Briefing on the United Nations System Data Commons

Good afternoon, everybody. If we can take our seats. Secretary-General, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you all to this briefing on, I think, one of the key deliverables of UN80. It's a result of work package number 16. on data and of a work stream which has been co-led, and we thank them for it, by UN DESA and by UNICEF. And we're joined by Kathy Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF, and Under-Secretary-General Lee Jong-Woo of DESA, as well as the Executive Office of the Secretary-General. Today, we are launching the UN System Data Commons. It's about data, of course, but it's about much more than that, because this initiative is also about our capacity to work together across the system. It has been something of an ambition, Secretary General, of yours to bring our data together more effectively, and I think that it's taken you and AT to realise that ambition. Just to give you an idea of how we will proceed, you will hear remarks by the Secretary General in a few moments. followed by Executive Director Kathy Russell and USG Li Xianghua. After that, we're going to have an interactive introduction of the platform by three of my colleagues, Luis Gonzalez, who's on the left there, by Talia van Lupin, who's sitting next to me on my right, and by Chika Hayashi. At the end, if time is still with us, we will have opportunity for a very quick question and answers, if you have questions on the platform and on the overall work package. With those few words of introduction, let me pass it to the Secretary General. Thank you for your attendance, Secretary General. You have the floor.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates. I want to begin by thanking Under-Secretary-General Lee, Executive Director Russell, and the UNAT team for making this launch possible. And the member states who sustain support underpins the statistical work of the entire United Nations system. Excellencies, behind every statistic is a human story, a child whose future depends on access to education, a family facing rising food prices, a community confronting growing climate risks. To serve them, we must understand their challenges and know whether we are making a difference. For decades, the United Nations system has helped the world to precisely do that. Working with member states, our organizations have built an extraordinary wealth of public data and statistics. This knowledge is a global public asset, held in trust for humanity. We have a responsibility to make it work better together for everyone. Today, we take an important step in fulfilling that responsibility with the launch of the UN Systems Data Commons, a one-stop shop enabling easier public access to data and statistics of the United Nations system. Excellencies, the challenges before us are deeply interconnected. Drought undermines food security. Rising food prices deepen poverty. Poverty pushes children out of school. We cannot solve these challenges in silos. Yet, too often, the information we need remains scattered across different organizations and formats. A policymaker must navigate multiple platforms to see the full picture. A researcher can spend more time reconciling data than analyzing it. and people unfamiliar with our institutions can struggle to know where to start. Access to the knowledge of the United Nations system should never depend on knowing how to navigate its organigram. The UN System Data Commons help remove those barriers. 26 participating UN system entities have joined forces to create a single gateway and make their publicly available data and statistics accessible in accordance with their respective terms of use. And almost 44 million data points are already available on the new platform today. Anyone can search in everyday language, explore information across institutions, and trace it back to its source. And developers can plug this data directly into their own tools. In short, trusted, verified UN data, easier to find, easier to connect, easier to turn into action. Excellencies, this launch comes at a moment of a profound change in how information is created, shared, and used. We have more information at our fingertips than ever before and less certainty about what to trust. If trusted facts are hard to find, unreliable data and misinformation will fill the void. Authoritative public data is the foundation of informed debate and accountable decision making. And this is a matter of public trust. Increasingly, people ask AI a question and receive an immediate answer. Those answers will only be as good as the data behind them. We must help ensure that trusted data is part of the answer and that answers can be traced back to the evidence. The Data Commons is built for this new age. Throughout, we will hold to accuracy, transparency, privacy, and human rights. We will work in accordance with applicable rules, policies, and procedures, and we must ensure that countries and communities with fewer resources can benefit. Open data must go hand in hand with the capacity to use it. The data commons also shows what we can achieve through NIT. Shared infrastructure built faster and cheaper than if each entity acts alone, work across institutional boundaries, A whole greater than the sum of its parts. An idea discussed for years, delivered in another nine months, which demonstrates that change is possible. And this is a reform people can use. Its value will be measured in better support to countries, better informed decisions, and stronger results for the people we serve. Today's launch is a beginning. I urge all remaining UN entities to join. I invite all member states to use the data commons to inform national priorities and accelerate progress towards the sustainable development goals. And I call on researchers, journalists, developers, civil society, and the public to use it, test it, and help us make it even better. Trusted evidence should not sit behind institutional walls. Let us bring it within reach of everyone working for a more peaceful, sustainable, and just world. and let us turn better evidence into better decisions and better lives. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much, Secretary General, for your introduction to today's launch. Let me go immediately to our next speaker, who is Catherine Russell. Executive Director of UNICEF, UNICEF being one of the co-leads of this item of work in UNAD. Cathy, you have the floor.

