DI joins international Leave No One Behind coalition

DI is proud to have joined an important coalition working to ensure no one is left behind. First launched in 2017, with a group of 12 of the world’s largest civil society organisations (CSOs), its aim is to give voice and agency to marginalised groups at risk of being overlooked in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The partnership is led by the International Civil Society Centre.

The coalition is using “community-driven data”, aiming to “fill knowledge gaps in local level SDG monitoring and better understand local drivers of vulnerability and marginalisation. Community-driven data means: the needed evidence and SDG monitoring data is produced at the local level, with the affected communities directly involved in data generation. At the same time, coalition partners and authorities at the local and national levels … bring community-driven data to practical use as a complimentary source of information for public planning and policy making.” 2020 marks the end of the pilot phase for this partnership, where national coalitions were set up in five countries − Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Nepal and Vietnam. Now the project is scaling up, increasing the scope within current countries, and expanding into new ones, aiming to achieve progress in 10 countries by 2022.

DI is joining the coalition to be part of this next phase of the project. We will support with harmonisation and visualisation of data that has and will be collected. Working jointly with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, DI will provide guidance, toolkits and templates suitable for CSOs around the world that have the potential to collect data on dispossessed communities but do not have the financial resources or technical capability to develop the standards, governance and in some cases analysis that would allow the use of this data alongside official reporting.

Claudia Wells, Director of Data Use at DI said, “DI is excited to be joining a coalition that is working to deliver one of our key priorities as an organisation – putting the people who are furthest behind first. We hope our skills in how to ensure data is high quality, useful and usable will help equip those participating in this project to deliver its important aim to help ensure the most marginalised groups are included in progress.”

As the project progresses, we will provide updates via our blog and other media that allow the lessons we are learning and impact we are having to be shared with and benefited by all.