Dear readers,
It has already been more than 9 months since we held the gala evening at the UN World Data Forum in Bern on 5 October 2021. After midnight that evening, someone asked me what was going to happen now, since I had been in charge of organising the UNWDF from October 2018. We already knew that we wanted to continue the spirit that we had experienced at the gala evening and during the “Road to Bern”. However, we did not yet know exactly how, when and under what name this would take place.
The work started relatively quickly after the Forum: The aim we developed with the “Road to Bern” should be continued. We established various criteria to develop a follow-up name for the “Road to Bern”. Shortly before, I received a book called Factfulness by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund for my birthday, a gift that put the name of this person in pole position. After various discussions with friends, colleagues and people involved in the “Road to Bern”, the name was decided: “Project Rosling”.
Hans Gösta Rosling (1948-2017) was professor for International Health at the Karolinska Institute and Director of the Gapminder Foundation in Stockholm. He spent years challenging most people’s pessimistic worldviews thanks to data and statistics. We can say that we have also dedicated the project name to this person who spent his lifetime working towards an objective (but also positive) view of the world – with the help of data and statistics.
Today we launched the www.projectrosling.ch website where you can find more information on the Project. We will be working with our partners to develop the workstreams in the coming months. By the end of September, we will publish more information on our website.
If you have any questions or ideas about the project, please contact us at projectrosling@bfs.admin.ch.
Kind regards,
Benjamin Rothen
Ambassador
Head of International and National Affairs Unit
Swiss Federal Statistical Office
