United Nations Human Settlements Programmes, Data and Analytics Section

The Data and Analytics Section (DAS) is the specialized statistics unit within UN-Habitat. The section mainly works to; Promote consistent urban data production and reporting for comparability, Improve the capacity of countries and cities to access relevant information, setting global standards in the design analysis and collection of urban data, Advance the translation of data/information into policy relevant information, Guide methodological developments of the urban related indicators and targets used by the international development community to monitor global progress towards implementation of the NUA and the urban SDGs, Improve worldwide urban knowledge base by supporting governments, local authorities and civil societies in the development and application of policy-oriented urban indicators, statistics and other urban information.

The data section is responsible for overall data oversight across all urban monitoring domains within UN-Habitat, methodological developments, supporting member states in their monitoring efforts around global agenda such as the SDGs, implementing direct data collection and compilation, providing data to UN-Habitat global reports, and publicly and openly disseminating urban data through its urban indicators programme.

Currently, DAS coordinates monitoring and reporting activities on SDG 11 and urban SDG indicators under UN-Habitat's custodianship. The section also coordinates a global network of local, sub-national, national and regional urban observatories, which are designed as multi-tiered systems to contribute to the production and use of up-to-date urban level data in decision making processes.

DAS works with a diversity of partners, some of which include national statistical systems, national governments and city level ministries / agencies, academia and research centres, space agencies, civil society groups, communities and individuals working in urban data production, as well as the entire UN system.