By Haruna Gimba
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has called on world leaders to invest in better data, warning in a new analysis that sufficient data is available only for half of the child-related Sustainable Development Goals indicators.
The UNICEF analysis shows that child-related data, including measures on poverty and violence that can be compared, are either too limited or of poor quality, leaving governments without the information they need to accurately address challenges facing millions of children, or to track progress towards achieving the Goals.
To shine a spotlight on the lack of data, United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon and UNICEF launched a ‘time machine’ installation at the United Nations in New York.
The Time Machine, a capsule structure that demonstrates data through art by translating childhood memories from data into sound – gives visitors and delegates attending the United Nations General Assembly from 14-30 September an opportunity to understand the data on children currently available and areas that fall short.
“The world is committed to eliminating extreme poverty among children by 2030 and to reaching those furthest behind first. If we are going to succeed in achieving these ambitious goals, we first need data that tells us who these children are, where they live and what they need,” UNICEF Director of the Division of Data, Research and Policy Jeffrey O’Malley said.
Every day 830 mothers die as a result of complications related to childbirth. Most of these deaths are preventable, yet there are critical data gaps about the quality of maternal care.
Stunting denies children a fair chance of survival, growth and development. Yet 105 out of 197 countries do not have recent data on stunting.
UNICEF has been actively supporting countries to collect, analyse and report data on progress for children for over 30 years. As part of these efforts UNICEF will continue to support direct collection of data through household surveys, and explore how new technological tools can help fill gaps in data.
UNICEF called for governments to invest in disaggregated, comparable and quality data for children, to adequately address issues including intergenerational cycles of poverty, preventable deaths, and violence against children.
