As the world continues to recover from COVID-19, we need quality data more than ever to support the decisions we make to improve people’s lives. Understanding the data that surrounds us is understanding how to use data to get back on track to achieve the global goals.

The need for timely and disaggregated data and statistics for decision-making has never been as clear as during the COVID-19 crisis. Having access to reliable and trusted data can mean the difference between life and death. To help national governments build resilient and sustainable national data and information systems, a new Global Network of Data Officers and Statisticians that connects data experts around the world, has been launched today at the UN World Data Forum.

More people are living better now than they were just 10 years ago. Four years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, we know that many Governments are putting the SDGs at the centre of their development plans and are aligning their policies and institutions behind the Goals.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is converging with an extraordinary array of other technologies, from biotech and genomics, to neurotechnology, robotics, cybertechnology and manufacturing systems. Increasingly, these technologies are decentralized, beyond State control, and available to a wide range of actors around the world.

Data is everywhere, constantly being created by humans and machines across the globe. But as half of the world seems to be drowning in data, too many people and places are still invisible in the numbers that drive decisions.

15 January 2018 – International organizations, policy experts, statisticians and civil society came together on Monday at a United Nations-supported forum in Paris to answer the global call for more accurate and timely information on migration flows and examine how improved data collection can feed into better policymaking.

The United Nations Global Pulse initiative today announced a partnership with Twitter that will provide the UN with access to the platform's data tools to support efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders last year.