Explainer: The challenges of measuring cities’ progress on the Sustainable Development Goals

“From a cities perspective, the SDGs will require rigorous data collection and analysis on almost all components of urban living — population, access to public transport and adequate housing, sanitation, public space and much more. (…) Unfortunately, there are still huge data gaps when it comes to measuring progress on sustainable development, particularly in cities of the developing world.”

Citiscope

Pakistan Set to Conduct First Census in 19 Years

“The 70-day door-to-door campaign will be concluded in two phases at a financial cost of around $185-million. The minister explained that nearly 120,000 specially trained government workers have been deployed to undertake the much-needed census.”

VOAnews

How Baltimore is using the Sustainable Development Goals to make a more just city

“In particular, supporters are looking to work with city administrators to bolster gaps in critical information on topics such as pre-trial detention, poverty and decent work that can inform city policymaking going forward. Data, they say, is the missing ingredient in Baltimore’s equitable development.”

Citiscope

Le 3 avril, la santé en France va entrer dans l'ère du big data

« Dès cette date, toutes vos feuilles de soins, vos visites chez votre médecin, vos achats de médicaments et vos séjours à l’hôpital seront envoyés dans cette base. Cela fera plus d'un milliard d'actes médicaux par an. On va également verser les trois dernières années d'archives et, ensuite, les causes de décès des 600.000 personnes qui meurent chaque année en France. »

RTL

Big data’s power is terrifying. That could be good news for democracy

“Digital technologies could also be a powerful force for positive change. Political systems, particularly in the Anglophone nations, have scarcely changed since the fastest means of delivering information was the horse. They remain remote, centralised and paternalist. The great potential for participation and deeper democratic engagement is almost untapped. Because the rest of us have not been invited to occupy them, it is easy for billionaires to seize and enclose the political cyber-commons.”

The Guardian

After a Good Jobs Report, Trump Now Believes Economic Data

“It reinforces the concern that the Trump administration is ready to call official government statistics fake when they reveal something positive about the economic policies of a Democrat, but real when the good news is reflective of Republican leadership.”

The Atlantic

Data Fest 2017

20-24^th March, Edinburgh, Scotland