The Data For Now initiative (Data4Now) aims to develop countries’ capacities to deliver the information needed by local and national policy and decision makers to achieve the 2030 Agenda and make a positive difference in people’s lives.  To this end, it supports members of the national statistical systems in participating countries to collaborate more effectively with local, national and global partners from intergovernmental organizations, academia, civil society and the private sector, in order to leverage innovative sources, technologies and methods for the streamlined production and dissemination of better, more timely and disaggregated data for sustainable development. The initiative, which was launched by UN Deputy-Secretary General Amina Mohammed on 25 September 2019 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, seeks to enhance collaboration and promote synergies across increasingly complex data systems, supporting the mainstreaming of data innovations into official statistical production processes, including geospatial information, big data and other non-traditional data sources.  It is co-led by a core team consisting of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD), and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). A set of eight trailblazer countries from 3 continents have already joined the initiative, namely: Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Paraguay, Colombia, Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal. With this project, it is expected that 8 more countries will join the initiative. Data4Now is about accelerating the sustainable use of robust new methods and innovative tools that improve the timeliness, coverage, and quality of SDG data through collaboration, partnerships and capacity development. The work will also allow more timely and accurate measurement of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related policy interventions. The Data4Now initiative draws closely from the learnings of previous and ongoing work carried out by UNSD, the World Bank, GPSDD, and SDSN, and has been designed with inputs from government, civil society, academic and private sector partners. An inception workshop of the Data4Now initiative was hosted by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, in Kigali, Rwanda, on 13-14 November 2019. In this inception workshop, funded jointly by the four core partners, representatives from national statistical systems in the eight trailblazer countries, as well as partners from the private sector, academia and international identified priority needs and deliverables, and explored possible partnerships and solutions around data, technology and methods with highest potential impact to attain those deliverables. Building on the outcome of the inception workshop and the initial results of the activities in the trailblazer countries, UNSD, in close coordination with the other Data4Now core partners, will develop a work plan to collaborate with 10 additional countries in Africa and Asia that would join the Data4Now initiative. This plan foresees specific activities to support the production, analysis and use of accurate, inclusive and up-to-date data for the SDGs on priority themes identified by the national statistical system authorities of the 8 countries in the initial phase of the project.   
 

This project aims to enhance the capacity of Malawi, Sri Lanka, and Nepal to utilize non-traditional data and integrated data sources for evidence-informed policy formulation in response to national and global crises. It underscores the critical importance of informed policymaking, aiming to bridge the gap between data developers and users while fostering effective coordination among stakeholders. By equipping these countries with tools and knowledge, the objective is to mitigate the impacts of food, fuel, and finance crises and contribute towards the achievement of the SDGs. The cost-of-living crisis, characterized by rising food prices, increasing energy costs, and tightening financial conditions, disproportionately affects vulnerable populations and perpetuates poverty cycles, impacting approximately 1.6 billion people.The project will support the three countries in building national statistical capacities, leveraging innovative sources, methods, and tools. It will draw upon experiences such as the Data for Now Initiative, guidance materials from the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys, and ongoing work on citizen-generated data and fast economic indicators under the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science in Official Statistics. The project will also build on DESA’s experience in supporting countries in evidence-informed policy making.The project seeks to strengthen national statistical and data eco-systems and foster collaboration among different stakeholders. The project also aims to enhance data usage for crisis response policies by effectively utilizing data produced from nontraditional data sources and integration across data sources. The expected progress includes increasing the capacity of Malawi, Sri Lanka, and Nepal to produce and effectively utilize non-traditional data effectively for evidence-informed policy formulation. In this context, capacity-building programs for government officials and policymakers to enhance their data analysis skills and use of innovative data sources will be undertaken. This will help to enhance the use of innovative approaches, integration of data sources, in-depth analysis, and fostering stakeholder coordination and collaboration. The project will generate valuable insights through pilot and case studies, empowering these countries to develop and use evidence to make informed decisions and formulate policies for sustainable development.

