With Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG 9), countries have pledged to “build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”. In particular, Target 9.5 calls upon them to encourage innovation and substantially increase the number of researchers, as well as public and private spending on research and experimental development (R&D).
According to UIS data, less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. To reduce this gap, we must go beyond the numbers and identify the qualitative factors that deter women from pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Despite pledges to increase funding for SDG 4, many countries still don’t know how much they are currently spending on education. They don’t have the tools or data to track expenditure by their different levels of governments and the amounts households are contributing to their children’s education.
By analyzing data from a wide range of sources, we regularly track the ways in which cultural goods and services are traded globally. This analysis is used to help monitor progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 17 (SDG 17) and the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, which specifically calls for efforts to balance the flow of cultural goods and services, especially between developed and developing countries.
The transition to digital methods of creating, producing and disseminating cultural works has radically changed the conditions surrounding their statistical measurement, calling into question the relevance of current statistics on culture.
The UIS is the only statistical agency to provide a global perspective on the world’s most lucrative cultural industry and one of the most popular cultural practices – movie-watching. Demand for data has never been greater as digital technology transforms the ways in which films are produced, distributed and consumed by audiences in theatres and homes.
Financing of education remains a key issue for governments and donors. Reliable and comparable statistics on the sources and use of funding are needed to improve education planning, management and resource mobilization. However, many countries are unable to produce the data required for effective monitoring and planning. In this context, the UIS in partnership with the IIEP and the IIEP/Pôle de Dakar and with financial support of the Global Partnership for Education has been implementing a project built around the National Education Accounts methodology.
The livelihoods of millions depend on cultural or creative industries of all shapes and sizes – from the weaver in a local cooperative to the crew of a major film production. Yet many countries lack the data to develop the policies to help these industries become engines for sustainable economic growth, as called for in Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8).