The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the 17th of which is “Partnerships for the goals,” namely: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.
Under this major goal, there are 19 targets, the 17.18 of which is “By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts.”Global data availability reduced, growth weak in opennessThe Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) have adopted the Open Data Inventory (ODIN) coverage score as one component of SDG indicator 17.18.1: Statistical capacity indicator for Sustainable Development Goal monitoring. The ODIN assesses the coverage and openness of official statistics to identify gaps, promote open data policies, improve access, and encourage dialogue between national statistical offices (NSOs) and data users. The latest global inventory, ODIN 2022/23, covering 195 countries, found for the first time evidence of declining data availability and weak growth in openness.
Global median coverage, openness, and overall ODIN scores from 2016 to 2022. Graph: Open Data WatchSince the last ODIN assessment in 2020, the median score of all countries has increased by 2.1 points, the smallest increase since 2017, and 77 countries—around 40%—have lost ground. The greatest opportunities for improvement of median ODIN scores occur in regions that have lower scores and thus, more room for progress. To be specific, the largest increase was in Eastern Asia, where the median score rose by 22 points between 2016 and 2022, despite falling slightly in 2022 from 2020. The Caribbean region is another example, increasing its regional score by over 17 points starting from a median regional score of just 23.Data coverage gaps identify issues primarily in data collection and governance in the earlier stages of the data value chain, while data openness gaps identify dissemination issues, such as open formats and licensing issues that affect data use and impact. ODIN 2022/2023 found that around a third of regions saw improvement in both coverage and openness, including South America, Central America, Australia and New Zealand, North America, Northern Europe, Eastern Asia, and South-Eastern Asia. All other regions had at least a minor decline in either coverage or openness.China’s statistical capacity continues to improve
To emphasize the urgent need for transformation and support the establishment of learning mechanisms among national statistical systems, the World Bank developed the Statistical Performance Indicators (SPI) to monitor countries’ statistical performance. The SPI framework includes five key pillars—data use, data services, data products, data sources, and data infrastructure—supported by 22 dimensions and 51 indicators to assess the maturity of national statistical systems. The SPI is updated annually in March.
SPI scores at the pillar and dimension levels in China. Graph: World Bank Group
China scores relatively high in the pillars of data use and data products. Specifically, data disclosed by Chinese authorities to international organizations demonstrates high availability and reliability, with balanced reporting across the social, economic, environmental, and institutional dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals. In terms of data infrastructure, China adopts internationally recognized and recommended classifications and statistical standards, ensuring high data quality.
On December 26, 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics announced that the data collection, review, and aggregation for the Fifth National Economic Census had been successfully completed. The census provided a comprehensive overview of the current state of China’s secondary and tertiary industries, reflecting new achievements in the country’s economic and social development. Specifically, the number of legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries grew substantially, increasing by 11.481 million compared to the end of 2018, a rise of 52.7%. Employment in the tertiary industry also saw a marked increase of 25.6% compared to the end of 2018. Additionally, the core digital economy industries and emerging industries exhibited strong growth. Legal entities in core digital economy industries reached 2.916 million, with an annual operating revenue of 48.4 trillion yuan. High-tech manufacturing and service industry enterprises also saw growth in both numbers and revenue.
Source: World Bank Group, Nation Bureau of Statistics of China
●Cases
The World
The island nation of Tuvalu creates a digital twin of the country
Funafuti, Tuvalu. The UN has classified the low-lying South Pacific island nation as “extremely vulnerable” to climate change. Photo: Getty Images
Tuvalu, a small country in the Pacific Ocean made up of nine coral islands, is reckoning with a future where it may no longer be habitable. Sea level rise, caused by climate change, is eating away at its shores. As the physical reality of the nation slips beneath the ocean, the government is building a digital copy of the country, backing up everything from its houses to its beaches to its trees. It hopes this virtual replica will preserve the nation’s beauty and culture – as well as the legal rights of its 11,000 citizens – for generations to come.
As well as creating a virtual copy of the islands, the Digital Nation project will seek to back up the nation’s cultural heritage. Citizens have been invited to submit their most valued possessions and memories – sentimental items, grandfathers’ stories, and festival dances, for instance – for digitization, creating an archive “designed to carry the very soul of Tuvalu.” Additionally, the Tuvalu government is seeking to create digital passports, stored on the blockchain, to allow the government to continue to function. These passports include everything from holding elections and referendums, to registering births, deaths and marriages.
