Using Big Data on the UN Global Platform
Side Event of the 52nd UN Statistical Commission

  • Virtual

  • 23 Feb 2021, 09:00 - 10:30 AM (New York Time)

Introduction


Since 2018, the Statistical Commission has endorsed and supported to development of the UN global platform as a collaborative environment on data innovation for the global statistical community and all its partners. The idea of the global platform was developed in Bogotá in November 2017 and was followed by the implementation ONS, UK, from 2018 to 2020. On 1 June 2020, ONS handed over the beta version of the platform to the United Nations community, with the objective of scaling it up for global use.

The following projects (either in the proof of concept, pilot or production phase, depending on their level of maturity) are currently active on the Global Platform:

  • Project of the task team on Earth observations building a data pipeline with the Sen2Agri toolbox, using satellite data to estimate agricultural crop statistics; the project is in the pilot phase, with data being processed for Senegal;
  • Project of the task team on Earth observations to build an information technology system for the Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES) modelling tool to measure ecosystem services; this project is in the proof of concept phase;
  • Project of the task team on AIS vessel tracking data for estimating port calls of ships for 1,200 ports on a weekly basis to measure international trade activity; this project is in production;
  • Project of the UK on the processing of AIS data for the weekly outputs on faster economic indicators; this project is in production;
  • Project of UNSD, OECD, UNICEF and UNESCAP to implement the .STAT technology for hosting the national database of Cambodia on the Global Platform; this project is in production;
  • Project of the task team on scanner data building a data pipeline, using methods and algorithms developed for the production of price indices; this project is in the proof of concept phase;
  • Project of UNSD and OECD to maintain on the Global Platform a graph database for a global group register covering the top 500 multinational enterprises; this project is in the proof of concept phase.

More projects will be onboarded, including a project to deploy the rural access index measurement tool for testing against national data sources and a project to develop a "data as a service" functionality.

This side-event 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. More projects can be onboarded.


Format

The side event will be conducted virtual, showcase 3 presentations with Q&A and will last 90 minutes.



Program - 23 Feb 2021

09:00
Introduction and overview of project work of the UN Global Working Group on Big Data for official statistics
Tom Smith, Director, Data Science Campus, Office for National Statistics, UK
09:15
UNGP: a catalyst for the modernization of National Statistics Offices. The cases of Senegal and Uganda in the use of Earth Observations for official agricultural statistics
Lorenzo DeSimone, SDG sub-programme Coordinator, Office of the Chief Statistician, FAO
09:30
Q&A
09:40
Deriving real-time maritime transport statistics using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data
Jasper Verschuur, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
09:55
Q&A
10:05
Cambodia's national database, CamStat: a successful implementation of the .Stat data warehouse on the UN Global Platform
Sean Lovell & Abdulla Gozalov, United Nations Statistics Division
10:20
Q&A
10:30
Closing
Tom Smith, Director, Data Science Campus, Office for National Statistics, UK

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