The United Nations World Data Forum will be held from April 24-28, 2023, in Hangzhou, China. It is the most important global event on the use and production of data to advance the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
The 2023 edition of the Forum brings together experts and data users, statesmen, governments, civil society, the private sector, philanthropy, and media to drive innovation in data to build the path toward better data for sustainable development. The Forum program comprises four main thematic areas (TAs):
- Innovation and partnerships for better and more inclusive data.
- Maximizing the use and value of data for better decision-making.
- Building trust and ethics in data.
- Emerging trends and partnerships to develop the data ecosystem.
This year, Cepei highlights the need to give a new push to the data revolution to track the progress of the 2030 Agenda. Seven years remain to comply with this global agenda, and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets still need to catch up.
The data revolution needs to strengthen multi-stakeholder collaborations. For example, public-private data partnerships, in which the private sector helps to narrow gaps in public data, and transfer knowledge and expertise for decision-making, are opportunities to focus resources on critical areas and vulnerable groups.
“At Cepei, we aim to strengthen data collaborations and foster a regional dialogue with the different stakeholders of sustainable development to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. We are working with global and regional partners on the Data Action Plan 2030, which will be the roadmap to drive the data revolution in the next six years. It will be presented to the data community at the UN WDF 2024,” highlighted Philipp Shönrock, Executive Director of Cepei.
This initiative developed in partnership with the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD), SDSN TReNDS, PARIS21, Open Data Watch, Cepei, and co-funded by Salesforce will focus on three main activities:
- Define a clear and consensual vision of success in 2030 from the perspective of the data revolution.
- Develop progress reports that identify successes, lessons learned, challenges, and opportunities on topics such as funding for the data agenda, advancing the production and use of quality data to leave no one behind, and promoting the effective and responsible use of data to support evidence-based decision-making.
- Analyze how the political, economic, social, and development context has evolved and what this implies for the last six years of implementing the 2030 Agenda.
Cepei at the UN WDF 2023
As part of the Forum activities, Cepei will co-organize an oficial session together with partners such as LIRNEasia; the Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), University of the West Indies (UWI); Birzeit University and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Virtual and in-person participation
In-person and virtual participants are encouraged to use the online event platform OEP designed and managed by the National Bureau of Statistics of China: https://oep.unwdf2023.org.cn/en
This platform allows participants to view the virtual sessions live. In addition, using the OEP, registered in-person participants can make hotel reservations and book Hangzhou city tours.
Repeated sessions
Participants unable to view the sessions live on the OEP are recommended to download the Whova App (IOS | Android) or use the platform: https://whova.com/portal/webapp/unwdf_202304/
This platform is managed by the UN World Data Secretariat. Links to view the live sessions will be followed by replays after the live sessions ends.