The 75th session of the UN General Assembly recognized that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic was one of the most significant global challenges in the United Nations' history and noted with deep concern its impact on people the society, and the economy. Thus, at the same session, the General Assembly endorsed a comprehensive and coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic (A/RES/74/306) that calls, i.e. for the development of new interoperable data tools and the strengthening of platforms to inform mitigation and response actions and continuously monitor the impact of the pandemic, mainly to assist people in vulnerable situations and the poorest and most vulnerable countries, to build a more equitable, inclusive, sustainable and resilient future. The Resolution further encourages building resilient, inclusive and integrated data and statistical systems, under the leadership of national statistical offices (NSOs), that can respond to the increased and urgent data demands in times of disaster and ensure a path towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change. The Project will explicitly address the call of the 75th session of the General Assembly to leverage SDG mechanisms and instruments, including statistics and data, to inform the COVID-19 response and recovery policy. It will also respond to the request addressed by NSOs in both surveys conducted by the WB and UNSD, jointly with the 5 UN Regional Commissions, to consolidate the institutional and organizational frameworks supporting efficient and effective governance and coordination mechanisms of NSS (NSS) and enhance the technical capacity to continue operating effectively and take advantage of the fast-evolving data ecosystem and digital infrastructure. The proposed Project will build on the successes and lessons learned from the Development Account 10th tranche on Statistics and Data (hereafter DA10 Statistics and Data), including the draft final evaluation findings regarding governance, coordination, and implementation modalities. The Project will bring together eight implementing entities of the Secretariat, capitalizing on their technical expertise and comparative advantages, with a common objective to help developing countries face the data challenges of the short- and longer-term development agenda. The specific data needs will also inform COVID-19 response and recovery policy at local, national, regional, and global levels. The Project is expected to improve the resilience and flexibility of NSS to collect, process and communicate data and statistics to inform COVID-19 response and recovery policy at local, national, regional, and global levels. Thus, the Project will address i) the infrastructure underlying the production of official statistics, such as the institutional environment in which NSS operate, quality standards, and the use of new technologies and innovative data sources such as Big Data and geospatial information, supported by agile and resilient statistical production architecture and IT infrastructure; and ii) specific data gaps that will require conceptual and methodological development and leveraging the leadership of the implementing entities in specific sectoral/thematic areas. The Project aims to leverage other initiatives to strengthen statistical capacities to have a higher multiplier effect and work in close partnership with the United Nations system, including the UN resident coordinator system, and other relevant multilateral and bilateral partners. The Project will target more specifically NSS and national geospatial agencies of least developed countries (LDCs), small island developing states (SIDS) and landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) as well as operate at inter-regional, regional, and sub-regional levels, where relevant.

The overall objective of the project is to increase the capacities of governments, youth-led civil society organizations and the broader Community Based Organization community in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of effective national youth policies and action plans that promote conflict prevention, peacebuilding and sustaining peace in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda. The substantive focus of the project lies in capacity development for analysis, review and reformulation of relevant social policies through participatory processes involving young people and other relevant stakeholders. These processes will lead to the production, roll out and dissemination of a Training Module for Promoting Sustainable Peace through National Youth Policies. They will also support partnership building and coalition development on issues regarding youth, peace and security and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the target countries.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to government capacity to effectively produce and use time-use data in policy formulation for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Africa, Latin America and Western Asia. More specifically, in collaboration with ECA, ECLAC and ESCWA, the project will contribute to building capacity in countries to produce and use time-use statistics, in support of measuring and monitoring their national development plans and indicators, including SDG 5.4.1 on unpaid work, as well as indicators on other development issues such as employment and learning. This will be achieved through the development and testing of methodological guidelines on how to modernize the collection, analysis and use of time-use data based on assessments of national capacity and needs in the following regions Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Asia (one project country per region). The resulting guidelines will cover cost-effective tools and a sustainable model to institutionalize the systematic collection of time-use data. As part of the rollout phase, the guidelines will be available for use by all countries and will be widely promoted through regional training workshops and national events in the project countries (one project country per region) to promote stronger collaboration between users and producers of time-use data where participants will also identify/map time-use data needs to national development policies. This way, the project will also contribute to improved data/policies integration.

As a set of interconnected goals, monitoring and measuring the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals necessitates the use of integrated frameworks. The United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) is an international statistical standard which integrates economic and environmental information into a common framework to measure the contribution of the environment to the economy and the impact of the economy on the environment. The SEEA provides countries with a framework to derive internationally comparable sets of statistics and indicators, supporting measurement of progress towards the SDGs as well as the Aichi Targets, green growth etc.  The project aims to address the technical and institutional barriers to the establishment of routinely produced environmental-economic accounts at the national level by national statistical offices. Project activities will focus on: building the institutional framework in support of SEEA implementation, taking into consideration existing initiatives and activities in the countries and policy priorities; building capacity in the countries to compile selected accounts on a regular basis, while contributing to the development of SEEA compliant global databases; fostering inter-institutional relationships to promote collaboration and data-sharing in producing the accounts; and promoting the effective communication and use of the accounts in supporting evidence-based policy and the SDGs. The project will support up to six developing countries from four different sub-regions—Northern Africa, Eastern Africa, Eastern Asia and Southern Asia—to ensure geographic diversity and multiplication effects in the various regions. Of these six countries, the project will build on initial assistance provided to two countries in Eastern Africa, Kenya and Uganda, during the 9th tranche of the Development Account. Finally, the project will include South-South collaboration fellowships, to allow project countries to visit and learn from each other. 

