Summary and outcome of the event
The “SDGs with a focus on Data Literacy” was the third event in collaboration with the National Albanian Institute of Statistics, (INSTAT) Swiss Federal Statistical Office and the Embassy of Switzerland in Tirana, Albania. Data Literacy is one of the 6 workstreams of the UPDI, which goals is at improving everyone’s ability to understand data and at making data more accessible.
There is a clear need to strengthen data literacy in all the levels of decision making, that’s why the cooperation between government, civil society, private sector, international organizations and other stakeholders is crucial.
The Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data, calls for Coordination and strategic leadership on data for sustainable development and strengthening of basic statistical activities and programmes, with particular focus on addressing the monitoring needs of the 2030 Agenda.
The event gathered representatives of the Albanian parliament, ministries and agencies for administrative data, UN agencies and other important donors, representatives from academia and civil society and NSIs.
Two panel discussions were organized, where Mr. Georges- Simon Ulrich, Director General of Swiss Federal Statistical Office and Ms. Elsa Dhuli, Director General of INSTAT shared their view and experiences on the data literacy which enabled the engagement of the participants in discussions.
Furthermore, the second panel discussion with representatives from the government, and parliament of Albania, responsible for the SDG implementation and representatives from civil society and academia highlighted the importance of data literacy and the need to strengthen cooperation between NSIs and other stakeholders.
The outcome from this event summarized as below underlined;
- More investment in data and statistics is needed or Investment in Data and Statistics is key.
National statistical systems need adequate resources to respond to the requests by Government, users or the general society.
Discussions at international level and studies produced by the Partnership in Statistics for the 21st Century, also called PARIS21, show that more investment is needed to have all the information needed to take good decisions. - Data literacy is crucial:
Having data and statistics is great – if we can use them for taking a decision. However, what is if the people and the key stakeholder cannot use it? Then the money invested is not worth it! We need to have a society that is able to understand all data and statistics that are produced by the government and for NSIs to show, that the investment in statistics is worth it. - Local Data can help to improve democracy:
Local data are key for decisions adapted to the local context.
That was a productive day! Here are some impressions from the event.
