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Seth Davis, Programme Advisor, Community Systems Foundation From 27-31 May 2019, senior statisticians from L'Institut national de la statistique (INSTAT), and statistical experts responsible for the national development plan participated in a week-long workshop in New Delhi, India. 
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Menna El Shiati, Advisor - Gender and FGM, Community Systems Foundation Community Systems Foundation (CSF) is partnering with the League of Arab States (LAS) to monitor regional and national progress against the Arab Regional Multidimensional Poverty Strategy.  Seth Davis, Communications Officer/Programme Advisor, Community Systems Foundation From 21 to 23 February 2019, the Second International Biennial Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education took place in Victoria, Seychelles. [1] Among the speakers at the conference was Elma Tershana, Director of the Observatory for Children and Youth Rights (www.observator.org.al), Albania, presenting on Promising practices in data management for resilient ECCE system. Presentation of good practices. Since 2009, The Observatory has been using DevInfo to monitoring and disseminate data related to children in Albania.  Menna El Shiati, Advisor - Gender and FGM, Community Systems Foundation Seth Davis, Communications Officer, Community Systems Foundation In 2017, The League of Arab States (LAS), United Nations Economic and Social Commission (UN ESCWA), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) launched the Arab Multidimensional Poverty Report in a United Nations General Assembly High-Level Side Event.  Seth Davis, Communications Officer, Community Systems Foundation A DevInfo to Data For All Transition To strengthen the national monitoring and evaluation capacity in Belize at the project, sector and thematic levels, as well as against national strategic plans and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation and Poverty Alleviation launched BelizeInfo, an adaptation of DevInfo, in 2016. [1]  Jeeveeta Agnihotri, Chief Programme Officer, Community Systems Foundation Seth Davis, Communications Officer, Community Systems Foundation From DevInfo to Data For All In A Data Revolution in Motion, the UN Statistics Division highlights the importance of data tools “to gather, present and disseminate Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) data.” [1] In order to better track progress on national priorities and the SDGs and to create meaningful interventions, however, policy-makers must use these tools efficiently, effectively and extensively.  Ruchi Varma, Program Manager-Urban Development, Community Systems Foundation Jayati Narain, Research Associate, OpenCities Institute From Urban Imperative by Edward Glaeser & Abha Joshi-Ghani, cities can best be understood as a ‘triad of forces’. While commonly seen as physical entities, such as streets, buildings, and subways, and viewed from the lens of the public sector, which defines the borders of the city and has the responsibility for providing clean water and public safety, Glaeser and Joshi-Ghani note that cities have a third, equally important, element. That is, “the magic of human interaction.” [1]  Seth Davis, Communications Officer, Community Systems Foundation While 1.4 million new HIV infections have been averted since 2010, the disease continues to persist. According to the Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, in 2017 alone, 180,000 children became infected with the virus. [1] Children, along with society’s most vulnerable populations — “adolescent girls and young women, indigenous peoples, migrants, the poor and uneducated, and key populations at highest risk of HIV infection—are being left behind.” [2]  Menna El Shiati, Advisor - Gender and FGM, Community Systems Foundation Seth Davis, Communications Officer, Community Systems Foundation Since 2008, the UN Global Joint Programme (JP) on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has supported “more than 3.2 million girls and women in 17 countries” [1] The JP, a partnership between The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNICEF has assisted with provision of appropriate and quality services, increased community-led engagement, legal and policy frameworks, government ownership and increased access to accurate and timely data. At the same time, the JP seeks to measure the progress, quality and success of FGM programming. This is done by focusing on planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation. 
