September’25 Fireside Chat

Event Summary

As the world reconvened at the UN General Assembly this September, our Fireside Chat addressed a timely question: How do we measure progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and what role does data play in defining this progress?

Chaired by Sherman Kong (The Digital Economist), the session brought together editors of the forthcoming Elgar Companion to Data and Indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals to unpack the politics, methods, and implications of “governance by goals.”

Speakers Prof Gaby Umbach (Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute), Mira Tiwari (Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies), European University Institute), and Prof Igor Tkalec (Social Data Institute, UCL) highlighted the complex realities behind indicators and statistics, reminding us that behind every fraction or percentage lies a story of lives changed and lives saved.

The discussion revealed that measuring sustainable development is far from a neutral, technical exercise. Behind the 17 goals lies a complex world of political choices, normative frameworks, and power dynamics that determine what development means and how we operationalise it. Drawing on their comprehensive analysis of global sustainability indices and the GlobalSTAT database, the speakers unpacked the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of “governance by goals” and shared insights on data literacy, quality, capacity, and the lessons learned from tracking SDG progress.

Discussion Highlights

The Politics of Measurement: Prof Umbach opened by challenging the notion that statistics provide neutral evidence for policymaking. The selection of indicators whether GDP or inequality-adjusted measures fundamentally shapes how we frame problems and design policies. Data use in the SDG context goes beyond measurement; it creates dominant forms of knowledge, establishes political norms, and exercises governance power through numbers.

Who Controls the Global Narrative? Mira Tiwari presented striking findings from the team’s analysis of 11 major sustainable development indices. The research revealed an exclusive concentration of producers and funders in high-income countries, predominantly in North America and Europe. This geographic and economic concentration raises fundamental questions: Whose vision of sustainable development shapes global discourse? How can indices claim universality when they emerge from a narrow slice of the world?

Key findings included:

  • Almost all index producers come from high-income contexts; the only exception is nonetheless a UN regional commission
  • Male leads dominate even indices with female top authors
  • Public funding plays a surprisingly large role, even in ostensibly private initiatives like the SDSN
  • Some indices lack transparency about funding sources, and have methodologies that change across years
  • Data disaggregation remains minimal, limiting usefulness for local actors

The Contextualization Challenge: Prof Tkalec highlighted a recurring theme across all 17 SDGs: the tension between universal indicators and local needs. Countries struggle to make global benchmarks actionable at regional and local levels. The book identifies “contextualization” as not merely transferring indicator selection to local levels, but as a continuous process of reinterpreting what communities need and redefining concepts like inequality, climate change, and progress itself.

Traditional vs. Non-Traditional Data: The discussion explored the role of official statistics, big data, earth observations, and citizen science. While National Statistical Offices retain a “trust marker” due to methodological rigor and harmonisation capabilities, there’s growing recognition that alternative data sources can fill critical gaps particularly for remote areas, biodiversity monitoring, and populations excluded from traditional data collection (indigenous peoples, nomadic communities).

However, Dr Gloria Novović‘s research on Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda (cited from the book) revealed a significant tension: while the SDG framework allows national flexibility in choosing data sources, donor organizations and overseas development assistance frameworks remain rigid, demanding specific indicators with low tolerance for error yet insufficient budget allocation for robust monitoring and evaluation.

The Actionability Problem: A central finding across chapters is the gap between what national, regional, and local levels need for SDG implementation and what the global framework offers. Countries frequently report that SDG data isn’t granular enough for subnational policymaking. The book calls for balancing “what works” with “what matters” prioritising meaningful measures over mere technical compliance.

Statistical Capacity and Systems Change: The speakers emphasised the need for multilateral investment in statistical capacity, particularly in countries with existing data gaps. National Statistical Offices could play a coordinating role in integrating traditional and non-traditional data through co-production mechanisms, but this requires substantial infrastructure investment globally not just in high-income countries.

Audience Q&A Takeaways

  • On innovation vs. tradition: Experts often resist new data methods, citing reliability concerns. Speakers suggested innovation will not replace official statistics but complement them, especially in biodiversity and urban monitoring.

  • On subnational relevance: SDG data is often too coarse for policy needs. Alternative and information management system data could support decision-making at local levels, but must be integrated with national capacity building.

  • On funding and political economy: Changing funding landscapes (e.g. World Bank, ODA) influence which indicators gain prominence. Speakers warned that donor-driven frameworks can conflict with national priorities and limit flexibility

We look forward to the next session in our Fireside Chat series, where we will continue to explore critical issues shaping the future of data governance, AI regulation, and policy innovation.

About the Speakers:

Gaby Umbach is Part-time Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute, where she leads the Global Governance Programme’s research area ‘Knowledge, Governance, Transformations’. She is Principal of the Interdisciplinary Research Cluster on ‘Expert Knowledge and Authority in Transformative Times’ and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. Her research focuses on the interaction between knowledge, evidence, data, and governance, analyzing how governance by and of knowledge influence transformations of politics and policies. She serves as Associate Editor of Cambridge University Press’s ‘Data & Policy’ and is Editorial Board member of the ‘International Journal Evaluation and Program Planning’.

Igor Tkalec is Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in social data science at UCL’s Social Data Institute (SODA) with a background in political economy. Prior to joining UCL, Igor was a Research Fellow at the European University Institute working on the GlobalStat project. He holds BA (University of Zagreb) and MA (Central European University) degrees in political science, PhD (University of Luxembourg) in political science, and MSc in computer science with data science (University of Wolverhampton).

Mira Tiwari is a Research Associate in Knowledge, Governance, Transformations (KGT), part of the Global Governance Programme at the European University Institute’s Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. Her projects center on optimizing the nexus between science, policymakers, and citizens, bridging disciplines and knowledges for accurate, ethical data and evidence-informed policymaking. She specializes in societal learning and education for sustainable development, and climate and social justice in Majority World contexts. Her work aims at strengthening systems approaches and transformative governance based on critical data use, local and expert knowledges, and socioecological and decolonial systems.

Sherman Kong (The Digital Economist) chaired this session, bringing valuable perspective on how data shapes our understanding of global development progress and the lives behind the statistics. Currently he is a Senior Executive Fellow at The Digital Economist think tank, and concurrently leads the “Policy and Literacy for Data” thematic area and editorial subcommittee at the Cambridge “Data and Policy” academic research network and its affiliated scientific journal. Most recently he co-founded the multilateral GovStack initiative in his role as Senior Advisor at the United Nations Foundation’s Digital Impact Alliance, providing a global reference platform to converge development actors to support partner countries in pursuit of a whole-of-society digital transformation approach by the adoption of digital commons.