The Data Revolution: Are International Goals and Country Needs Misaligned?
In March, the United Nations Statistical Committee is expected to decide on the final piece of the Sustainable Development Goals: the indicators. More than 200 indicators will be proposed to measure the 17 goals and 169 targets. Meanwhile, the new Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, which aims to help countries fill data gaps, improve their use of data, expand their data capacity, and increase the openness of their data, is also getting off the ground. It will now be up to countries to determine how they will build up their statistical capacity and improve their statistical systems to measure the SDG indicators and show progress against the goals. But are the kinds of data needed to monitor progress against the SDGs and the kinds of data that will drive change on the ground at odds?
