Youth, students and data specialists alike are invited to ‘breathe life’ into Pacific gender statistics through open data and data visualisation in the 2024 Pacific Dataviz Challenge—competing for a share of $15,000 in prizes supported by SPC and the Government of New Caledonia.
Open for entries until 30 June 2024, the annual Pacific Dataviz Challenge represents an opportunity for participants worldwide, of any skillset or background—from seasoned analysts to creative artists—to demonstrate their talent in transforming data into impactful insights.
Entrants are invited to showcase the Pacific region in numbers through the power of open data, referring to datasets that are publicly available to anyone for any purpose, and data visualisation, the practice of presenting statistics in a visual format. Participants need to use at least one dataset from a list provided, freely accessible either on SPC’s Pacific Data Hub (pacificdata.org) or the open data portal of the Government of New Caledonia (data.gouv.nc).
Entries can be either static data visualisations, like a poster, or interactive, such as a live dashboard. In addition to first, second and third prizes for static and interactive categories, the judges may award special commendations to their favourite submissions from Pacific and youth competitors.
Now in its third edition, the Pacific Dataviz Challenge has so far inspired hundreds of participants to explore key topics in the region, drawing attention to the Pacific context and promoting its unique place in the world to a global community. Following 2023’s theme of ‘food’, the 2024 competition seeks to explore gender (in)equality across datasets that include—
- the educational attainment of Pacific girls and women
- Pacific girls married under the age of 18 years
- household head by gender
- the gender wage gap
- and many others.
Gender (in)equality: Pulling focus to Pacific girls and women
“Like many parts of the world, the Pacific region faces challenges related to gender equality, including disparities in access to education, healthcare, employment, and political representation,” said Mr Peter Ellis, Director of SPC’s Statistics for Development Division.
“Breathing life into gender-related data through visualisation can help raise awareness about these issues and, hopefully, illuminate a better understanding of the linkages and interactions between different indicators.
“Through compelling visualisations, we hope that contestants can convey nuanced insights and encourage discussions on the topic of gender, whether as an artist, a creative, a student or data visualisation professional.”
Championing data for development
Supporting statistics for evidence-based decision-making in pursuit of sustainable development in the Pacific is one of SPC’s principal work areas, through the Dataviz Challenge and other initiatives, including the Pacific Data Hub—one of the open data sources for the competition.
A social, economic and environmental good for the Pacific, by the Pacific, the platform serves as a gateway to comprehensive statistics and dashboards across population, climate change, economic development, education, energy, the environment, fisheries, gender and youth, geoscience, health, human rights, land resources and more.
“All peoples, economies and environments benefit from data for evidence-based policy and decision-making,” Mr Ellis explains.
“Through the Pacific Dataviz Challenge, we’re highlighting the Pacific data available to everyone—from school students to senior policy analysts—as well as promoting greater understanding of the Pacific context and its potential to the world.”
Pacific Dataviz Challenge in more detail
The Dataviz Challenge team are hosting a launch conference at SPC’s headquarters in Nouméa today. Additional events are taking place at the University of New Caledonia, the University of the South Pacific in Suva, and Nouméa’s Motion Juice Festival. A webinar ‘The Power of Dataviz’ is also planned with a line-up of renowned international experts.
More information on the challenge and events is available at the Pacific Dataviz Challenge website: pacificdatavizchallenge.org
