UN WORLD DATA FORUM 2020
18 to 21 October 2020
The United Nations World Data Forum 2020 – bringing together data producers and users in Bern
Gabriella Vukovich, Chair of the Programme Committee for the UNWDF 2020…
Read more
UN World Data Forum Reaching for New Heights in Dubai
Francesca Perucci, UN Statistics Division As data leaders from around the world gather in the city of the Burj Khalifa, the UN World Data Forum itself is reaching for new heights, both in the generation…
Read more
Operationalising Mobile Phone Network Data for Development and Humanitarian Action
Syed Raza, Senior Director of Data for Development at Digital Impact Alliance Robert Kirkpatrick, Director of UN Global Pulse How has mobile network data been used to inform policy? What building blocks need to be…
Read more
The power of new data sources: how to harness the private sector’s role?
Pietro Bertazzi is the head of sustainable development at GRI. Charlotte Portier is the senior coordinator for sustainable development at GRI. On the quest to establish and adapt the current data ecosystems to reflect the…
Read more
National data platforms for SDG reporting: Looking back and looking forward
Katarina Rebello is Director of Programs at CODE Yves Jaques is an ICT specialist, and the Helix project manager at UNICEF Since the launch of the 2030 Agenda, countries across all regions started planning for…
Read more
Hybrid Census to Generate Spatially-disaggregated Population Estimates
Bahadur Hellali is Deputy Director General, Information Systems Management and Development at the Afghanistan National Statistics and Information Authority Housing census data and up-to-date population data at subnational levels are some of the basic data needs…
Read more
The Inclusive Data Charter: what’s it all about?
Jennie Bell is the project manager for Disability Data disaggregation at Sightsavers The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes a commitment to ‘leave no one behind’. To live up to this promise we need timely, comprehensive,…
Read more
SDG monitoring: data from civil society
Lieneke Hoeksma is a statistical researcher at the Department of National Accounts at Statistics Netherlands. Hermanus Rietveld is the Coordinator of Sustainable Development Goals at Statistics Netherlands and a member of the IAEG-SDGs In March…
Read more
Suspicious minds – trust and releasing the potential of public-private partnerships in statistical capacity development
Matthew Shearing is Co-Founder of the Online Privacy Foundation The debate about public-private partnerships (PPPs) in official statistics has often been focussed on how statisticians can get hold of the data they covet from the…
Read more
Big Data for Sustainable Development: what does it take to get to the next level?
Dr. Paula Hidalgo-Sanchis is the Manager of Pulse Lab Kampala (a Lab of UN Global Pulse) In today’s world, livelihoods, social relations and knowledge are linked to the use of digital devices. Digital devices and…
Read more
Civil Registration as a Tool for Women’s Empowerment
Irina Dincu, Senior Programme Specialist at the Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems Thando Malambo, Programme Officer for Knowledge Translation at the Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems On February 26th, the Centre of Excellence…
Read more
Tell me why it matters: connecting the dots between having data and seeing impact
Emily Courey Pryor, Executive Director, Data2X Over the last five years, we have all worked hard to help data gain its place as a key part of the global development conversation. The UN World Data…
Read more
GRID3 Nigeria: Using geospatial infrastructure & population data in support of decision making and effective application of resources for development
Inuwa Ya’u, National Coordinator & Head of Secretariat, GRID3 Nigeria/National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) Andat Dashe Dasogot, National Programme Analyst (Demography)/GRID3 Focal Point, UNFPA Nigeria & member of GRID3 Secretariat In 2012, Nigeria…
Read more
“Leaving no one behind” – Beyond data disaggregation
Mamello Thinyane , United Nations University The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is framed around the bold and ambitious principle to “leave no one behind”, which aims to ensure that all people benefit from…
Read more
Catalyzing the use and impact of official statistics for sustainable development
Deirdre Appel, Program Manager at Open Data Watch Tanya Sethi, Senior Research Analyst at AidData The first United Nations World Data Forum launched the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development (CTGAP), an ambitious…
Read more
Weighing the quality of big data for SDG monitoring
Shyam Upadhyaya, UN Industrial Development Organization Big data has raised big expectations among data users. Some users believe that real time data is readily available in large volumes, while official statistics are sparse and reported…
Read more
Can we harness the full power of data with half the world still offline?
