The SDG Global Indicator Framework (GIF) is a huge repository of data – 231 indicators populated (to a greater or lesser extent) by every member state. Yet each specialist or subject matter agency has developed competing or complementary data repositories or dashboards; entirely justified, as the main GIF covering all 169 targets, cannot provide the detail or range analyses to satisfy specialist requirements – either because the SDG GIF doesn’t have the necessary disaggregation or the range of indicators necessary to understand the topic fully. To the specialist, statistically literate user, the range of competing or complementary data repositories typically doesn’t present a problem. But for others, the abundance of choice may be confusing – especially as different dashboards or composites may present the same or similar statistics in different ways, with different baselines, scales, or aggregations. In most cases these statistics are not inconsistent but may be confusing to the browser or inexpert grazer. Each dashboard or composite presents a selection of indicators, and that selection may in and of itself limit or influence subsequent decisions or choices. Using Universal Health Coverage as an example, this presentation will illustrate some of the different choices available to users and discuss how this might influence choices and decisions.
