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increase either the availability or the frequency of data. Inmany countries of the region, access to the internetremains a challenge due to low internet connectivity, anddata collection using internet platforms and data producedthrough internet use – e.g., social media, online searches,online transactions, etc. – is rare. Geospatial information isalso increasingly being used in Africa.Many African countries actively engage in piloting andimplementing innovative approaches for improved dataprocesses. As in other regions, many data innovations aredeveloped by research institutes and universities and havenot yet made it into channels influencing national policymaking.Where innovations, for example new softwaretools, are developed and disseminated by internationalagencies, countries may find it difficult to evaluate andassess their suitability and therefore could benefit fromaccess to independent advice on new technologies andtools and their relative strengths and drawbacks. Further,most of the big-data applications need to be calibratedagainst official, “traditional” data. Therefore, strengtheningnational statistical agencies as the providers of such dataremains a priority, particularly in countries where theseagencies are under-resourced.Developing disaster statistics and risk metrics will not onlysupport evidence-based policy and decision making, butalso improve reporting of progress towards internationallyagreed goals and targets. Chapter 4 explains how theinclusion of targets related to DRR not only in the SDGs butalso in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction2015-2030 brings to the fore a range of practical issues thatrelate to all the stages of disaster risk reduction andmanagement, from knowledge of past events to earlywarning to risk mitigation to disaster management plans.Issues include the need for definitions, accountingmethods, baselines, methodologies for assessing risk,exposure and vulnerability, and data collection efforts.The chapter illustrates ongoing efforts to mobilizeconventional and more innovative data sources to informdecision-making (e.g. use of drones for vulnerability andloss assessments, crowd-sourcing information for mappingpost-disaster needs).Addressing these measurement issues in the context of theSDGs provides an opportunity to align the treatment of DRRin the post-2015 agenda and the post-Sendai DRRmonitoring framework in order to avoid duplication and toensure that progress in disaster risk reduction can bereported as an integral part of progress on sustainabledevelopment.Identifying emerging issues: a critical role for science ininforming policyThe identification of new and emerging issues warrantingpolicy makers’ attention is a critical function of the sciencepolicyinterface. The process typically draws on scientificevidence, assessments, and projections. A commonapproach involves canvassing expert opinion to collect aninitial list of issues, which is then whittled down in thecourse of discussions among experts.Another, complementary approach is to crowd-sourcebriefs from interested scientific communities around theworld, asking scientists to motivate why they think aparticular issue needs policy makers’ attention. Thisprovides a bottom-up, largely unfiltered scienceperspective. In response to an open call for contribution tothe GSDR, 367 natural and social scientists from 24developing and 22 developed countries submitted 187science briefs for the consideration of policy makers in theHLPF. Many inputs were received from younger scientistsand scientists from developing countries who previouslywere not involved in United Nations related activities anddebates. While this process lacks the expert pedigree offormal assessment exercises, judgments about quality canbe made based, e.g., on the degree to which findings aregrounded in the peer-reviewed literature and areconsistent with the scientific method.The submitted briefs differed greatly in terms of theirnature and focus; taken together they provide a mosaic ofinterdependent challenges. Many briefs focused on clustersof SDG-related issues, such as SCP-growth-employmentinfrastructure-industrialization,energy-water-climate,health-hunger-oceans, ecosystems-inequality. Few took asystem-wide approach covering multiple SDG areas such asis commonly found in integrated global assessments. Manyof the briefs followed a transdisciplinary approachcharacteristic of sustainability science.Looking to possible future crowdsourcing efforts, there is aneed to expand outreach efforts, in order to garner moreinputs on emerging issues related to the economy, socialsystems, and technological change, as well as to expandoutreach to science communities utilizing other languages.A systematic approach to identify science issues for thedeliberations of the HLPF could be built on various inputchannels, including crowdsourcing combined with anexpert review and vetting process based on clear criteriafor selecting, filtering and prioritizing issues, as well astaking advantage of the diverse landscape of existingUnited Nations system mechanisms for identifying“emerging issues” in specific focus areas.24