The United Nations World Data Forum 2023 (UNWDF 2023) was held in Hangzhou from 24 to 27 April. The UNWDF 2023 was organized by the United Nations and hosted by the National Bureau of Statistics of China and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province. The theme of the UNWDF 2023 is “Towards Data that Empowers Our World”. Ding Xuexiang, Vice Premier of the State Council, China, delivered a message on behalf of President Xi Jinping and spoke in his own capacity. António Guterres, UN Secretary-General delivered a video message. Dr. XU Lihui, Assistant Secretary General of ICEE, Dr. FU Jie and Dr. PAN Xiaochun, Post-doctoral Research Associate of Institute of Education, Tsinghua University attended the forum.

The UNWDF 2023 was held both online and offline, consisting of one host country plenary session, five other UN high-level plenaries, 72 parallel sessions, learning labs, demonstrations, and other types of exhibits, which was organized around the following four thematic areas: innovation and partnerships for better and more inclusive data; maximizing the use and value of data for better decision making; building trust and ethics in data; and emerging trends and partnerships to develop the data ecosystem. During the forum, ICEE participated in five high-level plenaries to gain insights into “the generation and use of better and more inclusive data”, “the value of data for decision-making”, “the impact of emerging information technologies on data”, “public transparency and ethics of data”, and “the construction of data ecology”. Besides, ICEE also attended 12 parallel sessions to learn more about the integration of multiple sources of data and their interoperability, the comparison of data stewardship between different countries, and citizen-generated data. 

At the same time, in-depth exchanges were held with data experts and professionals from international and national organizations and enterprises, such as United Nations Statistics Division, World Bank, International Labor Organization, OECD-Statistical Information System Collaboration Community (SIS-CC), CAST UN Consultative Committee on Information and Communication Technology (CCIT), International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), United Nations Global Platform for Big Data China Hub (UNBDC), and Gallup. ICEE exchanged ideas on the current status of data on global engineering and engineering education, experiences in building databases, data platforms or hubs, and dissemination of data products. This also provides a very valuable basis for the undertaking project of ICEE on “Strategies for the Construction of a Global Engineering Education Database”, and lays a solid foundation for the construction and implementation of the database in the next step.

Communications at the Exhibition Site

UNWDF 2023 concluded with the launch of the Hangzhou Declaration, delivered by Francesca Perucci, Assistant Director, UN Statistics Division, focuses on the theme, “Accelerating progress in the implementation of the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data (CTAGP).” It calls for accelerated action by the community and the development of a data stewardship approach aligned to the CTAGP to drive the innovation and partnerships needed for data and statistical system to be responsible to the needs of society and representative of everyone in the process. Besides, it also calls for an urgent and sustained increase in the level and scale of investments in data and statistics.

The Launch of Hangzhou Declaration

The UN World Data Forum, an international forum initiated and hosted by the United Nations, aims to spur data innovation, nurture partnerships, mobilize high-level political and financial support for data, and build a pathway to better data for sustainable development. The forum is an important initiative to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and a platform to intensify cooperation between data producers and users. The forum has already been successfully held three times (including a virtual forum), in Cape Town, South Africa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Bern, Switzerland in 2017, 2018 and 2021 respectively. Almost 1,000 data professionals gathered in Hangzhou, China in person, and close to 11,000 people participated virtually, including delegates from international organizations such as the United Nations and its agencies in China, national statistical and data management offices, the scientific and academic communities, national government organizations and enterprises.