UNSD-FCDO Meetings
Achievements in national SDG monitoring
The countries across Africa and Asia involved in the UNSD-FCDO project have made significant progress in their efforts to monitor the SDGs in recent years, increasing the availability of disaggregated data, despite the continued challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This event showcased some of the achievements of the countries, including the development of data platforms, the compilation of metadata, and user engagement. The session also highlighted some of the resources that UNSD is making available to other countries beyond the project, to support their own work on SDG monitoring.
Monitoring the SDGs for everyone: making data widely accessible and engaging stakeholders
The multi-stakeholder nature of the SDG monitoring process has further emphasized the need for National Statistical Offices to communicate more with the different users of their data in order to understand user needs and deliver products that meet them. The UNSD-FCDO project on SDG monitoring worked with the National Statistical Offices of 20 project countries to develop their capacity to widely disseminate their SDG data in an accessible and engaging manner, including through online national data platforms, in order to inform and engage with a wide range of users. This session will showcase some of the many achievements of the countries with regard to user engagement, metadata standardization and the development of data visualization platforms. It will also highlight how they have continued to implement national SDG monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic, showing a strong, ongoing commitment to providing data and metadata on the SDGs in spite of the significant challenges.
The Data For Now initiative and opportunities for UNSD-FCDO project countries
The UNSD-FCDO project on SDG monitoring was recently extended for one year, providing an opportunity to build upon and consolidate the successes of the last few years. The extension introduces a number of new areas of work, with a significant focus on further increasing the availability of disaggregated and inclusive SDG data and metadata, piloting new approaches and activities in a small set of countries, as part of a new initiative called Data For Now, which can then be hopefully rolled out more widely in future. This webinar introduced the Data For Now initiative to project countries, highlighting the achievements of some of the trailblazer countries.
SDG and COVID-19 Data Visualization Toolkit: Webinar
With many countries launching their SDG data and metadata platforms and presenting their Voluntary National Reviews, there is a growing need to develop and deliver engaging data visualizations across a range of outputs and media. In response, UNSD developed an SDG and COVID-19 data visualization toolkit containing a set of SDG and COVID-19 related icons, along with templates for a range of outputs, including reports, infographics, social media and flyers. The webinar introduced the toolkit and provided guidance on how to best make use of the icons and templates included in the toolkit. It also shared best practices for designing graphics, introduced some of the other available tools and resources, and provided examples of how to utilize the toolkit for SDG and COVID-19 related reporting and other thematic outputs.
UNSD-FCDO Project training webinar on use of SDG Lab
SDG Lab is a secure online platform, built by UNSD, with which both global and national data and metadata can be shared, using SDMX, with the aim of increasing data transparency, and improving international comparability and data availability.
Unlike the public-facing data and metadata platforms that almost all UNSD-FCDO project countries have now established, SDG Lab is designed for use by NSOs, allowing them to compare side-by-side the national data and metadata they have prepared with that provided by the SDG custodian agencies using their own sources and methodologies.
This webinar will provide guidance and practical demonstrations to project countries on how to upload both metadata and data to SDG Lab, as well as how to use it to both identify and explain potential differences that exist between the global and national sources.
Continued efforts to provide evidence on SDG achievement in the COVID era: UN Statistical Commission
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, there were concerns that SDG monitoring efforts would be substantially curtailed, particularly in low and lower-middle income countries, with NSOs' capacity limited due to a combination of budgetary restrictions, office closures and other public health measures. The countries involved in the UNSD-FCDO project on SDG monitoring have proven otherwise, showing a strong, continued commitment to provide data and metadata on the SDGs, reflecting the importance of the SDGs in both targeting immediate policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis and guiding the longer-term recovery. This event showcased some of the work of the countries, highlighting how they've continued to implement national SDG monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the development of data platforms, the compilation of metadata, and user engagement. It also shared country experiences in monitoring the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the SDGs. In addition, it highlighted how the UNSD-FCDO project has tailored the technical assistance activities it provides to ensure they remain accessible and relevant in light of the current situation.
