Commissioner Wang,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to join you in celebration of the Second World Statistics Day here in Xi’an. I thank the National Bureau of Statistics of China and the Government of Shanxi Province for hosting this event. We at UN-DESA (United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs) have a longstanding close working partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Five years ago, you generously hosted the celebrations of the First World Statistics Day in Shanghai. Today we continue this excellent tradition.
As we celebrate the achievements of official statistics and the hard work of professional statisticians around the world, I can assure you that good data and statistics are more relevant than ever.
Last month in New York the 2030 Agenda, a bold new global agenda for a life of dignity and prosperity for all on a healthy planet, was unanimously adopted by the 193 Member States of the United Nations. This universal and transformative agenda contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets, integrating all three dimensions of sustainability –economic, social, and environmental. It will guide international development efforts and national policy making over the next 15 years.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes that for its implementation, data and statistical information play a central and critical role. The monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals over the past 15 years has taught us that strengthening data production and the use of reliable data in policymaking and review are fundamental means for evidence-based decision making and development itself.
Without data we cannot know whether the resources are invested in the right places, the targeted interventions are successful, people’s lives are improving, or whether we have advanced on our goals. The new agenda therefore, requires quality, accessible, timely and reliable data to assess our progress. Furthermore, the data will have to be disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts to ensure that no one is left behind.
These expectations present an enormous challenge for the global statistical community. It can only be met through modernization, additional investments and global cooperation.
One important feature of the new goals is that they are interlinked and form an integrated development agenda. Measuring them requires capturing complex economic, societal and environmental interactions. Therefore, an integrated information framework will be needed to cover these three dimensions cohesively. National Statistical Systems will have to respond to this challenge by modernizing and transforming their traditional data production processes and by incorporating new data sources. More efficient and more integrated data production processes will ultimately reduce the respondents’ burden, the likelihood of errors and the long-term costs.
It will be essential to strengthen national statistical capacities, for which sustainable human, technical and financial resources will be required. In this context, National Statistical Offices (NSOs) will have a central leading role to play. They constitute the core of the national information system. They, uniquely, have a long tradition of producing reliable and high-quality statistics in line with international standards to ensure comparability across countries. Therefore, National Statistical Offices need to become the new data hubs for national, regional and global monitoring. To make this happen, all governments, international organizations, businesses, academia and civil society must join forces and work together.
In summary, although the SDGs present great challenges for the global statistical community, they also bring great opportunities. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs is strongly committed to supporting member states with the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda including building strong national, regional and global information systems. On this Second World Statistics Day, as we take the opportunity to celebrate and recognize the past achievements of official statistics, let us also look forward with confidence. I am convinced that if you, the statisticians from around the world, continue to work closely together in the global statistical system, we will jointly manage the challenge of providing high quality, reliable statistical information to inform decision-making for the next 15 years.
Thank you.