Governments, Civil Society Groups, Businesses, International Organizations, and Experts Join Forces to Launch the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data
New York, New York (PRWEB) October 01, 2015 -- Over 70 governments, civil society groups, companies, international organizations, and expert networks from all corners of the world joined forces in the historic launch of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data in New York City on Monday, September 28th, 2015. This unique Global Partnership will strengthen data-driven decision-making to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. These visionary Global Goals were agreed to by 193 Member-States of the United Nations this past week.
The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data will harness the data revolution to fill critical gaps, and ensure data is more open and useable to end extreme poverty, combat climate change, and ensure a healthy life for all, leaving no one behind. A data revolution is sweeping the globe with new technologies, skills, and opportunities to connect official statistics, big data, citizen-generated data, geospatial and earth observations data for the public good. The opening up of government data to improve policy-making, foster entrepreneurial innovation and empower citizens is further bolstering the data revolution.
Champions of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data include the Government’s of Colombia, France, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Senegal, United Kingdom, and United States of America; CIVICUS, Hewlett Foundation, ONE Campaign, United Nations Foundation, World Wide Web Foundation, and World Resources Institute; Digital Globe, ESRI, Facebook, IBM, Nielsen, Mastercard, Planet Labs, and SAP; a range of agencies from the United Nations including the United Nations Development Program, United Nations Global Pulse, as well as key international organizations such as the World Bank Group and OECD; as well as networks such as GEO, GODAN, Paris21, and UNSDSN, along with many organizations from across sectors and regions of the world. A full list of champions is attached.
Linked to the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, an unprecedented Kenyan National Partnership for Harnessing the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development was launched a month ago in Nairobi. According to President Uhuru Kenyatta, "Data for measurement, evidence, decision-making, reporting, planning, accountability, management, monitoring, good governance, resource allocation, and strategic intervention should be the corner-stone for the adoption and fulfillment of SDGs and the global sustainable development data agenda.”
“Less than one year ago I called for the formation of a multi-stakeholder global partnership to harness the data revolution for sustainable development,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “Today, I am proud that the UN system is joining forces with Member States, civil society, and the private sector to launch the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. By working together we can close critical data gaps to ensure effective monitoring and accelerate local efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals."
“Going forward, we must not only strive to implement the principle of leave no one behind; we must also do a better job of measuring the success of our effort. That’s why the United States will serve as an anchor member of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data,” said United States Secretary of State John Kerry.
According to Alejandra Lagunes, National Coordinator of Digital Strategies in the President’s Office of the Government of Mexico, “The next 15 years ahead of us set an ambitious course toward a better and more inclusive world that requires all of us to work together. I am confident that this Global Partnership will guide us so that the data revolution will be an open revolution. One that can level the playing field, by improving access to public data, and sharing of private data, to enable sustainable development for all, in order to make sure we leave no one behind.”
Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, Chair of the Board of CIVICUS suggests that citizen and community involvement will be key to seeing results. “More needs to be done to harness the unique energy and assets of citizens and civil society organizations to drive the data revolution.”
Champions have already initiated over 120 early actions worldwide to measure and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. “We will help in every way possible, with our Big Data and other solutions, our corporate social responsibility activities, and through advocacy with our sizable global community of customers, employers and partners, said Isabella Groegor-Cechowicz, Global General Manager, SAP Public Services.
Professor Sanjeev Khagram, who has played a leadership role in convening the initiative, emphasized, “The Global Partnership is a universal and inclusive multi-stakeholder initiative that galvanizes the use of data to accelerate bold action for enduring impact on the Global Goals.” Over the next year, the Global Partnership will:
• Support multi-stakeholder data initiatives that harness the data revolution to achieve the SDGs, focusing on building capacity to generate, share and use data at the country and local levels;
• Contribute to filling data gaps, including the production of novel data and dynamic visualizations of the best available existing data, to achieve the Global Goals;
• Help develop and build support for international principles to harness the data revolution to achieve the Global Goals, including sharing and leveraging privately held data;
• Convene thematic, local, regional, and global data events to foster increased connectivity, collaboration and innovation towards achieving and measuring the SDGs.
The Global Partnership will work with the United Nations Statistical Commission to organize the inaugural World Data Forum in early September 2016 prior to next year’s UN General Assembly.
Website: Data4SDGs.org
Twitter: @Data4SDGs
#datarevolution
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QUOTE SHEET
Kathy Calvin, President & CEO, United Nations Foundation – “Achieving the global goals requires getting serious about changing the way the world collects, uses and analyzes data. Data on girls and women is particularly weak; we won’t get to gender equality without data equality. We are all part of the data revolution and the Global Partnership will be critical to connect key actors to improve data for decision-making and monitoring progress.”
