The Costa Rica National Forum on Data Roadmaps for Sustainable Development

Nov 27, 2018

On April 24-25, the government of Costa Rica, with the collaboration of Cepei and the Global Data Alliance for Sustainable Development, seek to identify and prioritize, together with local and international actors, the needs and priorities to formulate a Roadmap on data for sustainable development.

The Costa Rica National Forum was a space to initiate the formulation of a roadmap for the generation of data for sustainable development to bring together stakeholders across sectors to discuss and define the way forward on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of the data revolution for sustainable development.  

The Forum aimed to better understand Costa Rica’s approach to achieve the SDGs, how governments, private sector and civil society are working together, and where the key challenges are in respect to data, technology, policy, resources and capacity. The aim was to support the development of a data ecosystem approach, led and aligned to Costa Rica’s priorities using a whole-of-government and multi-stakeholder approach.

Olga Marta Sánchez Oviedo, Minister of Planning and Economic Policy of Costa Rica, Opening act of the National Forum on data roadmaps for sustainable development, April 24, 2018, San José, Costa Rica. © Presidency of the Republic of Costa Rica
 

“Costa Rica committed itself with conviction to the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, the goals of the Agenda coincide with the aspirations and rights of the Costa Rican people”.

Olga Marta Sánchez, Minister of National Planning and Economic Policy

Objectives

🔶 To better understand the key actors and current approach of how the SDGs, and sustainable development more broadly, are being approached in Costa Rica and aligned to national development priorities;

🔶 To identify and prioritize in conjunction with local stakeholders’ key needs for the improvement of the data ecosystem in Costa Rica;

🔶 To strengthen national capacities on data for sustainable development, the SDGs, and how data can be applied to action and decision-making;

🔶 Through a multi-stakeholder approach, use the outcomes of the workshop to define the way forward in partnership with national and international organizations.

Floribel Méndez, Director, INEC Costa Rica, Session 4. Requirements, gaps and data opportunities to address the SDGs in Costa Rica, in the National Forum on data for sustainable development, April 24, 2018, San José, Costa Delicious. © Cepei Archive

“Statistical institutions should reevaluate their current organizational structure. The 2030 Agenda demands to have high quality products and services for its dissemination and guidelines with the main needs of the population.”

Floribel Méndez, Director, INEC Costa Rica

Topics addressed

📌 The national strategy for the implementation of the SDGs including challenges and opportunities

📌 Data availability for ODS indicators including gaps and opportunities

📌 Data roadmaps for sustainable development and country experiences from Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and Ghana

📌 Leave no one behind:  the importance of data disaggregation

📌 Forum on administrative data

📌 Open data, geospatial and earth observations and new data sources

📌 Policy and enabling environment

📌 The roadmap forward

Maciej Truszczynski, Statistics Denmark, Session 7: The potential of data management, at the National Forum on data for sustainable development, April 25, 2018, San José, Costa Rica. © Cepei Archive

“In my personal opinion conducting censuses every 10 years will not help us realize the ambition to leave-no-one-behind as envisioned under the 2030 Agenda. We need the data sooner than that”.

Maciej Truszczynski, Statistics Denmark

Results

✔ The Costa Rica National Forum made it possible to report on the progress and efforts made by the country for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda by committing to continuously work on the identification, analysis and implementation of the SDGs.

✔ One of the main challenges of the country is to integrate  and align the SDGs initiatives carried out by all the actors

✔ The importance of understanding that the country’s development should not only meet the needs and aspirations of the current generations but also of the future ones was also stressed. Therefore, the identification of data disaggregation gaps is fundamental.

“I congratulate the efforts made over the last two days, as we worked together to ensure we’re using data to leave no one behind”.

H.E. Vice President of Costa Rica Ana Helena Chacón

Interviews (spanish)

Agenda

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