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SDGs What is measured? Data source Geographic scope of applicationTerrestrialecosystems (SDG15)Forest cover Satellite images Costa Rica 714 , Mexico 715Peace, justice, Crime 716 Mobile phone and demographic data London, UKinstitutions (SDG16) Violent events 717 News stories database SyriaMeans of implementationFeedback from communities U-Report 718 (free SMS based system) and DevTrac 719in assessing aid flows (online monitoring tool)(SDG17)UgandaPopulation Mobile phone records 720 France, PortugalOtherSatellite images combined with population count Africadata 721Well-being Twitter 722 USOpen access to data remains a challenge. Much of thesedata is owned or in the possession of private sectorcompanies. Data provided to outside organizations andindividuals is often aggregated and “anonymized” (trueanonymization is difficult to achieve, which has raisedprivacy concerns), and even such access is often onlyobtained through personal connections. High cost isanother barrier. For example, while Facebook has an openAPI to access their data, access to Twitter’s data can beexpensive. Accessing call data record (CDR) data requiresan agreement with each provider. Some business data isfree to view but not to download 723 , and other data can bepurchased. 724 Some satellite data is free 725 , and others forsale. 726 Access to computing power to analyse datacontinues to be an issue, even though cloud computing andopen source software has removed some of those barriers.In short, the current practice of big data sharing is ad hocand unreliable including in terms of predictable future dataaccess. The question of the rights to data remains open inthe debate on the future legal architecture of the global bigdata system, even though there is increased recognitionthat people should have greater control of the rights totheir data—the data they produce. Greater control bypeople over their data would hopefully contribute to moreaccountable use. Much of the benefit of big data may be inspurring non-policy actions, by people using insights fromthe data that are largely unrelated to policies. For example,big data can be used to change people’s behaviour. Accessto real time traffic data can lead to changes in drivingbehaviours and hopefully reduced congestion.To date, the dialogue between official statistics and bigdata has been limited - a UN Statistics Division/UNECEsurvey conducted in 2014 revealed that only a fewcountries national statistical offices had developed a longtermvision for the use of big data. 7277.6. UN system mechanisms to identify emerging issuesFor the present report, a survey was conducted among allECESA Plus members - all 53 UN entities working oneconomic, social or environmental issues. Table 7-6summarizes the survey results. The questions asked in thesurvey were:Is emerging issues identification a regular exercisein the work programme?Is it internal or does it involve any externalpartners?What is the output and how is it being used?Are there dedicated staff-time assigned to thistask?Is it conducted based on peer-reviewed literature,or other publications, or is it mainly relying onmulti-stakeholder inputs?Table 7-6. UN system mechanisms to identify emerging issuesUN System Drafting process Type of knowledge assessed Staff-time Frequency OutputentityWorld Food Drafted and reviewed Academic, peer-reviewed ~ 3 months Regular Incorporated into strategic plans andProgramme internallyjournals, United Nationsoperational activities(WFP)publications, Civil society /multi-stakeholder inputsWMO Drafted by externalexperts but coordinatedby internal managersITU-TDrafted and reviewedinternally, primarilybased on externalinputs, or drafted byexternal expertsAcademic, peer-reviewedjournals, United Nationspublications, Civil society/multistakeholderinputs, Media,Feedback from membersAcademic, peer-reviewedjournals, United Nationspublications, Civil society/multistakeholderinputs, Media, input(documents) by ITUmembershipMore than 24months~ 0.5 to 1 staffyearRegular Submission of reports to NationalGovernments,PublicInformation to the Committee of Parties(COP) Meetings of permanentrepresentatives of intergovernmental BoardRegular Either on ITU webpage - publicly availablefor free, or submitted to ITU membershipwhich includes governments, policy-makingbodies, companies146