Medienmitteilung

Project Rosling: uniting data users and producers for better decisions International Geneva called upon to mobilise itself for evidence-based decision making

26.01.2023 - Political, economic and private decisions must be based on established facts. On the occasion of the launch of Project Rosling in Geneva, the President of the Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset, stressed the importance of reliable statistics and data in the democratic process. By strengthening partnerships between the numerous international organisations and making the most of synergies in data and statistics, International Geneva has a key role to play in positioning itself as a recognised data centre and thus allowing for more sustainable and targeted policies.

The President of the Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset, opened the first Project Rosling event on Thursday 26 January, which strives to strengthen the role of statistics and data in policy discussions and decision-making. To achieve this, the project aims to broaden the dialogue on data and statistics by including more data users and deepening their knowledge. Six workstreams have been identified: data literacy (the ability to identify, collect, process, analyse and interpret data), financing data, data stewardship, data science, population projections and climate change, and health data.

In his speech, the President of the Swiss Confederation encouraged International Geneva to mobilise itself as a data centre. With its numerous organisations, International Geneva produces, processes and disseminates a considerable amount of data which should be better exploited. Switzerland has always advocated for sound data and statistics on which policies can be based. It is thus maintaining its commitment in this area after co-organising the 3rd edition of the UN World Data Forum in Bern in 2021.

A day filled with discussion

In addition to the President of the Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset, other speakers on Thursday in Geneva included Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), and Ola Rosling, President and Co-Founder of the Gapminder Foundation, who inspired the project.

Co-organised together with the WHO, this first event entitled "International Geneva: Can we beat the chimps with data and statistics?” refers to Hans Rosling's test that asked his students and experts around the world about their perceptions of the world. This Swedish doctor and statistician realised that their perceptions were so biased that they were less likely to correctly answer the questions than chimpanzees, who would have answered them randomly.