In Fall 2022, SDSN TReNDS and Open Data Watch released the report, Overcoming Data Graveyards in Official Statistics: Catalyzing Uptake and Use, which aimed to provide conceptual clarity around the challenges of improving data use and a way forward for research by sourcing best practices from countries. This blog is the third in a blog series spotlighting insights and best practices from the countries profiled.
Read MoreLast Fall, SDSN TReNDS and Open Data Watch released the report, Overcoming Data Graveyards in Official Statistics: Catalyzing Uptake and Use, which aimed to provide conceptual clarity around the challenges of improving data use and a way forward for research by sourcing best practices from countries. This article is the second in a blog series spotlighting insights and best practices from the countries profiled.
Read MoreAt the halfway mark to 2030, there remains a great deal of attention and effort to improve the data and methods underlying the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator framework. The impetus to fill data gaps for the SDG indicators draws principally from the assumption that countries are planning and developing their policies with the SDG goals and targets as their guiding framework. As we enter 2023, our Director Grant Cameron takes stock of whether the SDGs have significantly impacted global and national policymaking and where should resources be directed to improve data for the SDGs over the next seven years.
Read MoreEarlier this year, SDSN TReNDS and Open Data Watch released the report, Overcoming Data Graveyards in Official Statistics: Catalyzing Uptake and Use, which aimed to provide conceptual clarity around the challenges of improving data use and a way forward for research by sourcing best practices from countries. This is the first post in a blog series that spotlights insights and best practices from the countries profiled.
Read More“Policymaking without data is a rudderless ship.” Indeed, data and statistics are fundamental to improving evidence-based decision-making. And while statistical capacity and the use of data for decision-making have improved across the globe, Africa still lags far behind other regions. This is especially true for civil registration and vital statistics (where only eight out of 50 African countries have a system to register deaths), climate data and environmental monitoring, and health data. In addition, even in African countries that have the data available, its use is often hindered by weak data literacy and data-driven policy design cultures. Fortunately, in recent years there have been some bright spots, including the rise of big data innovations and a number of regional and multi-stakeholder partnerships to tackle COVID-19 and other complex challenges. This African Statistics Day, we’ve highlighted a few of the noteworthy cases in which data-driven decision-making is improving development outcomes and decision-making on the continent.
Read MoreLocal action is critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. According to the UN, 3.5 billion people – nearly half of humanity – currently live in cities. And this number will only continue to increase over the next several decades. The latest UN-Habitat World Cities Report reports that the world will continue to urbanize over the next three decades – from 56 percent in 2021 to 68 percent in 2050 – an increase of 2.2 billion urban residents, living mostly in Africa and Asia. Cities are also becoming increasingly interconnected. As such, cities, particularly “Secondary Cities,” will play a critical role in advancing the sustainable development agenda in the years ahead.
Read MoreThis week marked the official end of the 77th UN General Assembly (UNGA), where leaders from across the globe convened in New York to confront the world’s biggest challenges, including the war in Ukraine, global supply chain and economic issues, rising interest rates and debt levels, climate change, and ending the COVID-19 pandemic. We provide a high-level snapshot of the data-related highlights from the week below.
Read MoreSince the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution, government agencies have used digital tools and technologies to support decision-making. More recently, tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which create, manage, analyze, and map all types of data, have become increasingly popular. And the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated their use, with recent innovative GIS applications ranging from the John Hopkins’ COVID-19 dashboard to the Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO)’s spatio-temporal analysis of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Amazon region to the World Health Organization’s use of GIS tools for contract tracing in Zimbabwe. One area of sustainable development where GIS is receiving significant attention is around SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation). Nearly two billion people globally still lack access to safely managed drinking water, and recent data shows that the world is not on track to meet SDG 6 by 2030.
Read MoreThis year’s session of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) culminated earlier this week, with 44 countries presenting their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) and hundreds of country delegates, leaders, and key stakeholders convening to discuss progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We review some of the key highlights discussed, including the importance of data infrastructure and timely, disaggregated data, the need for greater investments and financing for countries, and the value of localized and customized approaches to achieve the SDGs.
Read MoreDigital transformation – particularly the role of and the expansion of digital public goods – has become an increasingly central part of the discussion on how we tackle the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and what experts are calling the “most consequential geopolitical and geo-economic moment of the past three decades.” And these conversations are ripe throughout the global development space, particularly at the supra-national level. In this blog, TReNDS’ Alyson Marks highlights recent advancements to the digital transformation agenda and lessons the data community should consider to expand its influence.
Read MoreIn a new blog series on staff perspectives, TReNDS’ Research Manager, Castelline Tilus, reflects on her experiences working in a data science lab in Haiti.