Global Network Webinar Series #2: National SDG Data Platforms
National SDG data and metadata platforms are invaluable in supporting the coordination, compilation and communication and dissemination activities of NSOs, ensuring SDG data are available to help support evidence-based policy and inform public debate. In this webinar, several UNSD-FCDO project countries share their experiences relating to the development and use their national platforms, including Ms. Nazira Kerimalieva of the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic and Mr. Godfrey Matsinde of the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, while Ms. Halima Neyamat of the Resident Coordinator's Office in Bangladesh offers a user perspective. Information is also shared on some of the data platform solutions from different providers that are potentially available to countries to support national SDG data dissemination.
New approaches of NSOs in reaching out to a broader audience: UNWDF Session
There is an increased understanding among National Statistical Offices that there is a need to communicate more with the different users of their data and products. Traditionally, particularly in many developing countries, statistical offices have thought of the government as their main user group, but more and more are now also looking at how to better reach other user groups and how to do this in a way that make data and statistics interesting to users. While this is not among the core skills of statisticians, staff in many offices are now paying attention to it.
User engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic: Webinar
There is substantial interest in data that can help us better understand the situation and inform decision-making around the COVID-19 pandemic. National Statistical Systems, and particularly National Statistical Offices, have an important role to play in making timely and reliable information about the impact of COVID-19 available to the public. This webinar provides an overview of various issues the statistics community are discussing linked to user engagement, and makes a case for being more actively engaged, including in providing data on COVID-19 related topics. The webinar also provides an overview of potential tools available for engaging with different users at this time, along with a more in-depth presentation on COVID-19 datahubs. The webinar was organized by the UNSD-DFID Project, which supports the SDG monitoring and COVID-19 data response in 20 countries in Africa and Asia. Here you can find the video recording of the webinar and the combined presentations.
SDG Monitoring During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Webinar
The COVID-19 crisis continues to devastate lives and economies, setting back progress made toward the Sustainable Development Goals in many countries. Data is once again more important than ever in allowing governments and other stakeholders to assess the extent of the pandemic's impacts. The aim of this webinar, was to refocus attention on the long-term goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and begin a discussion of how the pandemic could affect the achievement of the SDGs. The Statistics Division presented initial findings from the 2020 SDG Report and other recent publications covering impacts of COVID-19. Dr. Nyi Nyi Maung from the Central Statistical Organization of Myanmar shared his country's experience in monitoring the effects of the pandemic on the SDGs. Mr. Joses Tegyeza, from the Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda presented Uganda's experience in preparing the 2020 VNR and changes that needed to be made in light of COVID-19. The webinar was organized by the UNSD-DFID Project, which supports the SDG monitoring and COVID-19 data response in 20 countries in Africa and Asia. Here you can find the video recording of the webinar and the combined presentation.
Household Surveys and COVID-19: Webinar
While the pandemic has resulted in considerable data collection challenges, surveys can also play a crucial role in understanding the social, economic and health impacts of COVID-19. As part of the UNSD-DFID project, which is working with 20 countries in Africa and Asia to support their SDG monitoring and COVID-19 data response, the UN Statistics Division hosted a webinar covering topics including the role of surveys during the pandemic, telephone surveys and sampling, and questionnaire design and data collection. It also includes a presentation by Dr. Ola Awad, Director General of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), highlighting how they have been responding to COVID-19, including using surveys to measure the impacts of the pandemic on people's lives. Here you can find the video, a copy of the presentations, and a Q and A based on the questions raised during the webinar.
COVID-19 webinar for UNSD-DFID countries: Webinar
UNSD-DFID project is realigning its project work on SDGs monitoring to extend its support for project countries in response to Covid-19. In this webinar, UNSD will be sharing it's established platform which provides general guidance materials on key issues related to the situation through the COVID 19 response website and COVID-19 Data Hub that will be useful to get your Covid-19 related data out quickly and in a user friendly way through a set of dashboards and visualization tools similar to those currently implemented by Johns Hopkins University. Here you can find the video and a copy of the presentations.
