Description:
Description: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are targets for global development set to be achieved by 2030. However, these SDGs appear to be heading for a similar fate as the Millennial Development Goals. Thus, with only 10 years left to achieve these goals, it appears that most countries are not on track to achieve the targets. Parallel to this, developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) suggest opportunities to accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs. Over the past several years we have seen a surge in initiatives and organizations dedicated to advancing ICT-based services for sectors like education, healthcare, financial services, and agriculture. However, the successful integration of ICTs to enable sustainable development requires a deep understanding of their impact. Furthermore, interventions, including ICT-based services, need to be evidence-driven. Without timely, relevant, and disaggregated data, policymakers and practitioners will be less capable of developing informed interventions. However, data gathering mechanisms have been poor at local and governance levels resulting in significant data gaps. Therefore, with limited time left to meet the SDGs, it is imperative that we focus on building robust, inclusive, and relevant local and national data systems to support the curation and promotion of data for sustainable development. This panel will serve as an opportunity to discuss a roadmap for a broad set of actors to address data gaps for sustainable development in consideration of institutional arrangements, roles and responsibilities, and incentives. The panelists, drawn from different stakeholder groups, including academics, statisticians, policy makers, mobile network operators, and the private sector, will share current practices, reflecting upon the past couple years of progress and setbacks, and develop tentative recommendations on future best practices. The panelists will provide practical strategies to overcome the existing setbacks and highlight successful country and local-level practices. This panel underscores the need for better information to assess progress, make real-time course corrections, and aims to lay out an action plan for multiple stakeholders to kick-start the kind of systemic change that we need. Outline: The moderator will open the session by welcoming the participants, introducing the topic and the speakers. Then he will present the findings on data gaps based on the analysis of 120 case studies of ICT-based connectivity initiatives in various areas including digital skills, women empowerment, health, and economic growth, raising questions and issues for discussion (15 minutes) Then each of the four speaker will share their views on the topic, reflecting on existing trends, data gaps, and action steps. The moderator will keep an eye to the audience for comments and questions for the speakers at any point. (40 minutes) Right after the discussion with panelists, the moderator will engage the audience to get their questions and comments on the discussion (15 minutes) The moderator will then identify the overarching themes from the discussion with panelists and audience and ask the panelists about their take-aways and roadmap to address these issues. (10 minutes） Finally, the moderator will wrap up the discussion by summarizing the key points, policy and institutional guidelines on data governance, and best practices (10 minutes)
