTUAL EVENT

Training in the Use of Big Data and Data Science

This side-event of the 52nd UN Statistical Commission will showcase the competence framework on Big Data and data science and the related maturity matrix for statistical offices, the training program on Earth observations for agriculture statistics and the training courses on privacy preserving techniques. The objective is to convey the message that training in Big Data and data science is being developed and is available and open to all the members of the Commission.

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  • 9 MAR 2021
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  • VIRTUAL EVENT

Big Data for the SDGs - What is the Way Forward - An Interactive Exchange of Views

In the context of the Global Working Group on Big Data and its Task Team on Big Data for the SDGs in particular, the purpose of this side-event of the 52nd UN Statistical Commission is to share status of the current work on monitoring the SDGs with the help of non-traditional data, including big data sources such as Earth observations and citizen generated data. The aim of the side event is to provide inspiration and knowledge exchange for countries wishing to exploit big data for their SDG reporting.

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  • 23 FEB 2021
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  • VIRTUAL EVENT

Using Big Data on the UN Global Platform - Side Event of the 52nd UNSC

This side-event of the 52nd UN Statistical Commission will showcase the projects on Sen2Agri, AIS data and .STAT. The objective is to convey the message that the data, services, technology and applications on the platform are available and open to all the members of the Commission.

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  • 3 - 6 SEP 2020

AIS Big Data Hackathon

Automatic identification system (AIS) data allows for real-time geo-tracking and identification for equipped vessels. AIS data provides a big data source of unrivaled quality. The number of possible applications for this data is enormous. To quickly utilize the data to its full potential, we need a surge of creative researchers to come up with equally creative ways to use it!

  • 31 AUG - 2 SEP 2020
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  • VIRTUAL

6th International Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics

The main theme of the Conference is "How can Big Data help in the COVID-19 response?" Related themes are: "How can Big Data support the monitoring of the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals?" and "The need for global data collaboration on global emerging issues".