Nnenna Nwakanma, Web Foundation The new oil, the new soil, the new nuclear power. There is plenty of room for debate about the role that data plays in today’s world. Whichever your favoured metaphor, it’s…
Read more
Producing reliable data for SDG 16: The case of conflict data
Håvard Mokleiv Nygård, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) Håvard Strand, PRIO and University of Oslo In 2015, the United Nations stated unequivocally in the last progress report for the Millennium Development Goals that “conflict remains…
Read more
How to harness private data towards meeting the SDGs? The need for data stewards
Stefaan G. Verhulst, The GovLab (New York University) To meet the objectives set forth in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it is clear, we need not only new solutions, but also new methods for…
Read more
GEO drives international cooperation on Earth data ahead of World Data Forum 2018
Steven Ramage, Group on Earth Observations In 2014, the UN Secretary General's Independent Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development defined key actions that were needed to advance a data revolution…
Read more
How running away from home at 15 made me an advocate for the uncounted
Mark Hereward, Associate Director for Data & Analytics for UNICEF I ran away from home when I was 15. When I did, I removed myself from the radar of official statistics and counting. The last…
Read more
Data For All – Building Trust in Data Platforms
Kris Oswalt, Community Systems Foundation The world is going through an unparalleled transition affecting the way communities live and work together. Urbanization, Poverty, Inequality, Scarce Natural Resources, Gender, Health, Education, Climate. The issues are not…
Read more
Making data protection work: Why we need to get paid for our data
Johannes Jütting, Manager of PARIS21, a partnership in statistics for development Does your inbox look anything like this these days: “The protection of your data is important for us”; “Updates to our terms of services”;…
Read more
A data revolution is already happening in the streets
How geospatial communities can help to promote innovations and synergies across data ecosystems Javier Carranza, Director of the GeoCensos The United Nations World Data Forum is a global event, a gigantic magnet for a myriad…
Read more
#OpenDataDay for the SDGs
Richard Crespin, CollaborateUp Two people go searching for a partner online. They come across each other’s profiles. Though they come from very different backgrounds, their profiles line up with shared interests and shared values. After…
Read more
Statisticians embrace UN World Data Forum as vital to innovation
“Stakeholder revolution” and collaboration seen as key to better data Senior national statisticians and key partners gave a resounding endorsement of the UN World Data Forum 2018, at a side event on 7 March at…
Read more
Building Trust in Data and Statistics
“Trust arrives walking and departs riding” – A Dutch Proverb Shaida Badiee, Open Data Watch The UN World Data Forum 2018 promises to be an exciting event, bringing together communities of data users and producers,…
Read more
UN World Data Forum 2018 Initiatives
UN World Data Forum 2018 Initiatives: Partnering towards a Global Geographic Information System for Sustainable Development Clint Brown, Esri The UN World Data Forum 2018, to be held in Dubai in October 2018, represents a…
Read more
Working Together to Bring Vision into Reality
The United Nations World Data Forum 2018: a major step forward in the Arab region towards peace and prosperity, "leaving no one behind" Ola Awad, President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics As a…
Read more
Improving data interoperability for the SDGs
Following an initial meeting convened last January at the margins of the first UN World Data Forum (UNWDF) in Cape Town, specialists from National Statistical Offices (NSOs), international organizations, private sector, and civil society, representing…
Read more
Looking Back and Looking Forward
Stefan Schweinfest, Director, UN Statistics Division We did it! The first UN World Data Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, brought together an impressive group of data producers and users from the public and private…
Read more
Launch of the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data
The Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data was launched at the first United Nations World Data Forum. The Plan calls for a commitment by governments, policy leaders and the international community to…
Read more
Making Statistics Sexy
