This month began with the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), where representatives from member states of the United Nations and specialized agencies gathered to review the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. During this time, Open Data Watch co-hosted a side event with the International Women’s Deprivation Measures Agency and UN Women to discuss disaggregated data and new advancements for measurement approaches. As a hectic month comes to a close, Open Data Watch and the Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems at the International Development Research Centre released our second Knowledge Brief on gender and CRVS. Below is a list of additional sustainable development data articles and reports published in July. If there is something else to add, please contact us.
July
Achieving the SDGs with National Reporting Platforms Lessons Learned from the SDG National Reporting Initiative (July)
The Center for Open Data Enterprise (CODE) launched the SDG National Reporting Initiative to facilitate greater information-sharing on SDG reporting between international actors, governments, and local communities. The report summarizes the success and challenges that CODE encountered during their implementation of the SDG National Reporting Initiative. (source)
The Inclusive Data Charter: one year on (July)
Linsey Winters takes a look back at progress since the launch of the Inclusive Data Charter at the High-Level Political Forum in 2018. The Inclusive Data Charter (IDC) was created to meet the data disaggregation challenge, and to spur countries and organizations to take action. (source)
PATH and the Zambian Ministry of Health use data to track down the last malaria parasites (7/2)
The Tableau Software team authors an article for Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, on the Visualize No Malaria campaign. The campaign focuses on integrating tools and systems for data collection to support Zambia’s Ministry of Health in the battle against Malaria. (source)
Equal Measures 2030 announces funding from Global Affairs Canada to ensure data is being used to improve access to education for women and girls in conflict and crisis situations (7/5)
Equal Measures welcomes the announcement by Maryam Monsef, the Minister of International Development and Minister for Women and Gender Equality, that Global Affairs Canada will supply 1 million USD to support Equal Measures 2030 in the next two years. (source)
Let’s talk about Plugs (7/8)
Leigh Dodds, the Director of the Open Data Institute, illustrates the important aspects of data standards for a non-technical audience and how following such standards can make working with data much easier. He uses the concept of plugs to explain how each country has its own standards and how those are impacted by local expectations and safety standards. (source)
Rating a revolution (7/9)
Jonathan Glennie evaluates the SDG journey and data revolution in a blog post for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network TReNDS (SDSN TReNDS). Overall, he explains that the data revolution should be characterized as an “insurgency” rather than a “full-fledged revolution”. (source)
Executive Summary, Counting on the World to Act (2019) (7/15)
SDSN TReNDS releases a preview of their report, Counting on the World to Act. The executive summary outlines the fundamental building blocks for robust, inclusive, national data systems in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. (source)
Food and Agriculture Microdata Catalogue (7/16)
FAO launches the Food and Agriculture Microdata (FAM) catalog which holds an inventory of datasets collected through farming and household surveys relevant to agriculture, food security, and nutrition. (source)
CEO Claire Melamed’s remarks at the UK Voluntary National Review (7/16)
Claire Melamed, the CEO of The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, offers her opinions on the UK Voluntary National Review. She points out that the UK has been a champion of data innovation and provided resources and technical support to improve data mechanisms. (source)
The Bern Network: A global alliance to strengthen development data (7/16)
The Bern Network on Financing Data for Development publishes a new paper that outlines the plans for a new data financing facility to close the data gaps required to monitor SDG progress. (source)
Governments and Leaders Join Data for Sustainable Development Goals Movement (7/16)
The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data announces its new country partners, board members, and ‘Data for Sustainable Development Goals’ Ambassadors who will advocate for the use of data and technology to inform and lead the decisions of governments, companies, and citizens. (source)
Sustainable development will falter without data (7/17)
Jessica Espey authors a blog for Nature which describes how governments around the world can change to improve their national statistical systems. She explains that the limited infrastructures and capacity of current systems and lack of training add barriers to achieving the SDGs. (source)
House of Commons Committee Recommends Statistics Body Restructure (7/18)
Jane Bainbridge discusses the reasons why the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) requested the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) to be restructured. In a report on the governance of official statistics, PACAC argued that the dual role of the UK Statistics Authority in both producing and regulating official statistics has compromised its ability to ensure statistics serve the public good. (source)
Prioritising disability in universal health coverage (7/20)
The Lancet publishes an article on the importance of having health data and health coverage data disaggregated by disability. The report outlines the influence data has in breaking down the barriers to health care for people with disabilities and for improving the overall quality of care. (source)
Disaster Risk Reduction & Open Data Newsletter July 2019 (7/23)
SDSN TReNDS releases their weekly newsletter which focuses on the latest’s developments and events pertaining to the data collection for the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction. This month’s letter offers an assortment of upcoming events and features relevant publications on the matter. (source)
What’s next for SDG reporting? (7/30)
The Center for Open Data Enterprise (CODE) holds a webinar on lessons learned from their two-year SDG National Reporting Initiative and on next steps for SDG reporting. This webinar provides a review of the Initiative as well as lightning talks from SDG reporting experts at the global, national, and local levels on major reporting and data collection developments. (source)