
24 July 2025 at 12:00 – 2:00 pm | UNFPA Orange Cafe, 605 3rd Avenue, 5th floor (In-person only)
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Co-organized by: Equal Measures 2030, United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD-DESA); UN Women, World Bank
How can we tell stories through data?
Gender data are more than numbers. They are a snapshot of the lived realities of women and girls and men and boys. But when these realities are abstracted into simple data points, while they are meaningful to the data producers and data analysts behind them, they may lack the same impact for the audience. After all, most of the time, data do not speak for themselves. But when engaged to create a compelling narrative, the human element is brought back in, enlivening the data.
Data storytelling is usually a combination of two components – key messages and visualizations. This combination often includes context, and shows patterns and trends that help the audience better understand the data and its underlying significance. An important part of the job for a data user is qualitative: asking questions, creating narratives from the data, and telling the stories behind the data. If data users can package their numbers and insights into a data story, they will build a bridge for the data to reach their audiences, and help them not only see the statistics but also feel the human stories behind them. Data storytelling, when effectively deployed, can reach broader audiences for more effective advocacy, awareness and to inform gender-responsive policies.
About the side event
This side event is an interactive learning session that focuses on transforming gender data into compelling narratives and visualizations to better monitor progress on gender equality and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Participants will engage in a hands-on session to learn data storytelling techniques and visualization tools to effectively communicate their data.
Focus: The session covers data storytelling and visualization, exploring narrative development and visualization techniques tailored to gender data and based on the Practical Guide to Data Storytelling in Voluntary National Reviews and SDG reporting, an upcoming data communication e-learning module developed by PARIS21, the European Commission and UNSD, an e-learning course on communicating gender statistics developed by PARIS21 and UN Women and the Gender Statistics Training Curriculum by UN Women and the Statistical Institute of Asia and the Pacific, together with examples from the World Bank’s SDG Atlas 2023 and the Equal Measures 2030 SDG Index.