Data Science

13 August 2021

Steve MacFeely, Director of Data and Analytics, World Health Organization

What distinguishes revolution from evolution? What events or movements in the world of data have been sufficiently disruptive or transformational to deserve being called revolutionary? Although they might seem like abstract questions, when I hear everyone talking about a “Data Revolution”, they are the ones I find myself asking.

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.  

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.  

14 December 2020

By Olabisi Shoaga, Political Affairs Officer, Division of Policy, Evaluation and Training, Department of Peace Operations

Over the past few years, there has been a rise in the use of data, particularly quantitative data, to showcase progress and performance during reporting and briefings on peacekeeping. A good deal of the work done in this regard has been in operational support, military operations, conduct and discipline, gender, rule of law and human rights related areas of work.

25 November 2020 

A Q&A with Jordan Morrow, Head of Data, Design, and Management Skills, Pluralsight

In this Q&A, Jordan Morrow, Head of Data, Design, and Management Skills, Pluralsight, shares insights on what can help drive data and analytics success in an organization, and how curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking play key roles in this process.

4 August 2020

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

Databases have been around a long time, since the 1960s. Times when the world was less complicated and less inter-connected, at least in a data sense. Traditional databases focused on "things" with properties, like employees with birthdates and addresses and salaries. Even though they are called relational databases, the relationships were secondary.

8 July 2020

By Wafa Aboul Hosn, Chief of Economic Statistics, and Juraj Riecan, Director of Statistics, Information Society and Technology Cluster, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia

Data and statistics are no longer the purview of researchers and academics. This has become most evident with the COVID-19 pandemic, as people worldwide are following daily statistics on confirmed cases, deaths, and PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing, and governments put in place policies to contain the spread of the disease among their population.

23 January 2020 

By Greg Ogolla, Data Visualization and Reporting Lead, Policy, Strategy and Governance Division, Office of Information and Communications Technology

The Office of Information and Communications Technology’s Policy, Strategy and Governance Division (PSGD) is responsible for developing Secretariat-wide policy, strategy and governance standards for information and communications technology (ICT).