G PS DATA
HUGE, HUGE
Jessica Espey is a Senior Advisor to the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). A British political scientist who currently lives in Boston, US, Jessica directs the SDSN’s Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics (TReNDS) program – a network of experts from across academia, civil society, the private sector and multilateral organizations, focusing on how the data revolution can be harnessed to support sustainable development. Sitting in the bustling UN headquarters visitor café between sessions, Espey talks quickly and eloquently, with one eye on the clock: she’s due to meet a special group on data financing any minute. She pulls no punches about the scale of the current challenge relating to data and the SDGs. “There are
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huge, huge data gaps,” Espey says. “A survey in Africa and Asia found that, on average, data is only available for 20 percent of SDG indicators3
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If you look at measurements like mortality from polluted air, the data we use is from 2012, which is crazy. I could go on and on – there are gaps on pretty much everything, and even if there are no gaps, there are time-lags.” Does she think the data and SDG challenge is too big? “Anyone who works in development could say that,” she says. “Whether you’re looking at health, or poverty or climate change, the problems are enormous. But I wouldn’t work in development if I wasn’t positive about the future.” The data challenge is one of the most cross-cutting issues of them all. But as with most seemingly overwhelming problems,
much of it depends on how it is approached. Rather than getting tangled up in the minutiae, Espey’s TReNDS network addresses the bigger governance-related issues that compromise governments’ abilities to access and use data effectively. For example, in 2016, Colombia’s National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) conducted a data gap analysis, revealing that 16 percent of SDG indicators were missing data and 30 percent had only partial data. TReNDS explored the governance and technical requirements for data sharing and reconciliation between different public and private data producers, and eventually brokered a partnership between the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce – which had a ‘goldmine’ of information – and DANE to share data on selected
indicators, standardize the format of data, and basically work together to support SDG reporting. The project is being replicated in other cities across Colombia, such as Cali, and will be presented to the Latin American Chambers of Commerce Association this year. It is the UN Statistical
Commission and the hundreds of statisticians meeting in New York City that must work out both the nitty-gritty and the overarching issues. On the opening day of the 50th Session, data leaders from many different countries spend most of the morning making detailed interventions about the indicators for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The collaboration is remarkable to witness: countries from all over the world working together to
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