Great. Thank you very much, Guy. Secretary General, Under Secretary General Lee, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues. It's a pleasure to join you here today for the launch of the UN System Data Commons. UNICEF is really very proud to have co-led this effort with UNDESA and the Executive Office of the Secretary General. We're launching the Data Commons at a moment when trusted evidence has never been more important. Governments are confronting increasingly interconnected challenges, poverty and inequality, conflict and displacement, climate shocks, and the need for greater investment in essential services. At the same time, the resources available to address these challenges are shrinking. Official development assistance fell by roughly a quarter in 2025, the largest annual decline on record. These reductions are already affecting national statistical programs, surveys, administrative data systems, and the platforms used to share information. In response, we must start by making much better use of the evidence we already have. Artificial intelligence makes that task more urgent and more possible. Increasingly, people looking for information are not searching individual agency websites or navigating separate databases. Instead, they are posing questions to AI systems and expecting answers in the blink of an eye. This raises an important question for all of us. As the way people access information changes, will authoritative public information remain visible, accessible, and usable? The UN Data System Common, the UN system data commons can help ensure that the answer to that question is yes. UNICEF has benchmarked large language models against authoritative statistics. We found that these systems can produce extremely convincing answers while getting the facts wrong, confusing indicators, misinterpreting data, or failing to identify the authoritative source. The lesson here is that AI works better when it has access to data that is structured, connected, and well-documented, and when the provenance of that data is clear. This is at the heart of the UN system data commons. Critically, this is data on countries, from countries, and for countries. National statistical offices and ministries produce official statistics. UN agencies work with them to apply common international standards and classifications. That means when we talk about GDP, child mortality, malnutrition, immunization, or access to safe water, those figures rest on a shared understanding among member states of what we are measuring and how we're measuring it. That shared understanding is what gives the data credibility. It allows countries to compare progress, to learn from one another, and to understand where greater action is needed. And in the age of AI, it has another increasingly important function, protecting information integrity. At a time when new technologies can generate and disseminate information at extraordinary speed, the United Nations has a unique comparative advantage. That is trust. Our statistics are official. Our tech methodologies are transparent, and our evidence is produced under clear mandates. The UN system data commons makes that trusted evidence easier for people and increasingly for machines to discover and to use. For UNICEF, this builds on decades of experience as a custodian and producer of authoritative data about children, including on child mortality, immunization, malnutrition, and water and sanitation. We are applying that experience to help make UN data more interoperable, machine readable, and ready for the AI era, while preserving agency custodianship, statistical standards, and clear provenance. And we are already making progress. The UN System Data Commons connects official data from 17 UN entities, with another 11 expected to come online in the coming months. For member states, the promise is very practical. Spend less time searching for data and more time using it to understand where children are being left behind and where resources can have the greatest impact for children, families, and communities. The UN system data commons is more than another digital platform. It's an investment in shared public evidence infrastructure for the AI era. Our next task is to expand participation, strengthen standards and metadata, and make this capability readily available to governments and UN country teams. And as we do so, we must preserve what makes this evidence valuable in the first place, its authority, its transparency. transparency and the trust that member states and the public place in it. Excellencies, UNICEF is delighted to have helped lead the development of the UN system data commons. It has been a genuine model of interagency collaboration, with organizations contributing where they are strongest while building something greater together. I want to thank the teams across the UN system whose expertise, creativity and hard work have brought us to this launch today. And we look forward to continuing to work with Member States and our UN partners to expand the Data Commons in the years ahead. Because better data and better evidence does not simply help us understand the challenges we face. It helps us make better choices about how to address them and deliver better results for the people and the communities that we all serve. And ultimately, that is what data is for. Thank you very much.

