September was a busy month for the development data community. Held in New York City, the UN General Assembly (UNGA 74) brought together stakeholders, politicians, donors, and statisticians to discuss topics such as data interoperability, civil registration and vital statistics, and financing for data.
Below is a list of additional sustainable development data articles and reports published in September. If there is something else to add, please contact us.
September
The Uncounted (September)
In his forthcoming book “Uncounted,” author Alex Cobham argues that the systematic gaps in economic and demographic data not only lead us to understate a wide range of damaging inequalities, but also to actively exacerbate them. (source)
Big Data and Gender Brief Series (September)
Data2x launches a brief describing how big data can be used to improve the understanding of the daily realities of women and girls. The brief includes case studies on data use to show how big data innovations can fill gender data gaps and improve knowledge of trends surrounding the lives of women and girls. (source)
Monitoring Sustainable Development Goal 6 in Fiji with UNICEF (September)
The Akvo foundation reports on the progress Fiji has made in monitoring SDG goal 6 with the support of UNICEF. They explain that together with the UNICEF and the World Health Organization, Akvo is working with the government of Fiji to streamline their data process and promote policies that support the achievement of SDG 6. (source)
The Partner Report on Support to Statistics Press 2019 (September)
PARIS21 releases a report to promote better use and production of statistics in the developing world. The report shows that between 2016 and 2017, official development assistance to data and statistics rose 11%, from US 623 million to US 689 million, largely driven by the adoption of the SDGs. (source)
Counting on the World to Act (September)
SDSN TReNDs released Counting on the World to Act, which serves as a roadmap for governments to achieve modern data systems for development and tackle today’s most pressing data collection challenges such as data interoperability, financing, and capacity. (source)
More men than women are literate (9/5)
Divyanshi Wadhwa from the World Bank Group reports on the gender gap in global literacy rates. She demonstrates, that while Europe, Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and East Asia have almost closed the gap, other regions such as South Asia have enormous gaps reaching almost 20 percent. (source)
Workshop on Citizen Generated Data in the Philippines (9/5)
PARIS21 highlights the recent work of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and their enhancement of the national strategy for the development of statistics. PARIS21 mentions that the PSA is looking to explore citizen-generated data to close their data gaps. (source)
Time after time: How men and women spend their time and what it means for individual and household poverty and wellbeing (9/9)
Eliana Rubiano-Matulevic, Mariana Viollaz, and Christopher Walsh, from the World Bank Group, demonstrate the importance accessing gender-disaggregated time use data to understand paid and unpaid work for production work, unpaid childcare, personal care activities, and social activities. The authors explain that the traditional approach of measuring poverty at the household level masks the differences between men and women. (source)
An easy quick-start guide to CBS open data (9/11)
Miriam van der Sangen, from Statistics Netherlands, releases a quick start guide to understanding the new Statistics Netherlands’ Innovation Portal, which she explains, makes national datasets more publicly available. She states that this new initiative entices new users such as public authorities, businesses, and private citizens to use national data sources. (source)
Ministry plans to go from open platform to eventual monetization of cities’ data (9/11)
Damini Nath from the Hindu Times reveals a new open data platform in India that plans to hold 2,783 data catalogs from 99 Smart Cities by 2020. The article explains that the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) will lead this initiative and use this data to improve the daily lives of citizens, such as using data to track public transportation patterns. (source)
Why should we care about data ethics? (9/14)
Open Data Institute publishes seven reasons why we should care about data ethics. They aim to instigate a conversation surrounding data regulations so that organizations begin thinking broadly about their work and the impact data ethics have on their customers and society. (source)
Reflecting on “Niche” Commitments Made at Biarritz (9/16)
Megan O’Donnell and Mayra Buvinic reflect on the commitment the G7 and the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council made regarding closing gender gaps. They conclude the article by stating that the G7 countries will need accountability systems so that they can rely on evidence when making legislative and financing decisions about women. (source)
Indigenous Peoples Update Finds “Persistent Invisibility” in Official Statistics (9/17)
Catherine Benson Wahlén, from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, underscores the importance of disaggregating data by indigenous status. She highlights the inclusion of indigenous people in national data sources as a vital step to understanding the structural barriers indigenous people face. (source)
LGBTQ-Inclusive Data Collection: A Lifesaving Imperative (9/17)
Human Rights Campaign’s new report “LGBTQ-Inclusive Data Collection: A Lifesaving Imperative,” reveals how the failure of state and federal officials to collect full and accurate data on sexual orientation and gender identity is causing harm to the LGBTQ community and leaving the community invisible to government services and legal protection. (source)
Bern Network Outlines Proposed Data Financing Facility (9/19)
The Bern Network on Financing Data for Development releases a proposal for a multi-donor Financing Facility that would enable stakeholder collaboration to support the 2030 Agenda by promoting stronger partnerships and a robust funding framework. (source)
IRC: 26 Million Refugees Missing from Sustainable Development Goals (9/23)
A new report from the International Rescue Committee indicates that the world’s refugee population is absent from the Sustainable Development Goals. According to the report, not a single country is reporting on refugee socio-economic data. (source)
Access to Timely, Relevant, Disaggregated Data Remains Major Hurdle, Deputy Secretary-General Tells ‘Data4Now’ Event (9/25)
The UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed highlights the urgency needed to improve the availability and timeliness of data for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the ‘Data4Now’ sideline event at the United Nations General Assembly. She states that global actors need to respond, “here and now with data.” (source)
Navigating the politics of open data: Outcome document (9/25)
Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) Program alongside Open Data Watch, UN Women, with support from the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data releases an outcome document from their High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) side event, Navigating the Politics of Open Data: Learning from producers, users, and partners. The outcome document pieces together the discussions that took place during the event surrounding disaggregated data and new measurement approaches. (source)
New Google, UN partnership aims to ‘turn on the tap’ to SDG data (9/26)
Amy Lieberman from Devex reflects on the newly formed ‘Data4Now’ partnership between the United Nations, the World Bank Group and actors like Google and the Alibaba Group. She explains that this new initiative plans to link Google Earth satellite imagery and mobile phone data with governments to confront the most complex development challenges. (source)
UN seeks to plug data gap in developing countries (9/30)
Anita Makri authors a piece for SciDevNet on the ‘Data4Now’ partnership and how it will foster partnerships between the United Nations, the private sector, civil society, and donors. She mentions that the first countries to join are Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, Mongolia, Nepal, Paraguay, Rwanda, and Senegal. (source)