The road from Bern … navigating the data future (UNWDF2021)

United Nations World Data Forum 2021

Sesi : TA6.01 : The road from Bern … navigating the data future

Tarikh : 6 Oktober 2021 (Rabu)

Masa : 9.15 malam – 10.30 malam

Tempat : Secara virtual

Anjuran : United Nations World Data Forum 2021 (UNWDF2021)

Peserta : 1. Puan Sayeeda binti Kamrudin (E54)

              2. Puan Siti Norhudah binti Nordin (E44)

              3. Puan Nurul Atiqah binti Zainal Abidin (E41)

              4. Puan Norhayati binti Yahya (E38)

               5. Cik Siti Norbakyah binti Junus (E29)

Speakers : Sesi 1

1. Arthur Honegger (Moderator)
Moderator, Author/journalist

2. Chris Jones (Speaker)
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, United Kingdom, Director, Delivery and Analysis Directorate

3. Samira Asma (Speaker)
World Health Organization (WHO), Assistant Director-General, Division of Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact

4. Clint Brown (Speaker)
Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), Director

5. Samuel Kobina Annim (Speaker)
Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Government Statistician

Sesi 2

6. Ola Awad (Moderator)
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), President

7. Elsa Dhuli (Speaker)
INSTAT Albania, Statistician

8. Maria-Francesca Spatolisano (Speaker)
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), Assistant Secretary-General, Policy Co-ordination and Inter-Agency Affairs

9. Haishan Fu (Virtual Speaker)
World Bank, Director, Development Data Group

10. Paul Schreyer (Virtual Speaker)
OECD, Chief Statistician

Organizers:

High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics (HLG-PCCB) for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Overview:

The road to Bern went through a global pandemic and created much thought and discussion on the nature and state of our current data ecosystem. This session reflects on the main themes of the Forum; capacity development, innovation, data to leave no one behind, understanding data and trust together with other revelations from the Forum such as the impact and effects of Covid-19 on the data ecosystem going forward and the priorities in the time left to achieve the SDGs. Key topics for expected action will include: the Bern network for smarter financing of development data, the potential of adopting a data stewardship approach, further harnessing the power of the data revolution, opportunities to deepen and expand partnerships (NSO/private sector), funding of statistics impacted by unexpected events, improve coordination and meet the aspirations of the Cape Town Global Action Plan, the Dubai declaration and the Bern Global Data Compact for sustainable development data.

Objective of the session:

Sessions will focus on areas where current data does not fully address the needs or where data is missing. Financing for data and statistics as outlined in the Dubai Declaration is a key component of implementing the Global Action Plan, and sessions will focus on prioritizing resources for data and statistical development and launch new financing initiatives. Sessions will focus on issues such as: prioritizing the needs of developing countries in vulnerable situations; mobilizing strategic investments in modernization of National Statistical Systems; and fostering cooperation and coordination across stakeholder groups.

Lesson Learned/Key Points/Quotes/Outcome/Insight:

1. Data is critical for policy making and planning, and for monitoring and measuring progress towards national and global sustainable development goals. The COVID-19 crisis has further increased the demand for high-quality, timely, and disaggregated data to underpin evidence-based policymaking to manage the crisis as well as formulate effective and inclusive recovery policies. Strong, modern national statistical systems that can deliver and use more and better data are essential for both crisis response and recovery, and to ensure long-term prosperity and sustainable development. According to Clint Brown, the different in Bern regarding the data issues during pandemic compared to Dubai and Cape Town is the way the people think and come out with solutions and Bern is the game changer in the data collectors, analysis, transformation and the deliver information process. 
2. The most important points to have a resilient and agile data ecosystem that is needed to achieve the SDG and respond to a crisis like a pandemic or others, the organizations need to institutionalize, leverage and unleash the power of partnership. For instance, WHO is now ready to engage with the National Statistical Organizations to prioritize efficiently in saving lives and improving health and livelihoods, as stated by Samira. According to Samuel, as a statistical community we need to admit that the pandemic has made us prone to mistakes in the sense that we have measured things in a way that possibly we didn’t do correctly due to the different mode of data collection or some different sources of data can lead to some mistakes. In the opinion of Chris Jones, the most important is regardless to have a huge amount of expertise, enthusiasm and great ideas by the statistical community, it is how do we share those and how do we accelerate capability in our own country based on what others have had to go through before. Building that bridge from statistics and data teams in decision makers because collecting data is great, and if we can understand and get the value from it will be a fantastic achievement.
3. Mr. Arthur Honegger states that the most important data issue to face is that we have to struggle to get accurate data and statistics are very important here to measure progress and what needs to be done to implement a goal.
4. Determined to make full use of spatial data to fight Covid-19, Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) and GRID3 joined forces to produce and distribute maps for Covid-19 vaccination micro planning. The micro planning is very essential in terms of planning or designing a strategy through which the health workers will reach the different target population for that particular vaccine. The GRID3 program developed 774 GIS-based maps to support the Covid-19 vaccinations in Nigeria. They have 774 local governments and each local government has one big GIS map in an A0 size paper and then the health workers use those maps to conduct their micro planning. From the GIS map, they can strategically place the vaccination post, so that they can maximize the utilization of services especially for vaccination. 

Editor: Siti Norhudah Nordin, Nurul Atiqah Zainal Abidin, BIPD, DOSM