Economic and Social Development
State of World Population 2024
This year's report takes the 30th anniversary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development as an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come in achieving sexual and reproductive health and rights for all. While the report celebrates the significant gains made it also considers who has been left out of that progress arguing that a more equitable future for all requires a renewed commitment to empowering those furthest behind.
Women are the thread
In an ideal world the advancement of women’s reproductive rights and the promotion of equitable access to sexual and reproductive health and rights would be inherently motivated by the principles of human rights and social justice. But real-world sociopolitical contexts often demand quantifiable arguments on the short-term and long-term returns on investments in such programmes. Indeed this was understood to be the case in 1994. Though the ICPD Programme of Action represented a monumental pivot away from population control policies and towards prioritizing the rights of all individuals the economic rationale nevertheless remained critical for justifying investments in these rights.
Foreword
Thirty years ago governments around the world agreed that reproductive health and rights are foundation stones of global development – a groundbreaking consensus that paved the way for decades of progress. Since then the global rate of unintended pregnancies has fallen by nearly 20 per cent globally. The number of women using modern contraceptive methods has doubled. Today at least 162 countries have adopted laws against domestic violence and maternal deaths have decreased by 34 per cent since 2000.
Weaving a collective future
“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine then let us work together.” These were the words of Lilla Watson an indigenous activist from Australia at the 1985 United Nations Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi.
A work in progress
A safe birth. A choice of contraceptives. Protection from gender-based violence. More people than ever before have realized these essential life-sustaining rights. But the number of people denied these rights has not yet reached zero – as it can and as it must.
Technical notes
The statistical tables in State of World Population 2024 include indicators that track progress towards the goals of the Framework of Actions for the follow-up to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the areas of maternal health access to education and reproductive and sexual health. In addition these tables include a variety of demographic indicators. The statistical tables support UNFPA’s focus on progress and results towards delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted every birth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.
Unravelling inequality
The ICPD Programme of Action emerged in the aftermath of the Cold War a time of upheaval and uncertainty. That year 1994 saw both the end of apartheid in South Africa which held its first multiracial democratic election in April and the eruption of genocide in Rwanda that same month. Sweden legalized civil unions between same-sex partners – making it the third country ever to do so – as the global rate of new HIV infections was reaching its highest-ever peak (UNAIDS n.d.). The promise of collective action and the perils of failing to take such action could not have been more prominent in the minds of ICPD attendees in Cairo.
Counting every stitch
The 1994 ICPD and its resulting Programme of Action not only represented a moment of remarkable consensus around the value of universal sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights (Brown and others 2019; Sen and others 2019; Corrêa and others 2015) it also represented a powerful call for better and more transparent data – a contribution to global standards that has seldom been recognized. In fact an entire chapter of the Programme of Action Chapter XII (UNFPA 1994) is devoted to the need for “valid reliable timely culturally relevant internationally comparable data” including “gender and ethnicity-specific information”. It also called for research into the views of less-empowered groups of people and those in different cultural settings.
Cloud for Official Statistics
This publication aims to explore the specific barriers and challenges faced by National Statistical Organisations (NSOs) in adopting cloud technology while also highlighting the experiences and lessons learned from official statistics organisations. By addressing these challenges and leveraging best practices NSOs can effectively navigate the cloud adoption landscape and drive meaningful transformation in their operations. This publication shares the work of experts drawn from research on cloud adoption in organisational contexts.
Cloud security and privacy
NSOs are responsible for a vast array of data that are used for official statistical production and for that purpose only. The statistical business process depends on data about individuals households enterprises municipalities etc. These different entities/statistical units trust the NSO to keep their data safe. There are also legal obligations data protection and statistical acts that NSOs must adhere to and are meant to further ensure the security and privacy of data used for official statistical production.
Background
Cloud computing is growing very rapidly and will soon become the most common IT infrastructure in businesses across the world. Cloud computing is the procurement of computing resources and ranging from infrastructure to software over the internet and (the cloud) to pay only for what is used. Over the years cloud adoption strategies have ranged between cloud-only cloud-first and more recently cloud-smart. The latter recognises that while cloud technology offers many advantages many organisations have good reasons to retain some parts of their legacy on-premises IT infrastructure.
Preface
In recent years numerous official statistics organisations have embarked on a journey to adopt cloud computing. It brings many opportunities to make organisations more efficient and responsive to policy and user needs. Organisations are at quite different stages in their cloud adoption: some are considering cloud computing; some are implementing it; some have already executed important production processes in this environment; and others are already maintaining their cloud environment including a second round of procurement.
Conclusions and recommendations
It is evident from this report that adoption of cloud offers many opportunities and poses many challenges to statistical organisations. Each of the key themes explored provide a holistic view of the issues and capabilities of cloud services. Furthermore it is clearly apparent that there is a desire to increase the utilisation of cloud capabilities gaining benefits from factors such as scalability while also providing greater business value. We learned that enablement factors such as increased central government support and direction can make a statistical organisation’s cloud journey achievable.
Cloud procurement
This chapter aims to provide a set of recommendations relevant to cloud procurement and possible alternatives for each of the topics. While many procurement aspects are addressed in dedicated sections a small number of recommendations stand out and deserve to be demonstrated from the start.
Cloud service and deployment models
Cloud computing has revolutionised the way organisations operate providing flexible and scalable solutions to meet their IT needs. Key aspects of cloud computing are self-service by the customer and automated execution of the self-service requests. Another advantage as well as a challenge is that there are now multiple possibilities of how a cloud solution can be used from a service and deployment perspective.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the significant effort and contribution from all the project participants. Producing a high-quality document in addition to delivering on their day-to-day duties is quite a challenge. The success of the UNECE Cloud for Official Statistics Project owes a lot to the engagement professionalism and talents of the following individuals.