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UN chief underlines importance of reliable data to achieve new development agenda

Xinhua, October 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday stressed that "reliable and timely statistics and indicators are more important than ever," while urging all partners and stakeholders to work together to achieve the ambitious 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

In his message to World Statistics Day, which was declared by the United Nations Statistical Commission and celebrated for the first time on Oct. 20, 2010 worldwide, Ban also urged all partners and stakeholders to work together to ensure that the necessary investments are made, adequate technical capacity is built, new data sources are explored and innovative processes are applied to give all countries the comprehensive information systems they need to achieve sustainable development.

Official statistics help decision makers develop informed policies that impact millions of people. Improved data sources, sound statistical methods, new technologies and strengthened statistical systems enable better decisions that eventually result in better lives for all.

World leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in New York in late September as a blueprint for the global development efforts for the next 15 years.

The secretary-general said that as countries and organizations embark on implementing the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, reliable and timely statistics and indicators are more important than ever.

"We need to ensure that everyone is counted, especially the most poor and vulnerable," he said.

"No child's birth shall remain unregistered. No incidence of disease, no matter how remote the location, shall remain unrecorded," Ban said, adding that "local statistics" are needed to ensure that every child has access to education while "global statistics" are needed to monitor the effects of climate change.

Stefan Schweinfest, the director of the UN Statistics Division in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, elaborated by saying that "it is clear that the significantly broader development agenda with a higher focus on disaggregation will require more resources, new methodological developments, integration of new data sources with traditional ones, the building of partnerships and increased cooperation within and across countries."

"Sustainable development will need to be supported by sustainable Statistics," Schweinfest said.

Also marking the Day, the UN Statistics Division launched in New York a new report, entitled World's Women 2015: Trends and Statistics, which presents the latest statistics and analyses of the status of women and men in areas of concern identified by the landmark 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. It also reviews progress towards gender equality over the past 20 years.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) celebrated World Statistics Day with a talk on why investing in primary and secondary data collection and analysis are fundamental for the design and implementation of food assistance programmes worldwide.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Tuesday released its new FAO Statistical Pocketbook 2015 and a special statistics publication focusing on coffee with key indicators related to coffee for selected years. Endit