Vision and Mission

The data revolution is transforming the way governments, citizens, and companies do business. The revolution is being defined by the explosion in availability of data resources and rapidly evolving technologies, which are changing the way we collect, process, and disseminate data. The creation and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offers a unique opportunity to ensure that the benefits of the data revolution are extended to those most in need, that it becomes a true data revolution for sustainable
development.

To support countries in the process, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a consortium of 700+ academic and research institutions committed to supporting the SDGs established a Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics for sustainable development, with members from academia, science, public policy and companies (“TReNDS”).

TReNDS convenes a multidisciplinary group of high-level experts to catalyze learning on evolving data governance and inform investment to harness the data revolution for sustainable development. The group of experts aims to ensure that the evolving “data for sustainable development” movement is grounded in strong expertise and evidence, thereby increasing the likelihood that the data revolution will fulfill its promise of driving sustainable development.

Specifically, we aim to:

• Generate and curate ideas on how to strengthen local, national and global statistical systems and governance to harness the data revolution to achieve the SDGs.
  Learn more via our briefings, blogs, and the Local Data Action Solution
  Initiative.
• Analyze the policies, conditions and investments that enable data sharing success, to generate more frequent, disaggregated data
  Learn more about our compilation of in-depth case studies, short briefings, and documentation from the Colombia Data Reconciliation Solution Initiative.
• Incubate technical coalitions that aim to establish practice standards for new data approaches
  Learn how we support the POPGRID initiative to help establish standards for
  high resolution population estimation.
• Support policy-relevant research for advocacy
  Learn how we support the production of the State of Development Data Funding and Value of Data Investment briefings for the GPSDD.