India’s Chief Statistician TCA Anant is part of an independent expert advisory group constituted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that will advise him on measures required to close the data gaps and strengthen national statistical capacities.
The 26-member advisory group on Data Revolution for Sustainable Development is also expected to assess new opportunities linked to innovation, technical progress and the surge of new public and private data providers to support conventional statistical systems and strengthen accountability at the global, regional and national level.
Anant, who has the concurrent responsibility of Secretary of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, is also co-Chair of the Friends of the Chair Group on Broader Measures of Progress. He was previously a professor of economics at the Delhi School of Economics, and a member of the advisory committee on regulations under the Competition Commission of India.
The group also includes Indian-origin Rakesh Rajani from Tanzania, who is the Head of Twaweza, an initiative to enhance access to information, citizen agency, and public accountability in East Africa. He was previously the founding Executive Director of HakiElimu, an independent organisation that promotes citizen engagement in education in Tanzania.
“The data revolution is giving the world powerful tools that can help usher in a more sustainable future,” Ban said in a statement.”The recommendations of the Group will be importantinputs to the post-2015 debate and our efforts to shape an ambitious yet achievable vision,” he said. The group is part of the Secretary-General’s efforts to prepare the Synthesis Report that UN Member States have asked him to issue ahead of the intergovernmental negotiations leading to the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda.
Special Advisor of the Secretary-General for Post-2015 Development Planning, Assistant Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Thomas Gass, will serve as ex-officio members and will provide the link to the UN system.
Professor Enrico Giovannini of Italy and Robin li, co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chinese Nasdaq-listed internet search company Baidu are the co-chairs of the group, which is expected to submit its recommendations to the Secretary-General later this year.
The other members in the group include Iran’s Shaida Badiee, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Open Data Watch, Brazil’s Carmen Barroso who is the Regional Director at International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region, Haishan Fu from China who is the Director of the Development Data Group at The World Bank, Robert Kirkpatrick from the US who is the Director of the UN Global Pulse, an innovation initiative of the Secretary-General.
Also from the US is Sandy Pentland, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Wayne Smith, Chief Statistician at Statistics Canada.