Numerous civil society groups and academics focus on efforts for a global data revolution for the post-2015 development agenda, in recent blog entries, open letters, and reports. The stakeholders offer commentary on the work of the UN Secretary-General’s Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development (IEAG), among other initiatives, and suggest recommendations for further analysis.

The results of the Post-2015 Data Test, conducted with the involvement of Southern Voice, UN Foundation and others, are presented in an article by Debapriya Bhattacharya and Kate Higgins, titled ‘Unpacking the Data Revolution at the Country Level – Initial Findings.’ The Data Test, in which countries teams assessed the availability of country-level data for measuring the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), shared the initial results of its work at events in New York, US, in October 2014. The findings emphasize that the next development agenda should be universal, while giving space for country differentiation and national priority-setting. It also highlights that data availability and quality are variable, while little data is disaggregated by income or social group. Finally, the study reports that “global minimum standards” are not relevant in high-income countries, nor achievable in low-income countries.

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