Leaving No One Off the Map in Practice: How Can Gridded Population Data Help Governments Meet the Sustainable Development Goals?

Abstract:

Most policymakers depend on traditional data sources, such as household surveys and population censuses, in order to develop the necessary policies and programs to eradicate poverty and improve health, and other basic services pivotal to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Yet, there are still many countries with population data that are decades out-of-date, especially in low-income or conflict settings. In an effort to provide more up-to-date population data, an increasing number of data providers are combining information from censuses with satellite-derived geospatial features to redistribute populations and produce gridded population datasets. Despite this progress, there remains confusion or simply lack of awareness about gridded population data. Leaving No One Off the Map: A Guide for Gridded Population Data for Sustainable Development, a report by SDSN TReNDS in support of the POPGRID Data Collaborative, aimed to narrow this knowledge gap by helping to improve the accessibility and understanding of gridded population datasets for policymakers and other users.

The report has helped to improve the accessibility and understanding of gridded population datasets and raised interested in the use of gridded population datasets among policymakers, namely in their efforts to achieve the SDGs. In response to the need and interest expressed by decision-makers, this paper examines how gridded population data supplement current population data sources to support Colombia (through the National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE) to make timely and informed decisions for SDG 1 (no poverty) at a time when COVID-19 has exacerbated poverty risks. Colombia is receiving the technical training and resources to select and use the most appropriate gridded population datasets available through the POPGRID Data Collaborative to strengthen poverty measurements. We review the outcomes of this effort to understand the opportunities and limitations of using gridded population data as a timely and complementary data source to traditional data sources.