Thanks very much, Executive Director Kathy Russell of UNICEF, and thanks to your colleagues. Let's turn now then to Under-Secretary-General Lee Jon-Wa. of UN DESA, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which was the other co-lead in this work package. Jun Wang, you have the floor.

Thank you. Thank you, Guy. Secretary-General, Executive Director, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues. United Nations system produces an extraordinary wealth of trusted, high-quality data and statistics. As the Secretary General highlighted, these data are crucial to public decision making and essential for sharing trends across the multiple dimensions of sustainable development. Historically, the UN data has been abundant but fragmented, spread across the different organizations and the platforms, and there was a disparate classification and formats. This fragmentation has practical consequences Especially important when the slow pace of the global progress towards the SDGs is demanding deeper actionable insights. The UN System Data Commons is the key to meeting this implementation challenge. It represents a unified efforts across the UN system, bringing the data from the different sources together efficiently and intelligently. Today, we begin a new era in data integration, dissemination, and policy use. Allow me to share the four guiding principles for building the Data Commons. First, centralize the access but distribute ownership. While the UN system Data Commons operates through the one central portal, ownership remains with the agencies providing the data. They are the authoritative sources. The commons is the doorway and the bridge. Second, rigorous interoperability. We utilize the rigorous modern methods to connect the data across the different sources. They preserve the statistical integrity and ensure that the correlations we observe that are meaningful and accurate. Third, beautiful to both people and the machines. We use the open source technology designed for both human researchers and the automated system and applications. As the world turns to AI for answers, this direct access positions the UN as a trusted source in an increasingly automated landscape. Fourth, a true spirit of collaboration with member states and partners. With this foundations, the data commons will evolve as a new needs emerge, ready to integrate any additional indicators that the member states have decided to include in the future development agenda. Before you, there are the early dividends of this approach. With the 26 UN system entities joining the initiative so far, the platform now represents 44 million observations across the more than 1,700 statistical series. As a shared digital public infrastructure, this open resource allows the governments, UN country teams, and the researchers to derive the immediate value from the trusted UN assets. This launch also underscores a broader responsibility for UN DESA Guided by the UN Statistical Commission and working closely with chief statisticians across the system, we are committed to strengthening global capacity for high-quality statistics. Moving forward, we will continue to onboard new organizations, automate data flows, address data gaps, drive harmonization, and strengthen evidence-based decision-making. Crucially, the experience that we gained in building this shared infrastructure will allow us to better support the member states in modernizing their national statistical systems. I invite you to view what we are launching today as not just a platform, but a foundation. Together, we are making the knowledge of the United Nations easier to find, easier to connect, and easier to use for all, while keeping trust, statistical integrity, and institutional accountability at its absolute core. Thank you.

Thank you, Genois, for that presentation. Now, ladies and gentlemen, you've heard from our leaders, from our principals. how we've put this data commons together and why we think it is an important step forward, but we'd like now to give you a more practical demonstration of this platform so you can make up your own mind about the value of this data commons. Three colleagues are going to make a complementary set of presentations to you. We'll start in a moment with Talea van Lupin, the portfolio manager of UN Global Pulse in the Office of the Secretary General. And Talia, I think you're going to introduce the platform with a practical demonstration. Thereafter, we'll go to Chika Hayashi, Chief of Nutrition Data at UNICEF, who'll give us a very practical use case. And finally, to Mr. Luis Gonzalez, Chief of Section Statistics in UNDESA, who will talk to the current scope and the future plans and potentials for the Data Commons. So, let's go to Talia van Lupin first, it's over to you.

