Real time data is much talked about and sought after, yet a huge source of real time data at local level is often ignored.  Health facilities, schools, local government departments and civil society organizations collect data almost daily, yet much of this data is often not accessible to the officials making decisions about budgets and is almost never available to citizens who want to hold their governments to account.

Connecting this local data and insight to the global SDG framework has long been considered a vital component to achieving the principle of leaving no one behind. But, can local data ever be used to derive the global SDG indicators or is glocal data simply an unrealistic dream?