The Royal Statistical Society and PARIS21 hosted an afternoon seminar in London on December 1 to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the data revolution. The seminar, which was free and open to the public, provided an opportunity to discuss the emerging findings of the IDR Project. 

BACKGROUND



Earlier this year, the United Nations Secretary-General established an Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. On November 6 2014 the group released its summary report with a set of recommendations for strengthening national statistical systems, closing data gaps and harvesting new technological possibilities in data production and use. These recommendations will feed into an ambitious post-2015 sustainable development agenda.

To contribute to this discussion and bring statistics to the front of the post-2015 debate, the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) is implementing the Informing a Data Revolution project. One of the main outputs of this project will be a Road Map to make the case for a data revolution in developing countries, identifying what needs to be done and how, and estimating how much it might cost.

If we are to achieve the target of eradicating poverty by 2050, a sustainable data revolution will be essential to identify needs, implement interventions and monitor outcomes. Immediate and sustained efforts will be required to improve the availability and use of data for development using untapped opportunities like the potential of new technologies not available previously. There is also significant scope in the data revolution to empower citizens to hold their governments to account.

Untapped Opportunities of the Data Revolution

A PARIS21 Informing a Data Revolution seminar

The event was organized under the auspices of the Royal Statistical Society's International Development Working Group.

Click to view the official seminar invitation.