WHAT
(TA2.12) Integrating Citizen Science into the Official SDG Monitoring Mechanisms and Introducing the Global Citizen Science Partnership (GCSP)
WHERE
Online
WHEN
Wednesday, October 6th from 10:00 - 11:00 AM Bern / 4:00 - 5:00 AM EST
About the Event
Description
Organizer(s): International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA); World Health Organization (WHO); United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity; Sustainable Development Solutions Network Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics (SDSN TReNDS); Global Citizen Science Partnership (GCSP)
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as an overarching policy framework and a roadmap to guide global development efforts until 2030, could benefit from the potential offered by citizen science, especially in addressing the data gaps and needs in the global SDG indicator framework. In fact, a recent study by Fraisl et al shows that citizen science has the potential to contribute to 33% of the SDG indicators by providing timely, accurate and more detailed information, while at the same time using much less resources. However, there is a lack of knowledge of the value of citizen science for SDG monitoring among UN agencies, National Statistical Offices (NSOs), policy makers and the citizen science community itself. Additionally, if Covid-19 has taught us one thing, it is that there’s a critical need for real-time data to understand and take action to deal with crises and emergencies and to reduce their impacts. In this session, after providing an overview on the potential of citizen science for SDG monitoring, as well the opportunities and challenges it presents, we will discuss our learnings from the Citizen Science for the SDGs (CS4SDGs) project. CS4SDGs is a partnership between IIASA, SDSN TReNDS, the Ghana Statistical Service, UNEP, Earth Challenge and others. We will provide concrete examples of citizen science data being used in innovative ways by NSOs and UN agencies for SDG monitoring, including for biodiversity and other environment related SDG indicators. We will highlight citizen science tools that could be leveraged to provide data for SDG monitoring for various indicators. Additionally, we will discuss the Citizen Science Global Partnership (CSGP) that is in the process of incorporation and that aims at leveraging citizen science for the SDGs. We will also present updates on the work conducted by McFeely and Nastav that provides a roadmap and offers a mechanism to use “unofficial data”, such as data from citizen science, to produce “official statistics” in order to populate the global SDG indicator framework, including reactions to this piece of work from the data and statistics community.
Speakers
Steve MacFeely (Speaker In-person) World Health Organization (WHO), Director of Data and Analytics
Dilek Fraisl (Speaker In-person) International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Research Scholar
Jillian Campbell (Speaker) United Nations Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), Head of Monitoring, Review and Reporting
Grant Cameron (Speaker) Sustainable Development Solutions Network Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics (SDSN TReNDS), Director
Albert van Jaarsveld (Speaker In-person) International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Director General
Kwame Fredua (Speaker) EPA, Environmental Economist
Rachel Bowers (Speaker) Ghana Statistical Service, ODI Fellow