On Sunday, September 17th, 2023, Save the Children, co-hosts with UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), in partnership with the Major Group for Children and Youth and NGO Major Group, and sponsored by the Permanent Missions of Costa Rica, will host an event as part of the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Action Weekend during the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly). This event will focus on how data on inequality and risks can help to inform strategies and policies to accelerate SDG implementation.
This year, the world is at a crossroads. At the midpoint of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), the world faces multiple, overlapping crises, increasingly referred to as the “polycrisis,” with disproportionate and devastating impacts on children’s lives.
This moment of crises has been exacerbated by climate-induced shocks and slow-onset disasters, geopolitical tensions, global reliance on fossil fuels, and a global economic system which often neglects the needs and rights of current and future generations of children.
The pledge to Leave No One Behind is crucial to the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the realisation of human rights everywhere. However, a key stumbling block to turning this transformative principle into concrete policy measures has been the limited availability of detailed and comprehensive data at the global, regional, national, and local levels. Empowering evidence-based decision-making requires data which brings together insights on SDG progress and outcomes, as well as highlights inequalities and shocks caused by crises.
To deliver on this vision, Save the Children and UNDP continue to invest in different tools that can ensure no one is left behind and we can accelerate towards the achievement of the SDGs. Save the Children has developed the Child Atlas, our new data platform to visualise, compare, analyse, and understand child outcomes globally.
The tool allows users to explore the different ways inequality affects children's lives; understand the relationships between different sectors and its interplay with risks and crises; and hear how children themselves describe the problems they are facing.
The Child Atlas brings together a wide range of high-quality, publicly available data in one place, and uses expert blogs and artificial intelligence to explain the data it shows and the impact of children’s lives.
UNDP has also developed The Data Futures Platform (DFP), launched in December 2020 as one of the first effort to reduce information barriers. The platform transforms multidimenstional data into actionable, evidence-driven insights, fostering system thinking and co-creating policy initiatives based on a unified data hub for the organisation. The DFP was designed to help practitioners and decision makers analyse complex issues and assess the potential impacts of different combinations of policy choices before investments are locked in.
Bridging different sectors and combining data on outcomes with those on risks to progress is essential to deliver on the intersectionality of the SDGs – and to allow decision-makers to explore those interlinkages for themselves. The event will help to build understanding of such data can be used to make better decisions on policy interventions and programmes, but also allow for more insightful reporting and accountability on countries’ progress towards the SDG.
Key Objectives
The objectives of the event include:
1) To discuss the importance of integrated and granular data for meaningful reporting and monitoring of progress towards the SDGs and the pledge to Leave No One Behind;
2) To explore the relationships between human development outcomes and various risk factors such as climate change, conflict, and hunger
3) To highlight how data on inequality and risks can help to inform strategies and policies to accelerate SDG implementation.
4) To showcase how investments in key policy interventions and programmes can accelerate progress across the SDG framework
Programme
DURATION | ACTIVITY |
10 MIN | Opening remarks and introduction Inger Ashling, CEO, Save the Children |
10 MIN | Presentation and live demonstration of Child Atlas - • Lilei Chow, Senior Adviser – Inclusive Governance & Accountability to Children, Save the Children UK |
10 MIN | Presentation and live demonstration of UNDP tool – • Babatunde Abidoye, Global Policy Advisor, UNDP |
40 MIN | Panel discussion - how data on inequality and risks can help to inform strategies and policies to accelerate SDG implementation. • David Donaghue, former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations from Ireland • Youth Representative(s) from MGCY |
15 MIN | Interactive discussion - Data priorities and policy implications for the next 7 years of SDG implementation |
5 Min | Closing Remarks • UNDP |
For further information please contact Lilei Chow at [email protected]
