The inaugural United Nations World Data Forum, taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, on 15-18 January 2017, is set to kick off with an ambitious and innovative programme and roster of over 300 speakers from across the data community.

Over 1,000 data experts from more than 100 countries have registered for the Forum, including from national statistical offices, data scientists from the private sector and academia, international organizations, and civil society groups, as well as political leaders and sustainable development advocates.

Plans are in high gear for the inaugural United Nations World Data Forum, taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, on 15-18 January 2017, with over 100 sessions to feature innovative data solutions to improve lives.

Over 1,000 data experts from more than 100 countries have pre-registered for the Forum, including from national statistical offices, data scientists from the private sector and academia, international organizations, and civil society groups, as well as political leaders and sustainable development advocates.

Today marks the start of the 6th Global Forum on Gender Statistics, a two day event in Helsinki, Finland, that will highlight ways to improve data on gender in order to support better policies for women and girls and Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Meeting Goal 5 of the SDGs, which calls for gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, requires disaggregated data to ensure that a

While around the world, statistical authorities in the public sector are still mostly regarded as the primary source for data and indicators, the private sector is increasingly moving into the business of providing data analyses and projecting trends. Currently, stock markets still look anxiously forward to press releases by statistical authorities such as the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and others on unemployment rates, consumer price indices or growth rates of international trade.

As the world moves to eliminate poverty, reduce inequality and curb the negative effects of climate change, adequate measuring and monitoring of progress through data is a core ingredient for successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Launching the first-ever Sustainable Development Goals report on the new global development agenda adopted last year, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said that the 15-year undertaking is “off to a good start” but will require all parts of the UN family and its partners to work together.

“We have embarked on a monumental and historic journey,” the Secretary-General told the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which opened on 11 July and ends on 20 July, at the UN Headquarters in New York.

“We must all learn, in national governments,

Less than a month since the global indicators for the sustainable development goals (SDGs) were agreed upon by the 47th Session of the UN Statistical Commission on 11 March, the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) held its third meeting in Mexico City this week.

This meeting, which ran from 30 March through 1 April, marks the start of the implementation process of the global SDG indicators agreed by the Commission.  It focused on the classification of individual indicators according to the current availability of data and int

As the final piece of the architecture for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the proposed global indicator framework for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was agreed by the 47th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission which closed today.

Administrative records, big data and geospatial information are critical for improving people’s lives and protecting the planet. Data are everywhere, all the time, with smart phones, satellite imagery, social media, as well as the Internet.

“Sustainable Development Goal indicators are the last missing piece to complete the architecture of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda,” explained Stefan Schweinfest, Director of UN DESA’s Statistics Division, ahead of the 47th Session of the UN Statistical Commission, which takes place at UN Headquarters on 8-11 March.