Read MoreThe growth of Earth Observation data (EO) has skyrocketed over the past few years with technological advancements and a surge in new technologies. With these technologies, users can add more granularity, temporal, and localized information to their data. And the rise in EO shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. According to a recent analysis by Morgan Stanley, space-borne EO’s value is expected to exceed $25 billion USD by 2040. Additionally, a recent assessment highlights that existing EO systems could generate data for 33 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators across 14 goals. Consequently, governments are increasingly using this data for evidence-based decision-making on sustainable development challenges. Yet, countries in the Global South, particularly in Africa, continue to face challenges with harnessing the breadth and complexity of EO data for decision-making on sustainable development issues. TReNDS’ latest research paper explores the bottlenecks to use and the types of partnerships that may prove beneficial to overcoming these challenges.
Read MoreCities have been leading on innovation to improve civic outcomes for decades – with the origins of the “smart cities” revolution first taking shape in 1970s Los Angeles. Yet, the growth of “smart cities” along with the surge in new technologies and a global pandemic have contributed to the unprecedented data collection, production, and analysis demands facing national and local governments today. In response, a number of cities around the world have recently instituted a Chief Data Officer (CDO) position to improve their data stewardship for better service delivery and policymaking. To better understand how the experiences of CDOs at the city and sub-national levels can help to inform their national counterparts, SDSN TReNDS conducted initial research on this issue, and this blog highlights a number of emerging findings for National Statistics Offices.
Read MoreWhile it may serve as a surprise to some, citizen science has been around for thousands of years. With the influx of new technologies in recent years, such as mobile applications and remote sensing, citizen science has grown in popularity as researchers, governments, and citizens are now able to more seamlessly collaborate. In particular, citizen science has become a critical tool for helping to measure progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as fill data gaps. TReNDS’ expert members’ research, work at the country-level, as well as recent discussions on citizen science have helped to highlight the use of citizen science to fill important data gaps, the value of multistakeholder partnerships to mobilize citizen science initiatives at the local level, as well as the importance of garnering national buy-in.
Read MoreAt this time of the year, there is no shortage of predictions of what lies ahead. Typing “year ahead 2022” into your web browser alone yields 885 million results – more than one for every ten people on the planet. And for big data enthusiasts, limiting the search terms to “year ahead,” “big data,” and “2022” returns 300,000+ articles covering data trends, top tech predictions, and what we can expect from big data analytics. The results are spottier, however, when we search for what’s in store for national data ecosystems and the implications for sustainable development. Yet, efficient national data ecosystems and better use of data are critical to helping organizations from the public sector, private sector, and civil society achieve better outcomes, particularly in sustainable development. TReNDS’ Director, Grant Cameron, reflects on how these types of organizations will evolve in their use of data in the year ahead, what it means for the national and global data ecosystems, and how these changes will contribute to sustainable development.
Read MoreWhile the global landscape has rapidly shifted over the past several years, it’s no secret that countries from the Global South continue to be under-represented in research, often marginalized, and in some cases, even exploited. Fortunately, the power dynamics are beginning to change. In recent years, South-South collaboration has been particularly active in the data space, with more open source tools and new data sources, including citizen science, being generated at the local-level to inform decision-making. To help bolster this shift, TReNDS’ sub-group on North-South Exchange is working to crowd in more voices from the Global South as well as encouraging more documentation, discussion, and diffusion of lessons learned to catalyze South-South and triangular data collaborations. Recent conversations and members’ research have underscored the significance of involving local stakeholders in projects from the onset, customizing needs based on the local context, and developing local communities of practice to ensure long-term sustainability.
Read MoreIn many places, local governments have been at the forefront of innovation around data for sustainable development. For years, cities have been combining traditional and novel data sources to measure performance and benchmark against other cities, to create dashboards to inform citizens, and to advance local policymaking. TReNDS’ research on data governance and stewardship at the municipal and local levels illustrates how national governments and international organizations can benefit from the lessons learned around cities’ approach to data stewardship.
Read MoreNew data sources and innovative approaches using big data techniques, spatial analysis, predictive modeling, and other technologies are creating a range of new datasets that can help measure and monitor SDG-related targets and indicators. And while data availability is vital to tackling any global agenda, more data does not always guarantee good decision-making. To take meaningful action–whether it be a global crisis, like the COVID-19 pandemic, or the recent earthquake in Haiti–policymakers and other SDG stakeholders must understand what data are fit-for-purpose. Earth observation (EO) and remote sensing products have emerged as an important source of data that present an opportunity to monitor environmental, agricultural, and other SDG-related indicators in fine temporal and spatial resolutions. With the increase of near real-time information, how do users identify the best-suited data source for their application of interest?
Read MoreCalls for open data, data sharing, data accessibility, and data literacy often coincide with this positive outlook on data as a democratizing force.
Read MoreThe SDGs present an unprecedented monitoring challenge, and the potential for ‘big data’ to support these efforts has incited considerable enthusiasm.
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