The Bern Data Compact represents a major milestone towards the recognition of community-driven data in official processes, and its role in filling vital information gaps for sustainable development. Achieving official recognition of citizen-generated data as a crucial tool to ensure no one is left behind in fulfilling each SDG has been a key goal of the Leave No One Behind Partnership since its founding in 2017, but that work didn’t start nor end at the 2021 World Data Forum.
The UN’s High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development met to review implementation of the Cape Town Global Action Plan for sustainable development data. A new framework for the Global Action Plan will be reviewed during the 54th session of the UN Statistical Commission in March 2022. The HLG also discussed the Bern Data Compact for the Decade of Action on the SDGs.
The third UN World Data Forum, held from 3-6 October in Bern, Switzerland, resulted in the Bern Data Compact for the Decade of Action on the SDGs. The Bern Compact calls for commitments in five areas: develop data capacity, establish data partnerships, produce data to leave no one behind, understand the world with data, and build trust in data. In the Compact, participants recognize the need for “fit-for-purpose” data to achieve the 2030 Agenda, with each data ecosystem stakeholder playing their part to achieve the common goal of “a world with data we trust .