Thank you so much, Guy. And I couldn't be more excited to be here with you today and to show you around in what we've been building over the last six months in an incredible team. We have been building the UN System Data Commons, and for the first time, allowing all of you, member states, researchers, the general public alike, to access all publicly available data and statistics from the UN system in one place. When we are saying across the UN system, 26 entities at the moment of launch have been contributing or committed to this platform and to bringing their statistics in here. And in a way that doesn't only make the lives of everyone who is doing policy analysis a lot easier, but laying the foundation for AI readiness and bringing our data to the world in a way that's modern and very different from what we've had before. Before I'm jumping in with you, I want to say that this was an incredible team effort. Building something like this and building something like this in a magnitude of bridging so many UN entities is something that we haven't really seen before in the past. And we've been working with hundreds of colleagues, some of them here, a lot of them following us online. And I couldn't be more proud sitting here on all of their behalf and showing you how we want to show our data in the future. So let's have a look together and see what's out there starting today. This is what you see, the landing page of the new UN system data commons. And I want to lead you through a very usual situation for me. On my team, we are very often asked to do very rapid policy analysis. Let's take an example of me trying to understand how maternal mortality has evolved around the world over the last decade. Something that I did in the past was at first I needed to know which UN entity would collect data on this. Then I would need to find the place where they store their data. Very often I would need to know what's the specific indicator name so I can find and sort through what's the thing. Now from today, what I'm going to do with my question is go here and type in natural language the same way I would ask you. How did maternal mortality change over time in the world? Let's see what we get out of it. We are getting, first of all, a number, global average figure, 197 out of 100,000 births. But more than that, we built a platform here that already gives you automatically the most relevant visualization for the data and allows me in a second to already understand the trend of the data that I've been searching for. So I can understand instantly what's the pattern, in which direction are we evolving, and what's important for me, I can still see though where did this data come from. Here, the SDG database, and I can go there to understand in more details where did this number come from, like where has it been collected through what kind of ways. Something that's super helpful for me is that I don't only get the most relevant result, but I can also see what are related indicators and showing me charts and maps and any other ways that give me a first very, very quick indication of what's the data available, how did trends evolve over time and how do they compare between regions, between timeframes, et cetera. Now one more thing, of course, not every time I'm starting with a specific question. Sometimes I just want to understand what data is out there, what are the indicators available to me. So there's also an explore page where I can go into thematic areas. So for example, if I would be interested in education and culture, we can go in, see what are the number of indicators available, and then once again, scroll through, get a first understanding, and most importantly, not only understand what's there from one entity, but from across the system, and look through widgets, including maps, charts, et cetera. What can I do with this data? I can share it, I can embed it, I can download it, and have a first view on my policy question that will take me minutes in a situation that before that very often has taken days or even weeks. And with that, I want to hand over to my colleague, Chika Hayashi, the chief of nutrition data at UNICEF, who was in early user for the platform and who has been inspiring us with some first use cases on this.

Thank you, Talea. Let me first start with a very practical problem. At UNICEF, my team spends a lot of time working with countries to collect data and build cross-country comparable databases on nutrition, including child stunting, wasting, overweight, what children around the world are eating, and a range of other indicators. This work is essential. It allows us to monitor the global situation and to track progress towards global and national commitments, including the SDGs. Through this work, we now estimate that around 200 million children under five are affected by malnutrition globally. And once we have that number, the questions begin. Why? What factors are associated with malnutrition in different places? What are some policy and program actions that can be taken? To explore those questions, I might wanna look at poverty and economic conditions, food security, disease patterns, education, climate, and in humanitarian settings, displacement or disruptions to essential services. And some of that can be sitting elsewhere in the UN system. Until now, getting from these questions to actually doing the analysis could be a major exercise in itself. First, I had to figure out who has what data and where it is. Then I had to request access, finding and contacting the right people, establishing what could be shared, and dealing with agreements, approvals, legal and data protection requirements. Then I had to actually gather the data, often from different places and different formats. And even then it wasn't ready to analyze. There may have been different definitions, formats, and different ways of identifying countries. For example, one data set might say United Republic of Tanzania and another simply Tanzania. So before we could even start exploring the nutrition question, we had to reformat, match, clean, and reconcile the data sets manually. Only then could we finally get to the analysis. In one case, this took 18 months. Next, please. The Data Commons really changes that. Instead of find, request, get, reformat, match, clean, analyze, we can move much more directly to ask and analyze. And importantly, the data are ready to connect. Common standards and identifiers mean my team doesn't have to spend weeks processing and rephrasing data sets just to make them work together. That means simpler scripts, less data wrangling, more and faster analysis. And every time their data updates, we can now easily automate the updates and we do the analysis. Next, please. So this really is a shift. from fragmented data to connected insights, from data discovery to decision support, and finding data to finding answers. And this also makes the data AI ready because the data are structured and interoperable enough for machines to find, understand, and connect them. And this is really only the first step. We're putting in place the infrastructure that allows us to work differently with data across the UN system. As more data sets become connected, the range of questions we can explore and analyses we can do together will continue to grow. And we're really excited for that. Thank you.

