In 2024, the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution A/RES/79/1 requested the Commission on Science and Technology for Development to establish a dedicated working group to engage in a comprehensive and inclusive multi-stakeholder dialogue on data governance at all levels as relevant for development.
The working group will report on its progress to the General Assembly, by no later than the eighty-first session, including on follow-up recommendations towards equitable and interoperable data governance arrangements, which may include:
- Fundamental principles of data governance at all levels as relevant for development.
- Proposals to support interoperability between national, regional and international data systems.
- Considerations of sharing the benefits of data.
- Options to facilitate safe, secure and trusted data flows, including cross-border data flows as relevant for development (all SDGs).
Note on membership
UN General Assembly Resolution 79/1 calls upon the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) to create a dedicated working group to facilitate a multistakeholder dialogue on data governance relevant to development at all levels.
Following consultations related to this initiative, the CSTD Bureau has decided that the UN CSTD Multi-Stakeholder Working Group on Data Governance at All Levels will consist of 27 state members and 27 non-state members.
All intergovernmental and international organizations that expressed interest in joining the Working Group are accepted as observers.
Chair and Vice-Chairs
Chair:
- H.E. Ambassador Guilherme De Aguiar Patriota (Brazil)
Vice-Chair representing State Members:
- H.E. Ambassador Muhammadou M.O. Kah (The Gambia)
Vice-Chair representing Non-State Members:
- Ms. Claire Melamed (civil society)
Member States
African Regional Group
- Burkina Faso
- Cameroon
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Republic of the Gambia
- Rwanda
- United Republic of Tanzania
Asia-Pacific Regional Group
- China
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Oman
- Philippines
Eastern European Regional Group
- Estonia
- Hungary
- Romania
Latin America and Caribbean Regional Group
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Cuba
- Ecuador
- Peru
Western Europe and Other States Regional Group
- Austria
- Canada
- Finland
- Germany
- Switzerland
- United States of America
Non-Governmental Stakeholders
Representatives from academia
- Aija E. Leiponen, Cornell University
- Christian Peukert, University of Lausanne
- Linnet Taylor, Tilburg University
- Luis Felipe Alvarez León, Dartmouth College
- Michèle Finck, University of Tübingen
- Wendy Hall, University of Southampton
- Xueqi Cheng, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Representatives from the business community
- Alejandro Saucedo, Zalando
- Anthony Wong, AGW
- Ashutosh Chadha, Microsoft
- Enrique Mesones, APESOFT
- Hongyu Fu, Alibaba
- Luka Safonov, Weblock
- Nick Ashton-Hart, APCO Worldwide
- Timea Suto, ICC
Representatives from civil society
- Anita Gurumurthy, IT for Change
- Claire Melamed, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data
- Linda Bonyo, Lawyers Hub Africa
- Lorrayne Porciuncula, Datasphere Initiative
- Mohamed Sayed Mohamed Farahat, African Digital Rights Network
- Natalia Carfi, Open Data Charter
- Renata Ávila, Open Knowledge Foundation
- Talla Ndiaye, Digital Impact Alliance
Representatives from the technical community
- Anja Kaspersen, IEEE
- Carl Gahnberg, ISOC
- Reyna Jenkyns, World Data System
- Tom Crick, ACM
Representatives from the intergovernmental and international organizations
- African Union Commission (AUC)
- Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
- Commonwealth of Nations
- Council of Europe (CoE)
- European Commission
- Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
- International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
- Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
- The South Centre
- United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN ECLAC)
- United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP)
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)
- United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
- United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET)
- United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
- United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA)
- United Nations Statistical Commission (StatCom)
- United Nations University (UNU)
- World Bank
- World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
- World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- World Trade Organization (WTO)
Events
Call for contributions
This survey supports the work of the UN CSTD Working Group on Data Governance (WGDG), established by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/79/1) to engage in a comprehensive and inclusive multi-stakeholder dialogue on data governance at all levels as relevant for development.
We kindly invite you to submit your responses either by email to [email protected] or through the online surveys by 31 January 2026.
If you wish to add further information after your initial response, you are welcome to send additional submissions at a later stage.
Online surveys by inter-sessional tracks: