United Nations Statistical Commission

The Data4Now initiative was launched by UN Deputy-Secretary General Amina Mohammed on the sidelines of UNGA, in September 2019. The initiative aims to increase the use of robust methods and tools that improve the timeliness, coverage, and quality of SDG data. It involves working closely with national statistical offices and all relevant government agencies to make innovative methods for data production and analysis easily accessible to support and monitor progress towards the SDGs. National statistical offices identify their priority areas where they most urgently need to address measurement issues, data availability and timeliness and the core team facilitates the matching with partners that can offer innovative data solutions to address those priorities.

The Data4Now initiative is coordinated by the United Nations Statistics Division, the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Together with partners from international and regional organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector, they support an initial group of eight partner countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America: Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, Mongolia, Nepal, Paraguay, Rwanda, and Senegal in the development and implementation of country-led activities that streamline the use of new data, methods and technology to improve the availability of timely data for sustainable development.There will be opportunities for scaling up the initiative by sharing solutions with countries addressing similar measurement issues and by including additional countries as more funds become available.

Following an Inception Workshop that took place in November 2018, hosted in Kigali by National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), this event will bring together representatives of national statistical offices and other stakeholders to share their experiences, highlight the partnerships and projects they are taking forward together, and showcase the expected outcomes of the projects undertaken under the Data For Now initiative. It will offer the space to discuss with the broader statistical community how to seize opportunities, address challenges and manage risks in order to make the Data For Now initiative a success.

Preliminary Agenda



1.  (5 min) Introduction to the Data For Now initiative - UN Statistics Division and Global Partnership for Sustainable Data
2.  (35 min) Short presentations by 5 partner countries
   • Colombia
     Ghana
     Mongolia
     Paraguay
     Rwanda
3.  (25 min) Panel discussion / Q&A session
4.  (5 min) Concluding remarks (UN Statistics Division)