The UN Secretary-General’s Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development (IEAG) presented a report, A World That Counts: Mobilising The Data Revolution for Sustainable Development.
Among its recommendations the group of over 20 international experts convened by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proposed that the UN establish a process whereby key stakeholders create a “Global Consensus on Data,” to adopt principles concerning legal, technical, privacy, geospatial and statistical standards “which, among other things, will facilitate openness and information exchange and promote and protect human rights.”
Overall, the panel identified “two big global challenges for the current state of data:
– The challenge of invisibility (gaps in what we know from data, and when we find out
– The challenge of inequality (gaps between those who with and without information, and what they need to know make their own decisions).
“Strong leadership” from the UN “is vital for the success of this process,” according to the group established in August 2014.
Also suggested was creation of “mechanisms through which technology and innovation can be shared and used for the common good. The group proposed ?to create a global “Network of Data Innovation Networks,” to bring together the organisations and experts in the field.
In addition, the group recommended that “a new funding stream to support the data revolution for sustainable development should be endorsed at the “Third International Conference on Financing for Development,” in Addis Ababa in July 2015.
In this regard, it said, “An assessment will be needed of the scale of investments, capacity development and technology transfer that is required, especially for low income countries; and proposals developed for mechanisms to leverage the creativity and resources of the private sector. Funding will also be needed to implement an education program aimed at improving people’s, infomediaries’ and public servants’ capacity and data literacy to break down barriers between people and data.”
A UN-led “Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data” is proposed, “to mobilise and coordinate the actions and institutions required to make the data revolution serve sustainable development, promoting several initiatives, such as:
- “World Forum on Sustainable Development Data” to bring together the whole data ecosystem to share ideas and experiences for data improvements, innovation, advocacy and technology transfer. The first Forum should take place at the end of 2015, once the SDGs are agreed;
- “Global Users Forum for Data for SDGs”, to ensure feedback loops between data producers and users, help the international community to set priorities and assess results;
- Brokering key global public-private partnerships for data sharing.
The group also recommended, “Establishing a `SDGs data lab’ to support the development of a first wave of SDG indicators, developing an SDG analysis and visualisation platform using the most advanced tools and features for exploring data, and building a dashboard from diverse data sources on `the state of the world.’ ”
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