I Hate Statistics - Pim Bellinga, Founder & Thijs Gillebaart, Co-Founder We are I Hate Statistics, two social entrepreneurs from Amsterdam who like solving problems. We have set ourselves one goal: teaching even those people who are…
Read more
7 ways mobile data is being used to change the world
Telefónica - Florence Broderick, Strategic Marketing Manager and Richard Benjamins, VP for Big Data for Social Good The smartphone has changed our world as we know it, with 79% of people between 18 and 44…
Read more
Persons with disabilities must and can be counted in
Colin Allen, Chair of the International Disability Alliance Priscille Geiser, Chair of the International Disability and Development Consortium “In committing to the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Member States recognized that the dignity of…
Read more
On Wish Lists and New Year’s Resolutions
Emily Garin, Data Strategist, UNICEF My favourite data story starts on a small chalkboard. Every week day, numbers were painstakingly entered into rows of boxes on its dusty black surface. This chalkboard was at a…
Read more
“A World That Counts” Everyone, Including Women and Girls
Emily Courey Pryor, Executive Director, Data2X We measure what we value and value what we measure. This is a core tenet of data collection; but what does it mean for women and girls? When we…
Read more
Harnessing census data collection with citizen participation in SDGs
Javier Carranza Torres, GeoCensos Civic Tech Community founder In the spirit of the 2030 Agenda, a great diversity of stakeholders needs to be summoned to make available inclusive, disaggregated and valuable data for the SDG.…
Read more
Why a World Data Forum?
Claire Melamed, Executive Director, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data My first experience of data collection was running a survey in a small, isolated village in Northern Mozambique in the late 1990s as part of…
Read more
An opportunity for developing countries in SDG implementation
Hernán Muñoz, National Director of Statistical Planning and Coordination at the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina (INDEC). Coordination challenges within the National Statistical Systems of developing countries At the conclusion of the first…
Read more
Connecting data communities
Irena Križman, Vice President, International Statistical Institute (ISI) It is more than one year since the visionary Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were agreed to by 193 Member States of the United Nations. The broader data…
Read more
Reflections on the UN World Data Forum
Niels Ploug, Director of Social Statistics at Statistics Denmark As the weather is getting bad and the dark is getting even darker -it is winter in the North- we are working even harder on our…
Read more
The need for Open and Accessible data
Sanjay Kumar, CEO, Geospatial Media and Communications Data and Information are the key to the ‘digital age’ we live in today. Availability, Accessibility, and Utility of information are both testimonials and benchmark of human development…
Read more
Should ‘data literacy’ be promoted?
Emmanuel Letouzé, Director and co-Founder, Data-Pop Alliance; Visiting Scholar, MIT Media Lab. Part 1 of 2. This post is the first of two parts, and builds on the White Paper “Beyond Data Literacy: Reinventing Community…
Read more
Capacity Building, Yes – But How To Do It?
Johannes Jütting, Manager of the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) These days, keynote addresses on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) often end with the call to strengthen the capacity of…
Read more
Counting people to make people count
Harpinder Collacott, Executive Director at Development Initiatives “Data are the lifeblood of decision-making and the raw material for accountability.” -- “A World that Counts”, November 2014 As we prepare for the United Nations World Data…
Read more
Interview with Pali Lehohla
Pali Lehohla, South Africa’s Statistician-General and Head of Statistics South Africa and host of the very first United Nations World Data Forum What do you expect from the first-ever United Nations World Data Forum? What…
Read more
A crucial opportunity
Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the Statistics Division, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adopted one year ago by world leaders as part of the 2030 Agenda, are unprecedented in…
Read more
First-Ever UN World Data Forum
The first UN World Data Forum will be hosted by Statistics South Africa from 15 to 18 January 2017, with support from the Statistics Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, under…
Read more