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Deputy Secretary General,
Excellencies,
75 years ago, the Charter of the United Nations set ambitious goals.
One of them is “to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”
The UN has helped to save and improve the lives of countless people across the world.
Today, we face new global crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic,
which puts this progress at risk
Today’s situation shows the extent
to which cooperation among states remains important – more than ever.
In adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a wise decision was made:
A global indicator framework
is to be developed by the UN Statistical Commission
and adopted by the UN General Assembly.
This process will ensure that the Agenda is measurable and thus accountable.
The poorest and most vulnerable population groups have to be made visible in statistics, too.
The current pandemic shows us that we need more data on vulnerable groups.
Only those who are counted, count in political decisions.
The latest Human Development Report states
that the world’s education, health and living standards
are about to decline for the first time since 1990.
That decline is expected across the majority of countries – rich and poor.
Developing countries will suffer most,
along with people who were already vulnerable before the pandemic.
Data is not an end in itself;
it provides the necessary information for relevant issues.
Reliable, independent and comparable statistics are key to enable sound political decision-making and the free formation of opinions.
There has never been more data available than today.
However,
it is only useful
if we are able to use it
to close known data gaps.
For example: We still have a ‘gender data gap’.
Important data sets about women are missing or incomplete.
If these gaps remain, we might overlook what consequences a decision may have for vulnerable parts of the population.
We need to close those gaps.
We need the resources to build-up and maintain a globally harmonized statistical system.
The UN World Data Forum is an important platform
to bring together data users and data producers.
This is the first time that the Forum is being held virtually.
With this year’s Forum, we want to shed light on one particular question:
What is the global data community’s response to Covid-19?
I am confident that the discussions and the work you do over the next three days will lead to answers.
I invite you to play an active part.
And I look forward to welcoming you all
to Bern
in person
for next year’s UN World Data Forum
starting on October 3rd 2021.
I hope your discussions are fruitful.
Let’s meet next year in Switzerland!