The new year kicked off with meetings such as the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland and a roundtable on financing for data in Bern shortly thereafter. Outside the conference room, Open Data Watch, Cepei and PARIS21 launched the third webinar of the ‘Beyond the Numbers: Harnessing Data for the SDGs’ webinar series titled, Non-traditional Data Sources: An Opportunity to Measure Sustainable Development. Below is a list of additional sustainable development data articles and reports were published in January. If there is something else to add, please contact us.
January
PARIS21 Discussion and Strategy Papers (Jan)
PARIS21 releases their latest discussion paper on mobilizing data for the SDGs. Specifically, the report focuses on new funding approaches that will help close the data gap, specifically the new “Data Acceleration Facility.” (source)
DG White Paper Release: The Custom Assessment and Landscaping Methodology (1/03)
Development Gateway announces the release of their new paper on design strategies for monitoring and evaluation systems. The report includes two case studies from the DFID and the Government of Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Water Development to demonstrate the effects of more balanced M&E systems. (source)
Can a set of equations keep U.S. census data private? (1/04)
The U.S Census Bureau announces a new mathematical concept called differential privacy to protect the privacy of citizens during census data collection, however, this system is still unable to ensure privacy. (source)
Opinion: The promises — and challenges — of data collaboratives for the SDGs (1/07)
Devex offers a critical review of data collaboratives and their role in the 2030 agenda. While new public-private partnerships will join data systems to release more complete datasets this field still faces barriers that make them less effective, scalable, and sustainable. (source)
NSOs talk about their recent integration of new technologies (01/07)
This PARIS21 podcast discusses the experiences and challenges of integrating national statistics with emerging data ecosystems in an effort to explain the effects of multidimensional partnerships. (source)
How well can you plan your survey: the analysis of 2,000 surveys in 143 countries (1/10)
A World Bank blog post by Michael Lokshin offers an analysis on a large number of virtual surveys conducted in developing countries. Findings show that many data collection agencies have not been able to properly plan their fieldwork which has resulted in poor quality data and overblown budgets. (source)
Women and Children Need Better Data (1/10)
The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics discuss the monitoring challenges of the SDGs and the accompanying implications in regards to women’s health. (source)
How Will Women Fare as Cities Grow Dramatically? The Data Are Missing (1/13)
Laura Kirkpatrick from PassBlue explains how increased population density is projected to affect women in major cities. Results find that population growth in cities could increase security threats for women. (source)
Take steps to restore trust in official statistics (1/14)
The Japan Times explains how Japan plans to restore trust in official statistics and the complications of improper data collection. The government understands that statistics serve as a foundation for policy-making and they are working to ensure that improper data collection is not repeated. (source)
The OPEN Government Data Act is now law (1/15)
President Trump signs a Foundations for Evidence Based Policymaking Act which enables all non-sensitive government data to be readily available and easy to download. (source)
Can We Use Open Data to Advance Gender-inclusive Development? (1/15)
Open Data Labs explains how data can be used to include women in development policy. Their research is based in Indonesia and explains how open data can have different effects on women. (source)
To keep track of the SDGs, we need a data revolution (1/16)
Steve MacFeely, chief Statistician at UNCTAD, outlines the economic cost of acquiring sufficient data for the SDGs. The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data estimates that $650 million dollars per year is needed to fill the SDG data gap. The current funding falls $400 million dollars short of projections. (source)
Reflections on the World Data Forum: Harnessing Data for Development (1/16)
The Asia Foundation published an article offering reflections of the UN World Data Forum 2018 in Dubai. (source)
Can satellite data help monitor sustainable rural development? (1/17)
Sue Palminteri from Mongabay explains how spatial data collection is collecting individual level farm data to monitor rural poverty. This integration of satellite data will help map the poorest households and can be used to monitor SDG progress in the coming years. (source)
New youth-led global data initiative for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals kicks-off in Tanzania (1/21)
26 young data innovators, chosen from around the world, are meeting to launch Goalkeepers Youth Action Accelerator. This initiative will be a ground-breaking data project that implements data projects in each of the goalkeeper’s countries. Projects will work to improve data collection for the SDGs all over the world. (source)
Opinion: 2019 — the year we leave no one behind? (1/23)
Devex reports on the disability inclusivity data progress. In order to leave no one behind, data collection on persons with disabilities needs to be prioritized so that disability services can be allocated properly and funded. (source)
Shifting our mindset on financing data for the Sustainable Development Goals (1/23)
Sarah Lucas of Hewlett Foundation shares her thoughts on the financing for SDG data agenda ahead of a global donors meeting in Bern, Switzerland. The dialogue examines political and financial hurdles that development data faces. (source)
Make it convenient, make it credible (1/23)
Haishan Fu, the director of the World Bank’s Development Data Group, explains the importance of collecting quality data that is machine-readable and able to be combined with other data. (source)
Data Foundation report reveals overwhelming optimism about the state of open data (1/23)
A new study released by the Data Foundation reveals optimism in the US government’s open data. However, some data advocates remain worried that the government could endanger political datasets. (source)
How educators use assessment data to improve student learning in Nepal: Challenges and solutions (1/25)
Nepal is conducting a continuous assessment of students learning achievement to help weaker students receive remedial teaching. This an important step, however, policy is difficult to implement due to a shortage of teachers and large classroom sizes. (source)
On Earth observations for evidence-based policymaking, and other reflections from the WEF Annual Meeting 2019 (1/28)
Steven Ramage from SDSN TReNDS emphasizes the value of earth observations for policy making and filling SDG data gaps. His focus is on ledger technology and machine learning, specifically using these tools to gather data for the SDGs. (source)
The data challenges undermining the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (1/29)
Mahmoud Mohieldin and Haishan Fu look at the necessary steps for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The key to achieving the goals is to invest in data innovations and data interoperability and reinforce systematic statistical capacity. (source)
How death registration supports the rights of women and girls (1/29)
Nomthandazo Malambo and Irina Dincu from IDRC highlight the often-ignored topic of death registration and its impact on women and girls. Death registration is necessary for reducing maternal mortality and serves as legal documentation for the surviving children in order for them to access inheritance and property rights, along with other public services. (source)
Can the Sustainable Development Goals Be Measured by Satellite? (1/31)
Singularity Hub reviews a paper released by Aarhus University in Denmark, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This paper demonstrates how remotely-sensed satellite data can be used to monitor the SDGs. The study reveals that this method could provide cheaper, accurate, and unbiased data sets for the SDGs. (source)