21 November 2014: Governments and stakeholders discussed data and development at a panel discussion organized by the Netherlands’ Mission to the UN, the UN Foundation, and Leiden University. ‘Data for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Monitoring Post-2015 Progress and Implementation’ featured an expert discussion of data’s importance in monitoring the post-2015 development agenda, and potential pitfalls of data collection.

Henry Bonsu, BBC, serving as event moderator, urged the panelists to “speak in primary colors” so that their stories could be understood by all. He spoke of his experience using data as a journalist, saying data that are robust, accurate, and apply to people’s lives are the most engaging.

Claire Melamed, Overseas Development Institute, said the data used to measure the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) “are a lot less robust and certain than we think.” She emphasized that gaps in data are preventing the world from solving some of the toughest problems, and encouraged governments and donors to invest in data while making the best use of the data available now.

William Hoffman, World Economic Forum, stressed that data can be used both for good and for bad, leaving many to have “data anxieties.” He called for better ethics around data, to address the data deficit, provide more data to the global south, and start on the level of the individual.

Ulrich Mans, Leiden University, observed that students and young people are using data more than ever in the past, and called for a fundamental shift in education to accompany this change. Young people are able to digest new data streams, authorities are releasing new data, businesses are entering the space, and the public is becoming more connected with civic data streams, he said, urging whoever wants to be part of the data revolution to be part of the movement to create data.

Njeri Kabeberi, Center for Multi-Party Democracy Kenya, stressed the need for lawmakers to work closely with data collectors, a collaboration that often is lacking. She said policy development must be in line with current data and analysis on the ground, or else “leaders will give promises that they cannot keep and numbers that will never be met.”

Ivo Havinga, UN Statistics Division, said statistical standards should be based on independence, integrity and trust. He called for better civil registration, vital statistics and household surveys, conducted through national statistical committees.

Samantha Custer, AidData, said many countries have no or limited data on poverty, emphasizing the gap between global rhetoric and global standards. She said data have implications for the financing and implementation of the SDGs, and called for incentives that spotlight people making progress on capturing data.

In the interactive discussion, panelists and participants discussed: the ability to trust data; institutional and human capacity for data; corporate, political and civil society data support; new types of data; and information overload and the ability to absorb data. Mans stressed that “for every data scientist, you need three people interpreting the data and explaining what it means.” Custer called for greater visualization and disaggregation of data, as well as intermediaries to adapt information to different communities. [Event Webcast] [IISD RS Sources]