Rwanda has been selected to host the seventh United Nations World Data Forum in 2028, making it the second African country to host the global gathering after South Africa.
The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda welcomed the selection, saying the country was proud to contribute to the global platform for advancing the use of data for sustainable development.
The decision followed a special meeting of the UN High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda held on September 21, 2026. The meeting was convened specifically to select the host of the seventh UN World Data Forum.
Rwanda follows South Africa, which hosted the inaugural edition of the forum in Cape Town in 2017. Subsequent editions were held in Dubai, Bern, Hangzhou and Medellín, while Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will host the sixth edition from November 9 to 12, 2026.
The 2028 forum is expected to be held in the fourth quarter of the year, maintaining its biennial cycle and taking place two years before the end of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The UN World Data Forum brings together governments, national statistical offices, international organisations, civil society, the private sector, academia and other members of the data community to exchange ideas and strengthen the use of data and statistics.
According to the United Nations, the forum is designed to promote data innovation, strengthen partnerships and mobilise political and financial support for better data systems.
Its community has grown from about 2,000 participants at its early editions to more than 20,000 stakeholders worldwide, while more than 3,000 people attended the 2024 edition in Medellín, Colombia.
Rwanda’s selection also comes as Kigali hosts the United Nations Regional Hub for Big Data and Data Science in Africa.
The hub brings together Rwanda’s National Institute of Statistics, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and supports African statistical institutions in areas including data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning and the use of new data sources for official statistics.
Hosting the 2028 forum will return the event to Africa for the first time since its inaugural edition was held in Cape Town more than a decade earlier.
Elie GATETE
RADIOTV10