World Data Forum, Cape Town, South Africa, 15 – 18 January 2017

The first UN World Data Forum will be held in Cape Town from 15 to 18 January 2017, hosted by Statistics South Africa, under the guidance of the UN Statistical Commission and the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The venue for the Forum is Cape Town International Convention Center (CTICC).

The Opening Ceremony will take place on the evening of Sunday 15 January and the closing session will be on 18 January. Substantive sessions will be held from16 – 18 January and will cover the following areas:

• New approaches to capacity development for better data 
  • Strengthening institutional capacity and leadership
  • Political leadership and governance of the statistical system
  • Stakeholder engagement and coordination
  • National Strategies for the Development of Statistics
  • Developing human capacity for data and statistics
  • Financing data development, including innovative ways of financing official statistics

• Innovations and synergies across different data ecosystems
  • Innovations in household surveys
  • Innovations in censuses
  • Innovations in administrative data
  • Innovations in civil registration and vital statistics
  • Unleashing the power of new data sources (e.g., big data)
  • New approaches in data collection (e.g., citizen generated data and perception surveys)
  • Integrating geo-spatial and statistical data and information
  • Bridging the scientific community with the data community
  • Cooperation strategies between official statistical systems and the private sector

• Leaving no one behind
  • Innovative approaches for SDG follow-up and review on all groups
  • Data post-conflict countries
  • Data and human rights

• Understanding the world through data
  • Use and value of data and statistics
  • Matching data protection with users’ needs
  • Empowering users through data literacy
  • Data and technology in everyday decision making
  • Innovation in data communication and visualization
  • Data needs at the local level
  • Data journalism

• Data principles and governance
  • Data quality and validation of new data sources
  • Standards for data sharing and integration

• The way forward: A global action plan for data
  • Connecting communities through global, regional and national partnership
  • Meeting the data needs of the 2030 Agenda