Jack Dangermond, President, ESRI – "ESRI has several decades of experience making our world more easy to understand. We feel it is very important that we not only participate in the SDG process - but to apply our technology platform and experience to the global goals. By applying geospatial thinking new patterns and trends in development can be communicated and necessary action can be taken."
Jamie Drummond, Co- Founder of The ONE Campaign – “The world is facing a data crisis. Bad and missing data is stunting the fight against extreme poverty. This partnership is the response to this crisis. Governments, business and civil society will create and use data to turn the Global Goals into real change for people.”
Isabella Groegor-Cechowicz, Global General Manager, SAP Public Services – "We will help in every way possible, with our Big Data and other solutions, our corporate social responsibility activities, and through advocacy with our sizable global community of customers, employees and partners.”
Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, Chair of the Board, CIVICUS – “More needs to be done to harness the unique energy and assets of citizens and civil society organizations to drive the data revolution. This new Global Partnership can help deliver this and support civil society to do a better job at generating and using data to solve the problems they see on the ground.”
Angel Gurría, Secretary-General, OECD – "I welcome the creation of the new Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. We need a new spirit of collaboration among all members of the data community to deliver the information that will help us make the right decisions to improve people's well-being and achieve sustainable development. The OECD will spare no effort in supporting the Global Partnership"
Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya - "Data for measurement, evidence, decision-making, reporting, planning, accountability, management, monitoring, good governance, resource allocation, and strategic intervention should be the corner-stone for the adoption and fulfillment of SDGs and the global sustainable development data agenda.”
John Kerry, Secretary of State, United States of America – “Going forward, we must not only strive to implement the principle of Leave No One Behind; we must also do a better job of measuring the success of our effort. That’s why the United States will serve as an anchor member of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data that we will launch tomorrow with help from the private sector and civil society.”
Professor Sanjeev Khagram, Occidental College and Convenor of the Global Partnership - “The Global Partnership is a universal and inclusive multi-stakeholder initiative that galvanizes the use of data to accelerate bold action for enduring impact on the Global Goals.”
Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations – “Less than one year ago I called for the formation of a multi-stakeholder global partnership to harness the data revolution for sustainable development. Today, I am proud that the UN system is joining forces with Member States, civil society, and the private sector to launch the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. By working together we can close critical data gaps to ensure effective monitoring and accelerate local efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The data revolution for sustainable development is an essential catalyst for mobilizing innovation and ensuring mutual accountability. We need to invest in it in order to achieve the goals by 2030."
Alejandra Lagunes, National Coordinator of Digital Strategies, Government of Mexico – “The next 15 years ahead of us, set an ambitious course toward a better and more inclusive world that requires all of us to work together. I am confident that this Global Data Partnership will guide us so that we can harness the data revolution to become an open revolution. One that can level the playing field, by improving access to public data, and sharing of private data, to enable sustainable development for all, in order to make sure we leave no one behind.”
Will Marshall, CEO, Planet Labs – “We’re entering a global sensing revolution, where sensors in our pockets, in the oceans, and in the air and in space will help us understand the changing world as never before. This change will come in the form of new and valuable data that will help us better understand our world and we look forward to working with the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data to meet the SDGs and deliver a more prosperous planet."
Claire Melamed, of the Overseas Development Institute: “The world has just agreed to an ambitious set of Global Goals. All of our experience shows us that to achieve those goals, we need information. Governments need to know who is poor before they can end poverty. They need to know who is hungry before they can end hunger. They need to know how many trees there are before we can stop deforestation The challenge is to make this happen and that is why the huge range of organizations have come together to form the Global Partnership.”
CHAMPIONS OF THE GLOBAL PARATNERSHIP FOR SUSTAINBLE DEVELOPMENT DATA
GOVERNMENTS: Colombia, France, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Senegal, United Kingdom, United States of America
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS: CIVICUS, CEPEI, Datakind, Development Initiatives, International Budget Partnership (IBP), ONE Campaign, Open Data Institute, Open Data Watch, Overseas Development Institute, Oxfam International, Publish What You Fund (PWYF), World Wide Web Foundation, World Resources Institute (WRI)
PRIVATE SECTOR: Barclays, Digital Globe, ESRI, Facebook, IBM, Mastercard, McKinsey, Nielsen, Orange Group, Planet Labs, Premise, RealImpactAnalytics, SAP, Telefonica
INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES: African Development Bank (ADB), Asian Development Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), UN Development Program (UNDP), UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), UN Global Pulse, UNFPA, UNICEF, World Bank Group
RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS & PARTNERSHIPS: AidData, Brookings Institution, Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Data2X/UN Foundation, Data-Pop Alliance, Group on Earth Observations (GEO), Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), International Statistical Institute (ISI), Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Knowledge Systems for Sustainability (KSS), Open Data for Development (OD4D), PARIS 21: Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN)
FOUNDATIONS/DONORS: Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), UN Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Sherry Simpson, +1 (323) 365-7412, [email protected]
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