The Data For Now initiative (Data4Now) aims to develop countries’ capacities to deliver the information needed by local and national policy and decision makers to achieve the 2030 Agenda and make a positive difference in people’s lives.  To this end, it supports members of the national statistical systems in participating countries to collaborate more effectively with local, national and global partners from intergovernmental organizations, academia, civil society and the private sector, in order to leverage innovative sources, technologies and methods for the streamlined production and dissemination of better, more timely and disaggregated data for sustainable development. The initiative, which was launched by UN Deputy-Secretary General Amina Mohammed on 25 September 2019 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, seeks to enhance collaboration and promote synergies across increasingly complex data systems, supporting the mainstreaming of data innovations into official statistical production processes, including geospatial information, big data and other non-traditional data sources.  It is co-led by a core team consisting of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD), and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). A set of eight trailblazer countries from 3 continents have already joined the initiative, namely: Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Paraguay, Colombia, Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal. Data4Now is about accelerating the sustainable use of robust new methods and innovative tools that improve the timeliness, coverage, and quality of SDG data through collaboration, partnerships and capacity development. It draws closely from the learnings of previous and ongoing work carried out by UNSD, the World Bank, GPSDD, and SDSN, and has been designed with inputs from government, civil society, academic and private sector partners.  An inception workshop of the Data4Now initiative was hosted by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, in Kigali, Rwanda, on 13-14 November 2019. In this inception workshop, funded jointly by the four core partners, representatives from national statistical systems in the eight trailblazer countries, as well as partners from the private sector, academia and international identified priority needs and deliverables, and explored possible partnerships and solutions around data, technology and methods with highest potential impact to attain those deliverables. Building on the outcome of the inception workshop, the UNSD, in close coordination with other Data4Now core partners, has developed a plan of action to build the capacity of Colombia and Senegal, two Data4Now trailblazer countries that are also priority target countries for the Italian development cooperation. This  plan of action foresees specific activities to support the collection, analysis and use of accurate, inclusive and up-to-date data for the SDGs on two priority themes identified by their respective national statistical system authorities, namely (1) measurement of poverty indicators among difficult-to-reach population groups, and (2) production of disaggregated and timely crop-yield estimates.   

The project aims at making Sustainable development goal data of project countries open and available to the widest possible audience by improving the dissemination and use of Sustainable Development Goal indicators at national and international levels. The project will build capacity of countries in dissemination of data; modernisation of their National Statistical Systems with up-to-date technology and skills; engagement with key users of data; and will create an on-line, international data and visualisation platform for Sustainable Development Goal indicators.

This project’s objective is to enhance the capacity of governments in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions to develop evidence-based, intergenerational policies for inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the context of population ageing. The Secretary-General’s report on Our Common Agenda highlighted the importance of strengthening capacities to understand and assess the future, building long-term intergenerational thinking into important policies and decision-making.  This project directly responds to this call by using disaggregated National Accounts data to address the twin goals of inclusion and sustainability in the context of population ageing.  National Inclusion Accounts (NIAs) disaggregate national economic statistics by age and socioeconomic status. NIAs help identify and describe how economic resources are shared between population groups. This type of accounting is needed for long-term forecasts of the costs and funding sources for social protection, education, and health care programmes to ensure their fiscal sustainability and distributional equity. This project will support eight developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia and the Pacific to strengthen capacity to produce National Inclusion Accounts, analyze the impacts of population ageing on inclusive and sustainable development, and formulate public policies and plans to achieve these goals.

The overall objective of the project is to strengthen national capacity in collecting and compiling comprehensive and internationally comparable migration data that meet international standards, and to enhance understanding of the uses and limitations of migration data for policy purposes and for the monitoring of the migration related goals and targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
More specifically, in collaboration with partner organisations, the project aims to improve data availability through technical capacity building of countries in producing basic migration statistics, statistics on human trafficking and socioeconomic statistics disaggregated by migratory status for the SDG monitoring. This objective will be achieved through (a) preparing technical guidelines on producing data for migration-relevant SDG indicators; (b) providing trainings to countries so that national statisticians become familiar with international standards on migration statistics and statistics produced are harmonized within the country and comparable at international level; (c) building an online data portal for migration statistics which would enhance the data availability at the international level.