A central promise of the Sustainable Development Goals is to leave no one behind. Going beyond aggregates and averages is the first step to understanding that every human life is worth being counted.

But how can we ensure that everyone, including the poorest, women, children, the elderly, indigenous people, migrants and people with disabilities are included into the big picture? A project in the Philippines tells the story of how more and better subnational gender statistics can help protect vulnerable groups from falling through the cracks.

Between 2010 and 2020, many Pacific Islands and Territories have updated their traditional data collection processes, embracing new technologies. The island nations Kiribati and Vanuatu, among others, successfully switched to computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), a new data management system and a survey monitoring dashboard. The innovations implemented with support from the Pacific Community helped to weather the impact of the pandemic on census activities and to become fit for the purpose of tracking the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).