Berne
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Discours prononcé en anglais. Texte original, non traduit.
Excellencies,
Dear participants of this UN World Data Forum,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To THOSE of you attending this hybrid event in person:
Welcome to Bern!
I’m glad you could make it.
And of course a warm welcome to ALL of you joining us online.
I’m very pleased to be here with you for the opening of the Forum.
I’m sure you’re all familiar with Winston Churchill’s famous quote:
“The only statistics you can trust…
Are those you falsified yourself.”
A few years ago, those words would still have raised a smile.
But TODAY – in the age of ‘fake news’ – that smile has gone.
Because there are a lot of fake statistics doing the rounds at the moment.
They distort public perception.
And they are making it extremely difficult to have rational debates.
Debates we depend on, especially during a pandemic.
The quote is wrong, by the way.
What Churchill actually said was:
“You must look at the facts,
because they look at you.”
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the facts are looking at us,
And they are smiling.
Because they show that the world has become a better place.
Health,
prosperity,
education,
life expectancy,
peace,
democracy
and security
– on all these counts, things have developed for the better in the last 50 years.
One example:
Since 2000, there has been enormous progress in achieving the target of universal primary education.
The total enrollment rate in developing regions reached 91 percent in 2015.
And the worldwide number of children out of school has declined by almost half.
But that, ladies and gentlemen, is only half the story.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the picture dramatically.
The rate of global extreme poverty has risen for the first time in over 20 years.
100 million people were pushed back into extreme poverty in 2020.
As of Mid-September this year, the total number of deaths from COVID‑19 reached 4.7 million globally.
The progress made in recent years is in danger of being undone by the pandemic.
That’s why it was all the more important that, in September 2015, the world signed up to the social contract of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals.
This was a key moment.
The goals cover today’s most pressing challenges:
Eradicating poverty and hunger,
schooling for all,
gender equality and women’s empowerment,
fighting malaria and other diseases,
environmental sustainability,
peace,
jobs,
climate change,
health
and welfare.
By adopting this social contract, the UN and its member states set us on the path to act together.
The 17 Goals of the 2030 Agenda give us a framework within which we must work and act together to find solutions.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We will probably NOT achieve many of these goals.
Even in Switzerland, we are not yet where we want to be.
In 2019 more than 700’000 people were affected by income poverty.
We expect that this figure has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But we must remain committed.
The more complex the challenges, the more important it becomes to collaborate internationally.
This is also true for data,
which is a joint strategic asset.
Because if you want to improve something, you have to measure it.
The UN World Data Forum brings together data and statistics experts and data users, including those from government and civil society.
Its goal is to spur data innovation,
and to mobilise political and financial support for data and statistics
so that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can be supported in the best way possible.
The UN World Data Forum is dedicated to creating an information basis for political engagement – which is why it is so essential.
Dear Participants:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved for their cooperation – especially the UN Statistics Division and the Program Committee.
I hope you have many stimulating discussions over the next three days here in Bern.
This UN World Data Forum will take us further: the “Bern Data Compact for a Decade of Action on the Sustainable Development Goals” will point us towards the road beyond Bern.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Statistics are an essential point of reference in a world where sustainability has become a matter of survival.
Their power lies in them being informative:
if we look at them without blinkers –
and if we use them to guide our actions.
The world will become more volatile in the next years and decades:
From climate change and migration,
To geo-political uncertainty, and growing inequality.
This is why we need reliable data to understand the state of the world.
And to be able to act accordingly.
That is – the REAL state of the world – not the IMAGINED one.
We must HAVE the facts.
And LOOK at them.
Thank you