Big data and data science play a key role in addressing global challenges

The world faces many global challenges related to the environment, climate change, health, food insecurity, economic recovery and human displacement. COVID-19 and the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine have caused disruptions in supply chains and have raised energy and food prices significantly, making it difficult for millions of people around the world to cover their basic needs of food, water and shelter. The resilience of our societies is further tested by typhoons, flood, drought and other severe weather patterns.

Governments need to identify and understand the extent of the problems in their countries and take appropriate measures. Subsequently, they must monitor whether national and local policies have the desired positive effect. In all these stages of decision-making, relevant and timely data are needed. Moreover, emerging challenges require a fast response. Statisticians have therefore started to explore new data sources and new technologies. Big Data and data science can help them to compile detailed and frequent indicators in a timely manner.

Since 2014, the United Nations Committee on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics has organized a conference to draw political attention to the importance of relevant data. This year, the 7th International Conference on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics will take place in Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 7 to 11 November 2022 under the theme “Global challenges and the importance of relevant and timely data”.

The conference will consist of high-level panels on sustainability and global economic recovery, on food security and on access to relevant data. The conference will also hold several mini-workshops on the use of earth observations for agriculture statistics or the use of mobile phone data for the estimation of tourism and population statistics.

Another highlight of the conference will be the 2022 UN Big Data Hackathon, where 2,000 young data scientists and statisticians will participate on-site and online. In Yogyakarta itself, about 400 representatives of government, academia, private sector and the statistical community are expected to join.

The ultimate aim is for the Conference to promote and stimulate data innovation, launch several new initiatives and showcase creative solutions by the hackathon teams to help address global challenges.