Speakers

Short biographical sketch of Viveka Palm

Viveka Palm, SCB, is an adjunct professor in applied environmental economics and environmental statistics at KTH, The Royal Technical Institute in Stockholm, as well as assistant head of department for Regions and Environment at Statistics Sweden. She represents Sweden and the Nordic countries in IAEG-SDG, a group that gives advice on how to follow up on the Agenda 2030 goals.

The UN Statistical Commission has been assigned to follow up the agenda. Representatives from 28 countries work within the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) to create indicators for the goals. Sustainable development is a new challenge for statistics, because we want to know the situation for the economy, the environment and the social aspects of society at the same time. For example, what are the consequences of drilling for oil? Money is received when the oil is sold, but what are the consequences for the climate when the oil is burned and released? Statistics provide a good basis to understand these issues. We need to concentrate our efforts to produce good statistics in every country. It is a good investment because it is costly to make decisions without background data. Statistics Sweden has extensive experience in producing statistics in many different areas. We also have experience with developing the system for environmental and economic accounts. We have combined environmental statistics with economic statistics to see how they are connected and answer new questions. Our expertise is rather unique and can be used in the SDG context. Many countries have well-developed statistical systems, while others have considerable work ahead in order to get the basic statistics in place. However, the new agenda poses challenges for all countries as it encompasses so many policy areas and questions that are formulated from a distinct policy perspective.

Short biographical sketch of Sara Frankl

Sara has been engaged in issues relating to the statistical follow-up of the 2030 Agenda since the global statistical community started to discuss its role in the area in 2013. First within the framework of Statistics Sweden’s international engagement and commitments and later as an expert and coordinator for Statistics Sweden’s work on the agenda. Sara is co-author of the two reports Statistics Sweden has published from a government assignment from 2017: Statistical follow-up of the 2030 Agenda and On follow-up of the 2030 Agenda based on statistics.

Sara’s educational background is in urban sociology and city planning and she has worked for Statistics Sweden since 2002.