The General Assembly in 1972 established World Development Information Day to draw the attention of the world to development problems and the need to strengthen international cooperation to solve them (resolution 3038 (XXVII)).
The Assembly decided that the date for the Day should coincide with United Nations Day, 24 October.
The Assembly deemed that improving the dissemination of information and the mobilization of public opinion, particularly among young people, would lead to greater awareness of the problems of development, thus, promoting efforts in the sphere of international cooperation for development.
The 2030 Agenda Declaration adopted by the United Nations in September 2015 stresses the importance of quality, accessible, timely and reliable disaggregated data to measure progress and to ensure that no one is left behind.
The requirements of the monitoring framework to support Agenda 2030, comprising of 232 unique indicators and covering the full spectrum of development issues, including not only aspects of society, economy and the environment but also institutional coordination, has been described by Mogens Lykketoft, President of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly, as an 'unprecedented statistical challenge'.
To learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals and the monitoring framework see DGFF 2016.