Looking back at the year, 2018 was packed with international conferences such as the United Nations World Data Forum and the International open Data Conference as well as and report launches like OECD’s Development Co-operation Report and the Africa Data Revolution Report. The case was no different for the last month of the year. Below we take stock of the latest news and development in the development data space for December.
December 2018
Valuation of the New Zealand Census (December)
SDSN TReNDS releases a case study that evaluates the 2014 New Zealand Census to demonstrate its economic and social benefits. The census has provided reliable data to improve healthcare allocation and the understanding of marginalized communities such as the Māori indigenous population. (source)
A Decade of Leveraging Big Data for Sustainable Development (December)
Robert Kirkpatrick, Director of UN Global Pulse, discusses the importance of safeguarding the new technologies used for the data revolution while also maintaining inclusivity. (source)
Handpump Data Improves Water Access (December)
The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and the SDSN TReNDS team publish a case study linking the functionality of water serves in Kenya to an initiative called the Smart Handpump Project. (source)
E-Handbook of Statistics 2018 (December)
This electronic handbook released by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development provides relevant data on international trade and investment to serve as a guide for decision makers, researchers, and civil society organizations. (source)
Civil registration and vital statistics benefit health, child protection, and governance (December)
The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and the SDSN Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics team provide an overview of the importance of civil registration and vital statistics for development. (source)
The cost of not educating girls in Africa (12/1)
The Lancet explains the correlation between child marriage and education in an effort to explain the importance of eradicating child marriage. Completion of secondary school is correlated with healthier women and girls; therefore, a strong policy approach is needed in Africa where only 40 percent of girls are completing lower secondary education. (source)
Measuring and responding to demand for official statistics (12/4)
In an AidData blog, Mihr Prakash and Tanya Sethi discuss the importance of domestic data use and the efforts needed to maximize the use of data, based on a recent report from AidData and Open Data Watch. (source)
Detecting and mapping slums using open data: a case study in Kenya (12/4)
This case study on three cities in Kenya explores a new data collection approach which connects traditional data sources with open data sources to include additional indicators in order to produce better maps of slums. (source)
NEWSDESKLaunch of the SDG 4 Data Digest: Tools to Improve Learning Globally (12/4)
The UNESCO Institute for Statistics launched a report demonstrating the importance of data to foster learning and to close the global education gap. This internationally-comparable data set will allow for more education assessments and can be used for evidence-based policy approaches. (source)
2030 Agenda: ‘An Unprecedented Statistical Challenge’ (12/6)
A report released by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development highlights how the SDGs motivate statistical advances. Steve MacFeely explains that the data gap within the 2030 agenda has also inadvertently re-designed the traditional role of statistics. (source)
Tapping into the Potential of Gender Data (12/10)
In this interview with Emily Courey Pryor, the Executive Director of Data2x, Sabin Muzaffar asks about alleviating gender-based poverty by filling gender data gaps. (source)
Development Co-operation Report 2018: Joining Forces to Leave No One Behind (12/11)
The OECD explains the meaning of “Leave No One Behind” and the efforts needed to close global data gaps. The report takes a critical look at the current data available in order to develop better policies. (source)
DESA Assesses National Progress on SDG 7 through 2018 VNRs (12/11)
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs publish a report analysis on SDG 7, including 46 Voluntary National Reviews. While there are many encouraging reviews the report find that greater efforts are needed to accomplish SDG 7 by 2030. (source)
Mission Billion Challenge (12/13)
Samantha Lynch explains the World Bank’s new initiative, the Mission Billion Challenge. This initiative focuses on addressing the global identity gap by targeting one specific issue related to digital identity each year by forming partnerships and through advocacy. (source)
Can a Centralized Digital Repository Support Country-level Data Use and Sharing? (12/13)
Kathryn Alexander from Development Gateway explains in this blog post how the Development Data Library can provide new data sharing opportunities around the world. (source)
Charts of the week: Africa data (12/14)
Fred Dews from Brookings offers insight on three graphics which explain the economic state of Sub-Saharan Africa. The review highlights worrying trends such as the deceleration of extreme poverty reduction in Africa. (source)
Harnessing the Digital Revolution for Sustainable Development (12/17)
Maria Ramos from Project Syndicate explains how the digitalization of finance can have significant effects on the Sustainable Development Goals in the Global South. (source)
Education in Africa: Why data collection plays a key role (12/17)
The Ministries of Education from Burkina Faso, Morocco, and Egypt joined together in this blog post for the Association for the Development of Education in Africa to explain why data is needed to manage and guide education programs in Africa. (source)
Enabling policy, empowering communities: on local data for the Sustainable Development Goals (12/17)
Jonathan Glennie from SDSN TReNDS explains the importance of harnessing new data methods and leveraging local data to fill data gaps. Glennie explains that local data is needed to fill the SDG data gap since, at the moment, only 100 of the 230 indicators for the SDGs have data. (source)
Advancing Sustainability Together: Launching new report on citizen-generated data and its relevance for the SDGs (12/17)
Open Knowledge International announced the release of their report, Advancing Sustainability Together? Citizen-Generated Data and the Sustainable Development Goals. This report functions as a guide for governments on the use of citizen-generated data and explicitly states how it can be used for decision making. (source)
An individual look at poverty, across multiple dimensions (12/18)
Isis Gaddis, from the World Bank explores the gender data gap in poverty indices. Particularly, she explains why household poverty measures overlook women. (source)
UNU Launches Data Visualizations on Modern Slavery, Child Labor (12/20)
On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery UN University launched “data dashboards” to explain global trends of forced labor and human trafficking through graphic visualizations. (source)
Improving government digital services: 7 takeaways from 2018 (12/21)
Rachel Kauff from Civic Actions reflects on seven lessons learned throughout 2018 for improving government digital services to help make government work better. (source)
Year in Review: 2018 in 14 Charts (12/21)
Donna Barne and Divyanshi Wadhwa at the World Bank published 14 charts to explain the global development trends of 2018. These charts tell stories about the challenges being faced and offer insight for future efforts. (source)
Digging for data (12/24)
Prabin Rokaya explains how an open data policy can help Nepal improve its resilience to natural disasters and achieve goals related to climate change. This article argues that the lack of adequate data is one of the biggest challenges in pursuing environmental research in Nepal. (source)
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