Madame Chair Marquez
Mr. Ulrich, former Chair,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Dear Colleagues,
It is an honor to address the United Nations Statistical Commission at a moment of transformative change.
Across the world, expectations and demand for high-quality data and statistics have never been higher.
At the same time, the institutional, financial, and technological landscapes in which official statistics are produced are undergoing rapid and profound change.
In this environment, the work of this Commission remains essential.
Advances in artificial intelligence are already reshaping our field.
These technologies offer unparalleled opportunities to improve timeliness, reduce costs, and expand analytical capacity.
Yet, they also raise fundamental questions about transparency, bias, accountability, and a widening readiness gap among Member States.
The world is also changing in other ways, and our data and statistical systems must adapt.
Rapid urbanization, aging populations, migration, evolving household structures, and shifting labor markets are transforming societies at a pace that demand more than traditional data systems can provide.
With demographic, social, economic, environmental, and technological shifts happening rapidly, I am pleased that the Commission is considering a new Central Framework for Population and Social Statistics to address the challenge of siloed evidence across multiple domains and to close persistent information gaps about people¡¯s lives and society.
This system aims at closing persistent information gaps and ensure policies are grounded in data that reflect lived experiences.
Without reliable, disaggregated, and timely social data and statistics, our commitment to inclusion, equity, and leaving no one behind remains an aspiration rather than an operational reality.
Similarly, we must look beyond GDP. There is a growing consensus that a focus on economic output alone is insufficient to measure true human progress. The Commission¡¯s work recognizes that wellbeing, sustainability, and social cohesion are central to policy choices. This agenda is not about abandoning established economic indicators but rather complementing them with measures that capture what truly matters to people¡¯s lives. The Commission has a unique role in ensuring these emerging frameworks that go beyond GDP are conceptually sound, statistically robust, and usable by countries at all levels of development.
These developments place data governance at the forefront. As data ecosystems draw from a growing range of sources, the principles governing access, stewardship, and use become as vital as the data itself. The Commission¡¯s leadership on data governance is critical to safeguarding quality, protecting rights, and ensuring innovation proceeds within clear ethical boundaries. Trust, once lost, is difficult to restore, and official statistics must remain a trusted public good.
All of this is unfolding against a backdrop of institutional reform and financial pressures, including the system-wide changes associated with UN80 Initiative. As the United Nations looks towards its future, questions of relevance, efficiency, and impact are rightly at the forefront.
Investing in data and statistics is not optional. Past reorganizations have shown that reform succeeds only when core analytical and statistical capacities are protected and strengthened.
The contribution of my Department¡ªUN Department of Economic and Social Affairs ¡ªto this process is the development of the UN System data commons, which builds directly on the earlier decisions of this Commission.
I am convinced that the deliberations of this 57th session of the Commission will shape how our data and statistical systems adapt to technological change, respond to social and economic transformation, and measure progress for years to come.
I thank you for your commitment, your expertise, and your stewardship of this vital work.
Thank you for your attention.