Mark Iliffe (United Nations)
The overarching principle of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is leaving no one left behind. “Data which is high quality, accessible, timely, reliable and disaggregated by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability and geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts” is called for. Geospatially enabled statistical data are the crucial component to ensuring no-one is ‘left behind’, but the true potential of integrated data is not yet being realised. To ensure that we achieve this mission, data must be available, interoperable and integrable, and subsequently disseminated and analysable, so decision and policy makers make informed, data-driven decisions.
The Global Statistical Geospatial Framework (GSGF) is at the heart of enabling this through its inputs, five guiding principles, key elements, and outputs that enable the production of interoperable and standardised geospatially enabled statistical data that can then be integrated with statistical, geospatial, and other information to inform and facilitate data-driven and evidence-based decision making at all levels, whether local, national, or global.
While the adoption of the GSGF is a major milestone for the Statistical and Geospatial communities, work now turns to the implementation of the GSGF and to demonstrate how the GSGF can support the data needs of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As such, this presentation will identify how the GSGF can support the attainment of the SDGs and strengthen the statistical and geospatial ecosystem to produce data that will help leave no-one behind.