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Timely Data for the SDGs, Featuring the launch of the SDSN Data Platform for the SDGs

By Lauren Barredo

On July 14, 2020, the SDSN and the Government of Finland wish to invite you to an official HLPF side event on timely data for the SDGS!

Date: July 14, 2020
Time: 8:00 to 9:00 EDT | 14:00 to 15:00 CEST | 15:00 to 16:00 EEST | click for more time zones
Registration Required: Please register online

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an opportunity to mobilize the global community to address economic, social, and environmental challenges. To meet the Sustainable Development Goals in the remaining decade, these challenges need to be met with timely (annual or more frequent), georeferenced data, as opposed to the historical norm of infrequent and out of date data. The myriad of data and tools available cannot, however, address the challenges of implementing the SDGs while information is produced and used in silos. Key stakeholders, including policy makers, government officials, journalists, academics, students, and members of civil society need a virtual space where they can come together to access timely data relevant to the SDGs and learn to use the data effectively to push Agenda 2030 forward.

With only 10 years left to achieve the SDGs, there is an urgent need for a data platform that makes quality and timely data for the SDGs accessible to all, improves knowledge of geospatial tools and geographic information systems (GIS), and builds capacity to use these tools to support global agendas and policy making. In partnership with Esri and National Geographic Society, SDSN has developed a platform, ‘SDGs Today’, with real-time and timely data for the SDGs. ‘SDGs Today’ will support and encourage countries and other institutions to produce and share their data to this common, universally beneficial platform. The platform will also house GIS training and education material relevant for a variety of interest groups, helping train future and current leaders in GIS for Sustainable Development. ‘SDGs Today’ has the potential to revolutionize how we understand and communicate the urgency of the SDGs, how we develop solutions, and the speed and quality with which we do both.

Agenda

7:45 am EDT Virtual Meeting Room Opens

8:00 am EDT Welcome Remarks (TBC)

8:05 am EDT Announcement of SDGs Today Data Hub

  • Jeffrey D. Sachs, President, SDSN

8:10 am EDT Remarks on Timely Data for the SDGs

  • H.E. Mr Jukka Salovaara, Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations

8:20 am EDT Panel Discussion on Timely Data for the SDGs

  • Juan Daniel Oviedo, Director, Administrative Department of National Statistics of Colombia (DANE)
  • Carmelle Terborgh, Lead Account Manager, Nonprofit and Global Organizations, Esri

8:45 am EDT Q&A with the Participants

8:55 am EDT Closing Remarks

  • Jeffrey D. Sachs, President, SDSN


9:00 Adjourn