Seth Davis, Communications Officer, Community Systems Foundation
Globally, LGBTQ+ individuals face discrimination, stigma and violence due to dangerous national legislation. This is especially the case in at least 72 countries where discriminatory laws criminalize private, consensual same-sex relationships. These policies expose “millions of individuals to the risk of arrest, prosecution and imprisonment – and even, in five countries and several regions, the death penalty” – for simply loving another person. [1]
Ruchi Varma, Program Manager - Urban Development, Community Systems Foundation With 70% of the global population residing in urban areas by 2050, the battle for a sustainable future will be won or lost in cities. Foreseen to be the second largest urban system in the world, India will be a major driver in this global effort, especially considering India will house nearly 60% of its population in cities by 2050. In this regard, it is critical to strengthen local governments response to the Agenda 2030 and New Urban Agenda to ensure ‘no one is left behind.’  Community Systems Foundation VIDEO Through this webinar, Jon F. Kapp, Executive Director of Community Systems Foundation, introduces the Data For All (DFA) toolkit - a vision and solution to assist countries with national planning, monitoring and planning. As part of a holistic solution, data dashboards serve the end product to report progress on national priorities, building on a solution that strengthens plans and improves monitoring of development. To demonstrate how governments can integrate similar tools, Kapp discusses CSF's on-going work in Cote D’Ivoire and CSF's partnership with the UN System to develop UN INFO. Kapp also highlights to viewers how a platform for national priorities can help enhance coordination and collaboration efforts between all development partners, governments, civil society and the private sector. In this regard, the webinar outlines how Data For All can be applied to answer real world questions and help build and strengthen institutions to ensure solutions are sustainable. This webinar is available in English and will soon be released in French. For access to the full slide deck, click here. Jay Neuner, Communications Manager, UN SDSN TReNDS Sandra Ruckstuhl, Program Manager, UN SDSN TReNDS Reblog: UN SDSN TReNDS In 2018, TReNDS launched a microgrant program through SDSN’s Local Data Action Solutions Initiative (LDA-SI). During this calendar year, the program is supporting five sub-national SDG data and monitoring efforts. Through real-world examples, these projects are generating a series of adaptable models that can be utilized in locations around the world to improve local SDG achievement. Learn more about the program here. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are often framed in global terms–as the “Global Goals” or efforts to save our planet–or national terms–such as in the Voluntary National Review process, to which individual countries can commit. Community Systems Foundation is among those calling for a complementary approach–that of “listening to cities.” The organization’s urban initiative OpenCities Institute (OCI), a 2018-2019 LDA-SI grantee, is using its micro-grant support to do just this in India. Much like LDA-SI does at a global scale, OCI is embedding know-how, tools, and capacity for the use of city-level data by sub-national governments in India, with the goal of facilitating evidence-based solutions for the SDGs. Under the program, OCI will develop a proof-of-concept package for SDG localization that will demonstrate to cities the feasibility and the value of local SDG monitoring. It includes development of a model indicator framework for the city of Patiala in Punjab that reflects upon its municipal human development objectives across sectors. The development of this framework will not happen in a silo; rather, OCI aims to make this an inclusive process by conducting consultative workshops with local stakeholders and experts, as well as municipal officials. The resulting framework will be illustrated in a prototype data dashboard that serves as a one-stop visual overview of the city’s development priorities, seen through the lens of the SDG indicators, thereby “valorizing the SDG localization process through data visualization.” In future stages, the results of this project may support a full-scale SDG observatory in the region. This project hopes to showcase how SDG localization can evolve into a living reference dashboard and generate local action by adopting a data driven approach to sustainable urban development. In particular, OCI’s work in this grant program will aid a particular urban context–Indian cities such as Patiala, that have limited exposure to a global stage yet have initiated their commitment to harness datasets and drive effective actions. Learn more about the OpenCities Institute here. Follow updates on the 2018-2019 microgrant cohort here. Jeeveeta Agnihotri, Chief Programme Officer, Community Systems Foundation Seth Davis, Communications Officer, Community Systems Foundation SNIEPSE - Building a national integrated planning, monitoring and evaluation system based on evidence for Côte D’Ivoire Community Systems Foundation (CSF) has helped spark a revolution in the way national ministries in Côte D’Ivoire monitor development plans and SDG progress. With support from UNICEF, the national government has partnered with CSF to align national ministry sectoral plans with SDG targets through the Data For All (DFA) monitoring platform.  Jon F. Kapp, Executive Director, Community Systems Foundation Seth Davis, Communications Officer, Community Systems Foundation While UN Country Teams (UNCTs) work in support of national development across the world; historically, it has been difficult to report with precision and timeliness of the UN’s contributions to development as a whole. In his end-of-2017 report, Secretary-General António Guterres outlined a need and mandate for unprecedented UN reform. According to the Secretary-General, “By the end of 2019, a system-wide online platform for monitoring and reporting on the contributions of the United Nations development system to progress in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals should be put in place.” [1]  |