The Care of Children in Data: Evidence, Gaps and Opportunities for Change in the SDGs

Children and young people growing up outside of their family environment remain virtually invisible in official statistics, leaving governments without the necessary information to tackle the challenges these children face and respond to their needs so that they can thrive.

The UN global framework on sustainable development can to help change this situation. Indeed, the call for timely investment in the statistical capacity of countries to produce and use reliable disaggregated data under Sustainable Development Goal 17 has been echoed by several experts and institutions, including the Independent Expert and Advisory Group on Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN Statistical Commission and the UN Secretary General.

This briefing paper, developed with SOS Children’s Villages International, explores how such a call can be turned into concrete action to achieve a real data revolution for these children.