Participation in the First Andean Data Congress for the Sustainable Development Objectives (SDG´s) in Colombia

On the 28th of March, the Center of Excellence in Statistical Information on Government, Crime, Victimization and Justice of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (CoE-UNODC), participated to the First Andean Data Congress for SDGs, convened by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) and the United Nations System of Colombia, with the participation of UNODC-Colombia as host agency as well as various agencies of the System. The objective of the Congress was to achieve synergies to strengthen the capacity of the National Statistical Systems of the Andean Region (Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Guyana and Suriname, led by Colombia) to produce the information required for the global indicators of the SDGs and the design of public policies to achieve those goals.

The Center of Excellence presented the need to establish criteria to locate indicators related to violence and crime, the main sources of information that can be used, such as: Victimization Surveys, Administrative Records and Censuses, as well as international instruments such as the United Nations Crime Trends Survey (UN-CTS), which has been adapted to report 10 indicators of SDGs and is also in line with the International Classification of Crimes for Statistical Purposes (ICCS), which makes it possible to improve the measurement of crime and to compare, at the national and international level, as well as over time, in the most disaggregated way possible. Was also discussed the importance of carrying out Statistical Quality Assessment processes of the statistical production process, in order to verify the methodological rigor and adherence to the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.

UNODC Colombia and the Center of Excellence expressed their willingness to contribute to the improvement of the capacity of the National Statistical Systems of the Andean Region to collect, produce, and process accessible and relevant data of quality, contributing to a better measurement of SDG 16 “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions”.