Let me now give you some more overview of the benefits and the opportunities that UN Data Commons is providing us. So far we have seen how the data can be searched, how can we find data, how can we ask our questions in natural language, visualize it, analyze it. But that's not all. So one of the most valuable benefits from the platform is that we can make this data really a public good that allows the Data Commons to visualize the data from different angles. So the user-- and perhaps we can move to the next slide-- the user can also access the data from the angles of different policy agendas, for example, the SDGs. So with this, we can explore how are we doing with respect to the different goals, targets, indicators, not only through the data, but also through data stories, through visualizations, through infographics that link together with the quantitative data so that we can start connecting our data with policy impact. Also, we have the opportunity, for instance, to understand how our data can be used to measure progress for the Barbuda and Antigua agenda for small island developing states, showcasing indicators, visualizations, evidence on progress across the seven ABAS priorities. not duplicating the data, but presenting the data from different angles that are relevant for policymakers in the different areas that the UN has a mandate to support member states. And then to me, one of the most exciting parts is that we can also use this to make the outcome of the data work accessible for automated systems, making data AI ready. We have the ability now to connect machine to machine interfaces that allow digital systems to query the data so users can plug in their own applications to automate repetitive analytical tasks and keep their analysis up to date. ensuring that this authoritative data informs AI systems in a secure and human-led way. So we have heard about APIs and now the AI readiness, how we expose the data for AI tools using protocols that not only make the data available, but also the governance, the methodology behind the data, so that AI agents can be guided from the expertise that is incorporated in the knowledge graph itself. For this, the platform offers developers and data scientists detailed guidance, examples, documentation, empowering them to take data a step further, developing their own solutions, their own analysis, and combining the wealth of data from the UN with other data assets that make the insights richer and more impactful. So from here, uh, we are just starting, uh, a long journey to continue the development and, and the improvement, uh, of our data maturity as, as the UN system. We are going to continue ingesting additional data sets, improving through the feedback that we receive from our users, and advancing in this journey of AI readiness so that we can tackle the global challenges of today using the opportunities of the technology that we are living today. So I would like to finish by inviting you all to explore the platform at dataun.org. This is a platform that is live and we hope to continue enhancing its functionality, expanding its scope and seeing that it is being used for the benefit of all member states and the people at large. Thank you so much.

Well, let me thank all three presenters, Talia, Chika, and Luis, for this very practical and concrete demonstration of the Data Commons. I hope it's given you an idea of what you have at your disposal and its potential utility to you. We have maybe about 10 minutes left. If anybody would like to ask any questions or has any comments, this is the moment for that. I don't see any at this point. Okay, well, in that case, let's call this briefing to a close. Thank you, Secretary General. Thank you to Executive Director Russell and USC. There is a question, there is a question from the Russian Federation, excuse me, sir.

Secretary General, Mr. Under Secretary, Madam President, thank you for the presentation of this very valuable system. It is very nice that it is compatible with artificial intelligence and other systems. Well, our question concerns the let's say, the idea of certain countries being represented by its parts. For instance, one country is divided. You can find data, for instance, on central region and one national region. We have Kosovo as a independent, as a different, for instance, entity, even though it is not, well, officially independent state or UN member. In other country, we have different regions like data for them. So, could you explain how this, why for instance some countries are divided into regions, some of them aren't and well, how the process of, I'll say, designing which countries fall under the scope or not was elaborated? Thank you.

