Welcome to the United Nations
Language:
  1. Home
  2. 2021

2021

↩ Back

 

Creating a Data Initiative? Learn from OCHA’s Experience with HDX

19 October 2021

By Sarah Telford, Lead for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Centre for Humanitarian Data

The Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) is an open platform for sharing data across crises and organizations. Launched by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in July 2014, the goal of HDX is to make humanitarian data easy to find and use for analysis. Today, the 18,000 datasets on HDX cover every active humanitarian crisis, from Afghanistan to Yemen. In 2020, HDX was accessed by over 1.3 million people and from almost every country in the world.

Why Privacy is Essential to Preserving Our Freedoms

20 September 2021

By Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Executive Director of the Global Privacy & Security by Design Centre & Creator of the Privacy by Design Framework

In this Q&A, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, discusses why data privacy and strong data protection are critically important. Dr. Cavoukian argues that if we are to preserve free and open societies, we must preserve the privacy and security of our online communications.
 

Data in the Time of Crisis

1 July 2021

Christina Goodness, Chief, Information Management Unit, UN Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations

One year and 15 minutes later, I stepped away from the nurse’s table. I waited to see if there would be any vaccine reaction. After a year of remote work and crisis response for COVID-19, I sat there and took a deep breath, listening to the clicking of keyboards as the medical staff recorded the data and murmured amongst themselves.

The UN Geospatial Strategy

25 May 2021

By Kyoung-Soo Eom, Chief of Geospatial Information Section, Technology Operations Service, Operations Support Division, OICT

Since the establishment of the United Nations, cartography and geospatial information have been an important component of the Organization. In 1948, the Committee of Experts on Cartography sought to answer two questions:

  1. What should the United Nations do to stimulate and assist Member States in the development of the mapping sciences?
  2. What sort of cartographic service did the United Nations need to carry out this program, for its own operations, and in its relations with the specialized agencies?

Data Privacy and Protection Assessments in Radio Mining

12 April 2021

By Stefan Lemm, former Head, Military Operations Unit, OICT

Data Privacy and Protection is one of the key aspects of the Secretary-General’s Data Strategy. It is clear that protecting people from indiscriminate data collection is important because it might result in data misuse, for instance, by businesses. But a potentially more dangerous scenario would be that data collected in good faith ends up in the hands of ill-meaning actors who intend to intimidate or even threaten the victim's personal safety.

How Machine Learning Will Support the Data Strategy

24 February 2021

By Lambert Hogenhout, Chief of Data, Analytics and Innovation, OICT

Collecting data, organizing it, and sharing it is useful. Ultimately, however, the aim is to create business value. We want to turn data into insights that result in productivity gains, better decisions and/or faster response.  

How to Quantify Qualitative Data: A Look at Research on Trust in the UN

29 January 2021

By Martijn Lampert, Research Director, Glocalities  

In this Q&A, Martijn Lampert, Research Director, Glocalities, shares a methodology he and his team used to measure international trust in the UN. He argues that research focusing on the links between values, issues and cultures is key to quantifying qualitative data.