Why is it important to have timely data?
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of having access to timely data to contain the pandemic and take the necessary preventive measures and address the implications across all levels. Unfortunately, a panoramic look at all 247 global indicators indicates that the majority of the indicators date to 2017.
While data for some indicators can be collected on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis, collecting data for other indicators can be very resource intensive. This is why, there is a need to continuously explore cost-efficient mechanisms and advance the ICT infrastructure of national statistical systems.
However, it is crucial to collect timely data for some indicators on health, hunger, poverty and education, especially in conflict and post-conflict countries. Failing to do so will weaken the targeting capacity of the development community and might jeopardize peacebuilding efforts.
Some indicators are rarely updated, making it difficult for decision makers and citizens to understand how close or far the country is and to assess the impact of policies to reverse negative trends. This is the case of “infant mortality rate” that is not available for 8 countries after 2015.
Explore the visualization to understand which countries and which indicators are more updated and their temporal granularity.
Number of data points per year
