Open Data For Sustainable Development

Open data is an absolute precursor to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, believes Barbara Ryan, Director, Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Secretariat in Geneva.

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How will geospatial data be useful in achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

The work in the area of sustainable development is largely being managed by statistical agencies and census bureaus within governments. They are quite familiar with demographic information and population data, but may not know a lot about earth observation. When you think about those 17 sustainable development goals — and whether it is access to clean air or clean water, improving health and all the statistics associated with that — then there are really important environmental datasets that ought to be included in the equation. So, we feel very strongly that earth observation and geospatial information can be an enabler or facilitator for the implementation of the SDGs. But we have a big challenge and an education exercise to undertake to make sure that those statistical organizations are relying on earth observations also.

Do you see the need to create a global, regional or national framework to streamline the availability and accessibility of data across nations to achieve the SDGs?

There is a need for that. I would say there are frameworks that exist. The Group on Earth Observations is working at the global, regional and at the national levels to make sure that all entities across that entire spectrum that are collecting and using earth observation data are working together. So we have a nice global framework for GEO. But specifically for the sustainable development goals, we are working with another global framework which is being managed by the UN-GGIM [the Global Geographic Information Management System]. So together there are international frameworks that just need to be leveraged. These frameworks are already there but they need to be fully developed and better employed and supported.