Working with data: like cramming balloons into a car

Working with data can be like trying to cram a bunch of balloons into a small car on a windy day. That’s how I felt often during my 13-month secondment to the UN for its 75th anniversary in 2020.

The UN75 initiative invited people around the world to share hopes & fears for the future & to discuss how actors, including the UN, can better work together to address global challenges.

Thanks to the amazing UN75 team & UN country/info offices, data streamed in across the year:
· 1.3 million survey responses from 193 countries
· 1,141 dialogue summaries from 3000+ dialogues in 120 countries

We had the task of cleaning, analysing & reporting on the data, with 3 opportunities to present insights directly to UN Member States:
1. April, as they negotiated the UN75 Declaration
2. Sept, presented by UN Secretary-General at the official UN75 Commemoration
3. Jan 2021, as they commemorated 75 years since the 1st General Assembly

Real-time analysis & reporting on live big data – a daunting, yet worthwhile task.

Challenge accepted.

Budget for analysis & reporting wasn’t an issue. But we struggled to find people who combined strong statistical analysis with design skills.

I worked with brilliant statisticians at top universities & with creative designers, but we all felt we weren't doing justice to our wealth of data.

Then I met Naledi Hollbruegge & her team at the UNDP Data Futures Platform.

I outlined, for what felt like the 100th time that year, our data hopes, & pointed to a key data message from our analysis.

Naledi casually responded, “Yeah, we’ll just use colour to highlight that.”

She & her team made it look so simple, informative & fun. They created the UN75 data platform at lightning speed, giving everyone access to valuable UN75 data, complete with interactive data visualisations.
 
Naledi & I stayed in touch. We chatted about how boosting data viz. skills among international policy actors might support evidence-based policy processes. We shared fun data viz. examples, especially in the climate, migration & health spaces.

We designed a 2-day, hands-on data viz. workshop tailored for actors in international affairs. We piloted & refined it in 2021, & Naledi has now run it several times for various audiences (it is a hit).

She's a patient, fun storyteller, a perfect teacher for people like me who learn through examples & illustrations & who need step-by-step guidance for anything slightly technical (if I can learn Tableau, anyone can).

Find out more.