INTRODUCTION

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reflects a unique global consensus and commitment to address the world’s most acute and pressing challenges. But to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to leave no one behind, everyone in the world should be represented in up-to-date and timely data that can be used to measure progress and make decisions to improve people’s lives. However, too much of our data remains out-of-date, and too many people are missing from the numbers. For example, poverty data on two-thirds of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa are more than 5 years old.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Established in September 2019, the Data For Now initiative aims to increase the use of new and robust methods and tools that improve the timeliness, coverage, and quality of SDG data through collaboration and partnership, technical and capacity support, and information sharing. Eight pilot countries  – Colombia, Paraguay, Senegal, Rwanda, Ghana, Mongolia, Nepal, and Bangladesh – are currently involved in the project, and there are plans for further country expansion throughout the coming years. The project is led by four core partners: TReNDS, The World Bank, The United Nations Statistics Division, and The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. 

TReNDS supports this initiative in three primary areas: (1) Connecting Data For Now country partners, NSO representatives, and other country-level policymakers to national and regional universities and SDSN Member Organizations; (2) Linking identified data gaps, national priorities, and needs to SDSN TReNDS experts – inviting universities, academics, and experts in particular technical fields to engage with country partners directly; and (3) Coordinating with global data suppliers/producers to produce robust and high-frequency datasets on key SDG targets and ensuring that international datasets become more accessible and responsive to country partner needs.

RESOURCES

Published Materials

With support from GIZ, TReNDS provided subgrants to partners to conduct in-country work in Colombia, Paraguay, and Senegal. The following reports were authored by the partners:

• Report on Capacity-Building Project with DANE, Colombia’s National Department of Statistics

• Towards a Water Information System in Paraguay: Main Findings and Recommendations

• Report of the Research Committee for the Realization of an Inventory of Data and Tools in the Cadastral Sector in Senegal

Presentations and Events

In-country workshops on Gridded Population Data

In November 2020, in collaboration with the POPGRID Data Collaborative, TReNDS hosted a series of workshops centered around the use of gridded population datasets for the SDGs for partner countries involved in the Data For Now initiative.

For more information and to partner with TReNDS on the Data For Now initiative, contact Maryam.Rabiee@unsdsn.org.