This month, heads of state, governments, companies, and organizations at all levels of society gathered virtually for the 75th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly and the fifth anniversary of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Open Data Watch continues our efforts to examine where the world has fallen short on the data needed for the Sustainable Development Goals and to identify critical pathways to get back on track.
Below is a selected list of sustainable development data articles and reports published in September. For specific articles on the intersection of development data and COVID-19, visit our “Data in the Time of COVID-19″. If there is something else to add, please contact us.
September
We’ve launched a compendium on civil registration and social protection systems (September)
The International Development Research Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems launches a compendium series highlighting the importance of legal identity for accessing essential services such as health care and education. The compendium series includes countries cases from Argentina, Chile, Namibia, South Korea, and Tunisia. (source)
Global Forest Resources Assessments (September)
The Food and Agriculture Organization releases the first-ever and most comprehensive global forest resource assessment database with an interactive platform and dashboard. The portal provides essential information for understanding the extent of forest resources, their condition, management, and uses.(source)
Report: A Global Movement for Better Data & Better Lives (September)
The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data releases a new report to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The report highlights partners from the private sector, civil society, academia, and the government who have joined to leverage data and technology inclusively. (source)
15 African statisticians unite to advance gender data across the continent (9/2)
Sara Jerving authors a piece for Devex on Data2X’s Africa Gender Data Network with United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. She explains that the Gender Data Network unites African statisticians to share best practices on what has worked — or what has failed — in their countries and learn the latest methodologies on gender data collection. (source)
Open Data Center for Health enables Côte d’Ivoire’s health workers to improve HIV program coverage (9/9)
Development Gateway reflects on the official end of the Open Data Center for Health (OpenDCH) project. The OpenDCH, which lasted two years, provided the Côte d’Ivoire’s health officials with data-driven information, and ultimately supported health workers to improve HIV program coverage. (source)
Statistics South Africa goes to the field for the Post-enumeration Survey, (PES) 2021 Trial from September 09th 2020 to October 07th 2020 (9/9)
Stats South Africa explains that their staff is currently in the field for the Census 2021 Trial Post-Enumeration Survey (PES). Fieldworkers are visiting households until September 22nd and are following all the COVID-19 safety protocols. (source)
Government publishes new strategy to kickstart data revolution across the UK (9/9)
The United Kingdom releases a new strategy to kickstart a data revolution across the UK and boost the use of data to drive national growth. This new national data strategy aims to help develop interoperable data infrastructure and use data to guide COVID-19 recovery efforts. (source)
Meet a TReNDS’ Expert: Muchiri Nyaggah (9/10)
SDSN TReNDS welcomes the newest TReNDS’ expert member, Muchiri Nyaggah, the Co-Founder and Executive Director at the Local Development Research Institute and Senior Fellow at Results for Development. This piece features an interview with Muchiri Nyaggah and discusses his latest achievements and thoughts about development data. (source)
Building trust with ethics of data sharing (9/14)
In preparation for the United Nations World Data Forum, Shimonti Paul, the Associate Editor of Geospatial Media and Communications, authors a piece on data sharing issues and ethical data use. (source)
With crisis comes innovation: How COVID-19 is changing National Statistical Systems (9/14)
Cameron Allen, the Senior Advisor of SDSN TReNDS, explains that the increased demand for data during COVID-19 has accelerated the modernization of national statistical offices (NSOs) and fast-tracked their investments to shift to remote work and online survey collection. (source)
Towards a post-privacy world: proposed bill would encourage agencies to widely share your data (9/16)
Bruce Baer Arnold, Assistant Professor, School of Law, University of Canberra, discusses the “Data Availability and Transparency Bill”, released by the Australian government to increase citizen data sharing between public sectors. He believes that while the data could be beneficial for providing transparency and developing policy, data privacy must be also upheld. (source)
Finding missing data; creating actionable information; solving development problems (9/17)
The latest blog from the World Development Report 2021 series discusses the importance of data between public and private sectors and the importance of diverse partnerships for solving complex development problems. (source)
2020 Goalkeepers Report Covid-19: A Global Perspective (9/20)
The Gates Foundation publishes the 2020 Goalkeepers report and highlights two goals. The first is to analyze the damage COVID-19 has had on progress to the SDGs. The second is to argue for a collaborative response as there’s no national solution to a global crisis. (source)
New policy brief: participatory data ecosystems to close COVID-19 data trust deficit (9/21)
Julie Magdalene and Archita Misra author a piece for PARIS21 on the participatory data ecosystem. The brief explores the growing distrust of citizens and their governments, and the importance of connecting citizens to public data sources to increase trust. (source)
Q&A: Kenya launches first women’s empowerment index (9/21)
Catherine Cheney authors a piece for Devex on Kenya’s first women’s empowerment index, which is used to track gender equality in the country. The study finds that only 29 percent of women in Kenya between the ages of 15 and 49 are empowered. (source)
The World is On Fire. Data Can Help (9/24)
Andrew Zahuranec authors a piece for Medium on why data is key to reducing carbon emissions and stopping climate change’s ongoing impact. He explains that evidence-based policies and interventions can be designed to alleviate this crisis by leveraging new data methods. (source)
Where’s the “real-time” data on gender equality? (9/25)
To celebrate the Global Goals Day of Factivism, Alison Holder, the director of Equal Measures 2030, discusses the value of up to date gender data for evidence-based advocacy. She celebrates the power of facts for capturing attention and exposing injustice. (source)
Announcing the Handbook on Using Administrative Data for Research and Evidence-based Policy (8/25)
J-PAL launches a handbook on using administrative data for research and evidence-based policy. The manual includes case studies such as the Government of Indonesia’s use of administrative data to improve social protection. (source)
To Achieve Progress on Gender Equality, Gender Data Must Be at the Forefront (9/30)
Eric Swanson and Tawheeda Wahabzada of Open Data Watch, author a blog for the Inter Press Service on our research with Data2X that reveals significant gender data gaps in the Latin America and Caribbean region. (source)
Gender Data for Generation Equality: A Brief Series (9/30)
To end the month, Data2X publishes a new brief series on how gender data and accountability partake in accelerating gender equality. The briefs demand investments to close gender data gaps on topics such as gender-based violence, economic justice, and sexual and reproductive health. (source)