As part of its SD Talks Special Series initiative, the UNSSC Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Development is pleased to announce the launch of FREE webinar series on Data for Sustainable Development in partnership with Data-Pop Alliance. The webinar series aims to examine the critical role that data can play in achieving sustainable development. It is open to all individuals who have an interest in the topic of data for sustainable development.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has underscored the significance of high-quality, reliable and disaggregated data for the purpose of measuring progress across Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More recently, the first UN World Data Forum held in Cape Town, South Africa from 15-18 January 2017, highlighted the need to build capacity for collection of better data for the effective follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to use disaggregated data to address inequalities and to ensure that no one is left behind.

Against this backdrop, UNSSC and Data-Pop Alliance have launched the Data for Sustainable Development webinar series as a step towards increasing data literacy. The aim is to build capacity of relevant stakeholders and development practitioners to effectively use data to measure progress on the achievement of SDGs. The series will equip participants with knowledge and understanding of the concept of big data, global partnership mechanisms for sustainable development data and best practices for data innovation. It also intends to provide useful insights to UN country teams and partners for strengthening statistical capacities of National Statistical Offices (NSOs).

The first session of the webinar series, titled ‘Big Data: What is it and how can it contribute to Sustainable Development?’ is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 30 March 2017 at 02:30 PM CEST.  This session will unpack the theory and concept behind Big Data and explore the role of Big Data for achieving sustainable development. The webinar speaker for the first session of the series is Dr. Emmanuel Letouzé, Director and Co-Founder of Data-Pop Alliance, a coalition on Big Data and development co-created in 2013 by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, MIT Media Lab, Overseas Development Institute, joined in 2016 by the Flowminder Foundation as its fourth core member.

The webinar session will be followed by a Q&A session where the speaker will take live questions from the audience.

To join the live webinar, please go to http://bit.ly/S1Data4SD (event number: 955 309 569, event password: Data4SD). Please register for this webinar in advance by going to http://bit.ly/S1Data4SD , clicking on Register and entering your details.

For more information about the webinar series, please contact:

Ugo Caruso, UNSSC Knowledge for Sustainable Development (u.caruso@unssc.org)
Sadaf Basharat, UNSSC Knowledge for Sustainable Development (s.basharat@unssc.org)
Natalie Shoup, Data-Pop Alliance (nshoup@datapopalliance.org)
Julie Ricard, Data-Pop Alliance (jricard@datapopalliance.org)