UN World Data Forum

The Road to Bern

This Thursday, 27th August, at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, there is another preparatory conference for the upcoming Virtual UN World Data Forum, that will take place in October.

Originally scheduled to take place in Bern, Switzerland, under the auspices of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and its Permanent Mission to the UN Office in Geneva, it will now take place online with a number of speakers from UN agencies, private sector, academics, and NGOs.

Data, data, data everywhere. What are we to do with this tsunami of data points? How are the UN humanitarian agencies to harness the power of data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning?

These and other questions will be on the agenda on August 27, with Steve MacFeely, Chief Statistician at UNCTAD, who writes and researches on the question of measuring the UN Sustainable Development Goals, demystifies the uses and misuses of data, brings a fresh perspective to statistics to advance understanding of the stakes at…