National User Engagement Workshops on SDGs
Engaging a wide variety of users in the statistics produced, including SDG indicator progress monitoring, is key for informed policy debates and keeping governments responsible. This can best be done by involving various users in the planning of statistics products and getting their inputs on what key needs are. A strategy and implementation plan can help keeping the focus on these activities.
UNSD is collaborating with National Statistics Offices in organizing workshops which bring together representatives from the national statistical system to develop draft user engagement strategies. This is combined with hands on learning of methods and tools for how to engage with various user groups, also taking the input of these groups into account in the development of the strategy.
National Metadata Workshops on SDGs
The availability of metadata information that defines or describes data is a vital component of expanding use of SDG indicators. Information about how the data is collected, what its limitations are, the time period that the data refers to, and its availability, for instance, are key attributes that the user of data needs to understand to use the data meaningfully. Without this information, data cannot be properly shared across various NSS entities either. UNSD in collaboration with National Statistical Offices is conducting metadata workshops for the National Statistical System. Click on read more below for workshop materials.
UNSD-DFID Project ISI Side Event
As part of the project, UNSD organized a meeting for project focal points as a side event to the 62nd ISI World Statistics Congress (WSC) on 24 August 2019. Participants discussed project progress and exchanged national experiences related to SDG data platforms and dissemination of disaggregated SDG data. In the meeting, representatives from Malaysia's National Statistical Office and from Unicef also shared their experiences and contributed their expertise. The project focal points were also invited to attend the final three days of the ISI WSC (21-23 August 2019, https://www.isi2019.org/), providing an opportunity to obtain a better overview of the global best practices presented at the ISI WSC.
Regional User Engagement Workshops on SDGs
As part of the UNSD-DFID project on SDG Monitoring, 13 countries came together in an international workshop to discuss issues around, and share experiences on developing and implementing user engagement strategies for SDGs and the National Statistical System more broadly. Throughout the workshop panels were organized where countries discussed topics such as: process and institutional mechanism for developing and implementing a user engagement strategy; differences and similarities between user engagement and compunction; and, the role SDG data and metadata platforms in engaging users. Participants also worked through a number of hands on exercise on linking policies and indicators, and how to produce relevant products to meet the needs of different user groups. The interactions amongst participants during the formal workshop sessions as well as through the informal discussion provided an opportunity to further exchange best practices between countries.
SDG Open Data and Interoperability
The value of national SDG data and metadata platforms is greatly increased by the incorporation of open data principles and data interoperability standards. These principles and standards allow users to seamlessly access, integrate, analyze and use SDG data for decision making. Thus, building on the outcome of the Conference, the United Nations Statistics Division has worked closely with various partners in multiple initiatives to promote and enable the implementation of open data and interoperability for SDG data reporting.
Regional Workshop on Data and Metadata Sharing and Exchange for Asian Countries
The workshop is organized by UN Women and the United Nations Statistics Division
Sub-regional workshop on data and metadata sharing and exchange for English-speaking African countries
The workshop is organized by the African Centre for Statistics, the United Nations Environment and the United Nations Statistics Division
National platforms for SDG reporting
The event brought together representatives from national statistical offices, international and regional organizations with programmes or initiatives that support data platforms in countries, as well as donors and other providers of data platform solutions.
UNSD-DFID Project on SDG Monitoring, Kick-off Meeting, Asia region
The meeting was chaired by UNSD and attended by the project countries from the Asia region.It was also attended by representatives from UNESCAP and PARIS21.
UNSD-DFID Project on SDG Monitoring, Kick-off Meeting, African region
The meeting was chaired by UNSD and attended by the project countries from the Africa region.It was also attended by representatives from UNECA, AU, UNICEF, and PARIS21.