Joint IDEA/UN/WVSA Expert Meeting at the UN

“Monitoring the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, targets and indicators: The role of social surveys.”

The World Values Survey Association, in conjunction with International IDEA and UNDP has held an Expert Meeting devoted to consideration of the contribution of social surveys to indicators monitoring the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.

The meeting took place on April, 27, 2015 in the United Nations in New York, USA.

The event was opened by the welcoming notes of Yves Leterme (Secretary General, International IDEA), Christian Haerpfer (President WVSA) and Paul Ladd (Director, Post-2015 and SDGs Team, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support/BPPS, UNDP).

The morning session from 9:30 am to 1.30pm was open to public, and it featured expert panels discussing the role of social surveys in the data revolution for sustainable development goals.

Panel 1 The Role of Social Surveys in the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development Goals was chaired by Yves Leterme (Secretary General, International IDEA).

The panel included presentations by:

• Christian Haerpfer (WVSA, UK): Developing the 7th wave WVS survey and the SDGs;

• Pippa Norris (WVSA, Australia/US): Monitoring through survey data;

• Ronald Inglehart (WVSA, US): The World Values Surveys and Human Development.

Discussion was opened by Mitchell Toomey (Director, Millennium Campaign, BPPS, UNDP) and Samantha Custer (Director of Policy and Communications, AidData).

Panel 2 The Data Revolution for Sustainable Development: Priorities, indicators, and needs was chaired by Pippa Norris (WVSA, Australia/US) and included presentations by:

• Eva Jespersen (Deputy Director, Human Development Report Office, UNDP)

• Laura Rodriguez-Takeuchi (Overseas Development Institute/ODI)

• Simon Scott (Development Cooperation Directorate, OECD)

• Enrico Giovannini (Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for SD) (Skype)

Discussion of the presentations was opened by Marta Lagos (WVSA, Chile), Darwish Al Emadi (WVSA, Qatar) & Christian Welzel (WVSA, Germany).

The afternoon session from 2 pm to 6 pm featured breakout work groups; attendance was limited to invited experts. The afternoon session was held in the meeting room in the Millennium Hotel ONE UN, 1 United Nations Plaza. This session included brainstorming thematic work-groups identifying innovative themes and new issues contributing to the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals which could be monitored through the 7th wave of the World Values Survey.

The work of the invited experts was organized in 4 groups:

SD Goals 1-4: Poverty, hunger, health and education. Moderators: Marta Lagos (WVSA, Chile) & Marita Carballo (WVSA, Argentina); Rapporteur: Pippa Norris (WVSA, USA/Australia);

SD Goals 5-8: Gender equality, water, energy, and employment. Moderator: Ronald Inglehart (WVSA, USA), Rapporteur: Yilmaz Esmer (WVSA, Turkey)

SD Goals 9-12 Innovation, inequality, security and consumption. Moderators: Chris Welzel (WVSA, Germany) & Bi Puranen (WVSA, Sweden); Rapporteur: Alejandro Moreno (WVSA, Mexico)

SD Goals 13-17 and cross-cutting demographic indicators: Climate change, environment, peace, justice, inclusive institutions and disaggregation by social and demographic factors. Moderators: Christian Haerpfer (WVSA, UK) & Juan Diez-Nicolas (WVSA, Spain), Rapporteur: Darwish Al-Emadi (WVSA, Qatar)

The event was webcasted live on webtv.un.org

World Valyes Survey Association was represented by 15 members:

1. Christian Haerpfer, President, UK/Austria

2. Alejandro Moreno, Vice-President, Mexico

3. Christian Welzel, Vice-President, Germany

4. Bi Puranen, Secretary General, Sweden

5. Pippa Norris, EC member, USA/Australia

6. Marta Lagos, EC member, Chile

7. Ronald Inglehart, Founding President, USA

8. Darwish Al-Emadi, SAC Chair, Qatar

9. Juan Diez-Nicolas, SAC Vice-Chair, Spain

10. Yilmaz Esmer, SAC Vice-Chair, Turkey