In March and April 2024, Place, a global non-profit organization which supports open access mapping and other geographical data, began mapping the physical features of Funafuti, Tuvalu’s capital, using drones and 360-degree cameras to record both aerial and street-level imagery. This raw data can be used to create a Google Earth or Street View-style image, but with the super high resolution required for capturing the details of the narrow islands, which are just tens of meters wide in places. When it comes to their finer details, the accuracy of satellite imagery is not fine enough to cut it.
Source: BBC
Kenya develops Digital Health Strategy
The review meeting for the second draft of Kenya’s digital health strategy was held in September 2024. Photo: Margaret Ndisha Mwakala/PATH.In Kenya, PATH, a nonprofit health organization, is working with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and other partners to develop the costed Kenya Digital Health Strategy 2025-2028 with support from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Technical Assistance Platform (CDC TAP). The need for a digital health strategy arises from Kenya’s commitment to digital health under the leadership of the MOH Directorate of Digital Health, Informatics, Policy and Research and with input from stakeholders across Kenya’s digital health ecosystem.This effort involves a comprehensive stakeholder identification process, expansive consultative meetings with the various digital health stakeholders working at both the national and county levels, and an in-depth review of strategies from other countries, regions, and global health organizations. By undertaking this iterative process, PATH and the MOH seek to ensure that the strategy will align with Kenya’s current digital health ecosystem as well as regional and global health digital health standards.As a first step in the strategy development process, the MOH Directorate of Digital Health, Informatics, Policy, and Research (DHIPR) engaged key stakeholders and appointed a steering committee to ensure oversight and provide direction. The committee appointed a technical team to categorize all digital health stakeholders in Kenya according to their primary purpose and affiliation, potential role and responsibility in digital health policy development, level of commitment to support the activities, availability of resources, and any potential constraints to participation. With this information, the team developed a communication matrix that would be followed throughout the development process considering every stakeholder’s unique contribution and their availability for the participatory process.
Shenzhen’s Longgang District launches AI large model applications for government
The Dayun AI Town in Henggang Subdistrict, Longgang District, Shenzhen. Photo: Sina Finance
On September 18, 2024, Longgang District successfully held the launch and training event for its first batch of government AI large model applications at the Longgang Smart Center. This milestone marks a significant breakthrough in building a demonstration zone for all-domain, all-time artificial intelligence applications, with the integration of AI large models into government operations officially taking root.
At the event, the much-anticipated “Longgang AI Application Matrix” made a stunning debut. This matrix combines six innovative applications, including the “Government Affairs Knowledge Expert,” “Smart Assistant for Government Services,” “Document Writing Assistant,” and “Automated Proposal Generation Tool,” ushering in an unprecedented era of intelligent transformation for Longgang District’s government operations.To date, Longgang District has developed and applied AI in 112 scenarios across 12 fields, including public opinion management and urban administration. Looking ahead, the district plans to further deepen the application of large models. The upcoming second batch of government AI applications will incorporate cutting-edge technologies such as drones integrated with video, voice-to-video capabilities, and conversational task processing. These advancements will further drive the seamless integration of “one-network processing, one-network management, and one-network collaboration.” Smart services like the “Government Affairs Knowledge Expert,” the Smart Vision Project, and intelligent customer service for government services are set to become even more practical and efficient.Source: Government Services and Data Management Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality
Huawei strengthens digital infrastructure development for governments worldwide
Around the world, more governments are seeing the value of digital and intelligent transformation. By strengthening their digital infrastructure, they can better deliver innovative and inclusive e-services. To date, Huawei has worked with more than 120 countries and regions and more than 700 cities around the world to help governments transform digitally, develop their digital economies, and enhance their digital value. In establishing e-government services with the help of Huawei, headquartered in Shenzhen, 53 government departments in the city have been able to migrate more than 230 core services to the cloud.
Photo: GovInsider
In the field of public healthcare, Huawei has helped the Health Bureau of Longgang District in Shenzhen build a regional medical imaging platform. This supports the interconnection and sharing of medical image data across 12 hospitals and significantly simplifies service handling for patients. In Ghana, Huawei’s Inclusive Connectivity solution has deployed more than 2,000 remote wireless base stations, providing network coverage for 3.5 million rural people. This has made remote learning and telemedicine possible and helped to bridge the digital divide.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiated by the United NationsOn January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change while ensuring that no one is left behind.
