6 November 2014: The Independent Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development launched its final report, titled ‘A World That Counts: Mobilizing The Data Revolution for Sustainable Development,’ which will inform the UN Secretary General’s synthesis report on the post-2015 development agenda and the subsequent intergovernmental process.

The report was published on 6 November 2014, when the Group also presented it to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York, US, and held a briefing for UN Member States.

The report highlights two global challenges for the current state of data: the “challenge of invisibility,” and the “challenge of inequality.” To address these challenges, the report calls for a UN-led effort to mobilize the data revolution for sustainable development. It sets out basic principles for the data revolution: 1) data quality and integrity; 2) data disaggregation; 3) data timeliness; 4) data transparency and openness; 5) data usability and duration; 6) data protection and privacy; 7) data governance and independence; 8) data resources and capacity; and 9) data (human) rights, including the right to be counted, the right to due process, and the right to privacy and ownership of personal data.

Amina Mohammed, Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning and an ex-officio member of the IEAG, said the report seeks to advance a common understanding of what “data revolution” means, and of what needs to be done, to enable UN Member States to start looking at recommendations. She underlined the needs for reliable and credible statistics in a timely manner, for disaggregated data and for strengthening national statistics capacities, noting that indicators will have an important role in linking data and the post-2015 development agenda.

Remarks from Thomas Gass, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and an ex-officio IEAG member, emphasized that DESA will carefully examine recommendations provided in the report and bring them to relevant fora such as the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the UN Statistical Division. He noted that data is a crucial pillar for the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda, and the basis for evidence-based decision-making.

Enrico Giovannini, IEAG Co-chair, noted that the Group was not supposed to touch on goals, targets or indicators. He identified two main problems with the ongoing data revolution: the unequal distribution of data revolution between countries and people – caused by lack of resources, knowledge, capacity and opportunity – and the invisibility of some groups resulting from the many gaps in the current data. He stressed that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will cover a wider range of issues than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), meaning monitoring will require greater investment. He said the report pushes toward a paradigm shift, its key message being that data are useful not only to monitor sustainable development but also to achieve sustainable development, as the new technologies will make the separation between implementation and monitoring disappear.

Giovannini then presented five groups of recommendations offered in the report: 1. developing a global consensus on principles and standards – setting common principles, building trust and confidence among data users, facilitating openness and information exchange, protecting and promoting human rights; 2. sharing technology and innovations for the common good – creating mechanisms for sharing and using technology for the common good, adopting best practices for improving the monitoring; 3. creating new resources for capacity development – endorsing a new funding stream to support the data revolution for sustainable development, possibly at the third International Conference on Financing for Developing (FfD); 4. promoting leadership for coordination and mobilization – creating a UN-led Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data; and 5. exploiting some “quick wins” on SDG data – establishing an SDGs data lab to support the development of a first wave of SDGs indicators, developing an SDG analysis and visualization platform using the most advanced tools for exploring data.

During the discussion, South Africa spoke of the African commitment to be part of the data revolution. Tanzania expressed concern about the origin of the data used in a report published by UN-OHRLLS. Peru highlighted the issue of time constraints and required financial resources. Brazil stressed the importance of accountability, not only of Member States but of the private sector and the UN system, emphasizing also the need for country ownership of statistical data. Mexico looked forward to the use of data for identifying the nature of poverty and all its dimensions. [IISD RS Sources] [Publication: A World That Counts: Mobilising The Data Revolution for Sustainable Development]