Mobilizing a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development

Sabrina Juran, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

The Data Revolution since it was first proposed by the United Nations has referred to improvements in data to lead to changes in peoples’ lives. Data must be accessible and able to be used. The data revolution has the power to empower the poor by providing them with the information needed to change their situation and hold governments accountable. Governments need data for planning and monitoring. Issues remain in delivering timely, robust statistics. To improve statistics and harness new data sources and technologies, a roadmap is needed detailing the way toward raised standards across the board. The new Sustainable Development Goals offer a great opportunity to increase resources and innovate to fill existing data gaps. The Independent Expert Advisory Group of the Secretary General made recommendations on innovative monitoring of these goals, including participatory methods; monitoring inequalities, eliciting citizen feedback on performance of service providers; perceptions data; citizen generated data.