Page 347 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 4

CPS2259 Florabela Carausu et al.
1. Introduction
It is widely recognised that reliable data are the cornerstone of evidence-
based decision making, and in particular it is at the local or regional level
where concrete and reliable data remain scarce.
1
As highlighted by the Paris 21 PRESS 2017 report: data and statistics are
attracting more resources and new donors, but the support remains
insufficient. More and better-quality financial support to data and statistics is
vital to ensure robust SDG monitoring at national level. In the same line, the
UN Data Revolution for Sustainable Development report ‘A World that Counts’
emphasises that “data are the lifeblood of decision-making and the raw
2
material for accountability” .
The increased demand for regional and local statistics asks for the
modernisation of statistical processes. The call for more focus on the
geographical breakdown can serve – among others - to monitor Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) at sub-national level, in line with the commitment
to Leave no one behind, envisaged by the SDG Agenda 2030.
3
While the Leave no one behind slogan has been widely adopted, there
are different interpretations. In this paper the following features or readings
of the slogan are considered: a lower level is needed for policy making, and
data is needed for analysing and interpreting adequately the social and
economic interactions within the territory, so as to ensure that those staying
behind do not get left behind. An analogy in the approach to development
planning and monitoring, with the shift from regional policy to territorial
cohesion, and the current targeting of functional areas instead of the classical
regions, in the European context, is done with the aim to promote this
approach in different contexts.

2. Methodology
At the European level the regional policy has experienced peaks and falls,
and has been criticised that it favoured most developed regions, especially in
the context of the entry of the new Member States (MS) after the 2004
enlargement.
As an alternative, the Barca report proposed a place-based (development)
4
policy, understood as a long-term strategy aimed at tackling persistent

1 Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st century, Partner Report on Support to
Statistics
2 UN Data Revolution for Sustainable Development Independent Expert Advisory Group : “A
World that Counts”
3 T. German; J. Randel (2017): ‘Delivering results to Leave no one behind’ – discussion paper
for the Results Community OECD workshop ‘What Results – Who Counts?’
4 Fabrizio Barca (2019): ‘An Agenda for a Reformed Cohesion Policy – A place-based
approach to meeting European Union challenges and expectations’
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