Okay, thank you for that question. We will respond to it, sir. Is there anybody else who would like to come in? In answer to the question from the Russian Federation, I'm advised that the information presented now, the information presented in the Data Commons, relies upon and in that sense reproduces the underlying data that was existing already in the data sets that were aligned with the different entities. There is no modification, there is no innovation in that matter and of course some of the matters that you have mentioned of course have been subjects of discussion in the past. We can certainly engage if it would serve any purpose on the presentations that we have in the future, but this is simply a presentation of data as previously existent in different parts of the system. Are there any other points, colleagues, at this point? Yes, Bahrain, please.

Your Excellency, Secretary General, Excellencies, it's been such a pleasure on behalf of Bahrain to be attending, I think, such an informative presentation. I do believe that what has currently been delivered is certainly, I think, think it sets a fingerprint in where we find ourselves in the data space. And I do believe that this is the first chance for us to actually develop going forward according to needs and requirements of countries. And it will certainly set the pace for future development. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your encouragement. Are there any other colleagues who would like to take the floor? Well perhaps I should say that this is a key deliverable of the work package around data of the UN80 initiative, but it doesn't stop here. Not only are we going to try to develop the data commons itself, more entities coming live on it, but we're also going to look in a second stage at how the manner in which the system produces data, how we work together in the production of data, can further improve our services to policy makers and the state. So, as you've indicated, this is a continuing journey and one that we think can render very important benefits for us all. If there are no further interventions.

Yeah.

Korea. Korea, I understand. Republic of Korea.

Thank you, Excellencies, Secretary General. Thank you very much for your comprehensive and informative briefing. I definitely see a lot of value in creating an integrated platform to provide data. And I just have one question, more like a clarification. Based on the look at the platform, it looks like it is fully developed and ready to go. I was just wondering if there are any other components still being developed or if it is more like done at this stage. Thank you. Let.

Me hand that one to some of those most involved in that work. Perhaps Tanya can go first, and if other colleagues want to come in, they'll be welcome.

Thank you. So indeed, The platform as it stands today is fully usable and we are absolutely welcoming all of you to go in there and test things out. At the same time, everything that you find in there is mainly focused right now on visualizing, comparing and bringing kind of data to your fingertips that reads out, um, the data sets that are in there, we do see a major opportunity through what Luis has presented on these, like, data integrations, that there might be an, an option to encourage all of us, all of the teams across the UN to build automations and build, let's say, tools that are using this data as connectors, but then build an application that might automate a report or a repetitive research task. And these kind of, or like, many kinds of things, including building AI agents that are using this data in a reliable and secure way. And this is something where we feel the way how we have built this using this data commons technology is a foundation that's now fully there. But the horizon on opportunities is feels endless and we will be engaging with a lot of different teams on building data products on top of it.

Thank you. Luis, you want to supplement that?

If I can supplement just briefly, I see three areas where the platform will continue to evolve. One is in the scope and depth of the data that is included in there. So adding more data sets, bringing in more entities to share the data there. So the scope of the data will continue growing and the metadata associated with it. A second area where the platform will continue evolving is in the user interface, what you see in front of you when you go to the site. New types of visualization, perhaps more complex analytical views of the data, and perhaps also presenting the data from the angle of other policy agendas beyond SDGs and ours. And third, This platform is supposed to be an empowering public good for member states, for country teams, for citizens of the world to develop their own solutions. So in order to do that, we will continue adding guidance materials, examples, tutorials to help others pick the data and find their own solutions. So I would stop there, thanks.

Maybe just to add, as one of the first users, as I was using it, I had so many ideas. And what I would encourage is that for everybody to go into the platform and see what other ideas you may have, because that would help sort of create the next generation of this. Thank you.

So I think the answer is go and have a look and see what you can make of it. Anybody else? this time I genuinely think there is nobody else, so I think we can bring the briefing to a close. Thank you all for your attendance. I wish you a very good evening and find time to look at the new platform we put at your disposal. Good evening. Thank you.