{"id":6811,"date":"2017-03-06T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T07:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grbnnews.com\/?p=6811"},"modified":"2017-03-26T18:22:34","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T16:22:34","slug":"paragonesomar-foundation-un-world-data-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grbn.org\/paragonesomar-foundation-un-world-data-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Paragon\/ESOMAR Foundation at the UN World Data Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"As Paragon is a member of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Data Development (GPSDD), and GSDPP was heavily involved in the organisation of the United Nations World Data Forum,\u00a0 I was fortunate enough to represent us in two Panel Sessions held there, in Cape Town, January 15-18th 2017\r\n\r\nSo, what is the World Data Forum? It\u2019s a huge<\/u> meeting, organised by the United Nations, for National Statistics Offices, NGO\u2019s, Donors, and the private sector \u2013 in fact anyone who is interested in helping achieve the UN\u2019s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG\u2019s) through better data.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n

Wu Hongbo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs (2nd left), addresses members of the media at the UN World Data Forum in Cape Town, South Africa. UN Photo\/Mbongiseni Mndebele. Read more here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\nThe GPSDD was set up by the World Bank at the time that the SDG\u2019s were launched \u2013 with the aim of making sure that there is good data available to help achieve the SDGs.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s recognised that there is actually a fundamental problem at the heart of the efforts to eradicate extreme poverty \u2014 a problem of unreliable or non-existent data.\u00a0 Important decisions about how money and resources are allocated to helping the world\u2019s poorest people are too often made based on data that is incomplete, inaccessible, or simply inaccurate \u2014 from health to gender equality, human rights to economics, and education to agriculture.\r\n\r\nGPSDD is a global network of governments, NGOs, and businesses working together<\/strong> to bring everyone\u2019s resources to bear on the world\u2019s development data poverty.\r\n\r\nAnd of course, as Paragon, we are ideally positioned to help – since our specific<\/u> contribution can be to bring the voice of the consumer to the debate – perhaps the most important element of all?!!\r\n\r\nWhat were the 2 panel sessions that were organised by the GPSDD that we participated in, as Paragon?\r\n

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\r\n\r\nThe Missing Millions\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/blockquote>\r\nThe first was concerned with \u2018The Missing Millions\u2019<\/strong> – addressing the UN directive to \u2018leave no-one behind<\/strong>\u2019. The issue is that key populations are<\/u> being left behind, including children and adults in institutions, children and young people in orphanages, girls and boys living and working on the street, people living in remote rural areas, and homeless populations, including nomads and people\u00a0displaced by conflict and climate change. Even more at risk are the populations with disabilities within each population.\u00a0 These groups are left behind because they are simply not counted<\/u> in the traditional Censuses and Household surveys, as done by National Statistical Offices, and there is very\u00a0 limited investment and commitment to testing the innovative methods which are required to measure them.\r\n\r\nIn the Panel discussion we argued that practical changes are needed to address the data gap. Specifically:\r\n