Revisiting the origins of A World that Counts, and its legacy

In August 2014, the UN Secretary-General’s office established the Independent Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, which in November that year produced its seminal report, A World that Counts: Mobilizing the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. The report positions data firmly at the core of the 2030 Agenda, with recommended actions organized under four pillars:  (1) principles and standards; (2) technology, innovation, and analysis; (3) capacity and resources; and (4) leadership and governance. While primarily geared toward the global statistics and development communities, many of its recommendations also engaged data producers from the private sector, the non-government sector, and from citizen-generated data initiatives. This reflected the landscape of opportunities for collaboration. 

A World that Counts principally focused on two pathways through which data could be an agent of change for development. First, it assumed that improving the public and civil society’s use of data would enhance government accountability (the accountability pathway). Second, it assumed that introducing new sources of data and new systems would help governments design more effective policies and programs resulting in greater impact (the policymaking pathway).

For both pathways, the report highlighted the importance of strengthening connections between data producers and users to ensure that improvements in data production met policymaking and accountability needs. Stronger connections would contribute to policymaking by helping governments develop products and services that supported the five data-intensive steps in the policy process—agenda setting, prioritizing actions, formulating policies, monitoring, and evaluation (University of Oxford, 2023)—and would also support accountability by ensuring that data was used ethically, with privacy-protection structures firmly in place. As such, it recognized that the accountability function of non-state actors involved ensuring that they improved their services consistently with cultural norms and sensibilities, as well as holding governments to account for their policy performance. 

A World that Counts recognized that a comprehensive approach would be essential to successfully harness data to further the development agenda. Of their recommendations, many were adopted early on. For example, the UN began holding regular World Data Forums to explore sustainable development data, corresponding to recommendations listed under “governance and leadership”, These led to new networks and innovative forms of collaboration, including partnerships between state and non-state actors, in an attempt to channel and combine new and old forms of data to support the SDGs.

The launch of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics (SDSN TReNDS) was motivated in part by the recommendation made in A World that Counts that research gaps at the intersection of data and the 2030 Agenda should be identified and filled. Among our contributions are two flagship reports—Counting on the World (2017) and Counting on the World to Act (2019)—together laying out an action plan for a modern, integrated statistical system to support the SDGs consistent with the key principles identified in A World that Counts. The 2017 report has influenced other thought leaders in the development space, most notably in the UN Statistics Commission’s work program on data stewardship and the World Bank’s launch of its flagship report, World Development Report: Data for Better Lives (2021).

References

SDSN TReNDS. (2017). Counting on the World: Building Modern Data Systems for Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics. Available at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b4f63e14eddec374f416232/t/5b577b1f8a922d14c9775efb/1532459811774/sdsn-trends-counting-on-the-world-2017.pdf. 

SDSN TReNDS. (2019). Counting on the World to Act: A Roadmap for Governments to Achieve Modern Data Systems for Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics. Available at https://countingontheworld.sdsntrends.org/static/files/19COTW.pdf. 

University of Oxford. (2023). “Guidance note 2: Understanding the policy process.” In Guidance on Policy Engagement Internationally. Available at https://www.ox.ac.uk/research/using-research-engage/policy-engagement/guidance-policy-engagement-internationally/guidance-note-2-understanding-policy-process.