In April 2024, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) published a guide to help national statistical offices understand the importance of data stewardship and their changing roles as data stewards.
In the rapidly expanding and evolving landscape of data production and sharing, national statistical offices (NSOs) must expand their role into data stewardship to fully carry out their mandates.
Data stewardship means ensuring the ethical and responsible creation, collection, management, use and reuse of data, so that it is used for public good and benefits the full community of data users.
Data stewardship operates in service of, rather than in control of, the data ecosystem and reflects an overall shift in how NSOs operate, moving from the production of statistics to the provision of data and data-related services.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has published ‘Data Stewardship and the Role of National Statistical Offices in the New Data Ecosystem’ to help NSOs:
The guide will also help public data holders to better understand the advantages and services provided by NSOs in the data ecosystem.
Data Stewardship and the Role of National Statistical Offices in the New Data Ecosystem – UNECE.org