Demia has been selected as one of 37 global teams to join Cohort 2 of the UNDP SDG Blockchain Accelerator, a flagship initiative led by the UNDP Alternative Finance Lab (AltFinLab) and the Blockchain for Good Alliance (BGA).
Together with United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), Demia is leading one of the Accelerator’s most ambitious pilot projects, focused on building a secure, verifiable data infrastructure for SDG reporting.
Unlike other cohort projects that work with individual UNDP Country Offices, Demia’s pilot connects directly with three UN bodies - UNDP, UNOPS, and UNSD - with the support of the Working Group on Geospatial Information of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group for the SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) with national partners including Ireland’s Central Statistics Office and Colombia’s National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) for its first nationally focused demonstration.
See the UNDP Announcement here for more information on the pilot program.
Reporting a national SDG impact indicator has always been complex and resource-intensive. Despite improvements in global data availability, most countries still lack a clear, repeatable framework that connects data sources to resulting indicators in a way that is standardized, scalable, and verifiable. The SDG indicators are meant to offer trends, highlight where progress is, or more importantly - isn’t - being made. But this requires countries to report on an indicator on a regular basis.
Even when the data exists, the process of turning it into actionable insight is fragmented. Different ministries, agencies, and partners collect and analyze similar data in isolation, leading to duplication, delays, and unnecessary costs. Reporting becomes slow and inefficient, diverting time and funding from actual development outcomes.
The Working Group on Geospatial Information of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on the SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) has identified shortlist (of around 90 indicators) that showcases how geospatial information, including Earth Observation data, supports or directly enables the production, measurement, and monitoring for the SDGs.
So, for SDG Indicator 11.3.1, which measures sustainable urbanization, for there are many forms of fit-for-purpose data available that highlight land cover and land use; global data (through Landsat) exists since the 1970s and global population datasets also now exist, filling in the many gaps that countries have. In this respect, SDG 11.3.1 has been reported only twice by fewer than 10% of UN member states. Many countries simply lack the technical capacity, financial resources, or methodological clarity to calculate and maintain these indicators consistently.
For the private sector, the incentive to report SDG impact remains limited. Companies may collect sustainability data to satisfy ESG commitments, but the value of that effort rarely translates into tangible economic or reputational benefits. Without a clear feedback loop, organizations struggle to see how their data contributes to measurable progress.
This creates an urgent need for a model that brings transparency and efficiency to the system. A model where:
- Countries can clearly trace how indicators are derived from their data sources
- Agencies can share and verify information efficiently across systems
- Local leaders can access insights in real time to make proactive, informed decisions
Thus, this challenge is building a framework that reduces redundancy, increases transparency, and transforms SDG reporting from a costly administrative task into a scalable, data-driven system for impact.
Demia is developing a system that bridges the technical and economic gaps in SDG reporting. The goal is not to replace existing UN data systems, but to connect them through a framework that is verifiable, interoperable, and designed to reduce duplication of effort.
At the core is Demia’s Zero Trust Data Fabric, a secure infrastructure that combines AI, Earth Observation, and blockchain to trace every step from data collection to the final indicator. Each data source is digitally signed, timestamped, and assigned a secure digital identity, ensuring it can be validated independently at any point in its lifecycle.
This approach turns data from a static asset into a living, traceable proof of progress. It allows agencies to demonstrate exactly how a metric was derived, what sources were used, and how those results connect to the SDG indicator framework. Every transformation, adjustment, and verification step is automatically recorded, creating a permanent audit trail that can be securely shared across UN agencies, national offices, and development partners.
Beyond transparency, the system is built for efficiency. By streamlining data processing, automating validation, and standardizing reporting formats, it reduces the cost and time associated with national SDG reporting. Instead of repeating similar analyses across multiple institutions, data can be shared through secure, permissioned channels that retain ownership.
For local governments, this means real-time access to verified insights that can inform planning, zoning, and development decisions. For UN agencies, it means a consistent, evidence-based reporting framework that can scale globally. And for private-sector actors, it creates a mechanism to tie verified impact data to financial or incentive structures, linking sustainability performance to tangible value.
Demia’s approach turns the SDG reporting process into a dynamic feedback system. One that measures, verifies, and rewards sustainable progress rather than simply documenting it.
This pilot brings together three key areas of the UN system that rarely operate within a single initiative: UNOPS, representing implementation and operational delivery, UNSD, representing global statistical governance, and UNDP, representing innovation and acceleration. With the support of DANE in Colombia, the collaboration reflects a unified effort to strengthen the measurement, verification, and sharing of SDG indicators and outcomes and enable secure peer review by major stakeholders across the value chain.
UNOPS contributes operational expertise and field knowledge across sectors such as mine action, infrastructure, and humanitarian response. The organization’s focus is on how verifiable data can help identify inefficiencies, target resources more effectively, and improve the speed and scale of impact in fragile or developing regions.
The UNSD offers policy guidance with the globally adopted statistical and geospatial frameworks and the official SDG indicator methodologies, fostering knowledge sharing and ensuring alignment with internationally agreed mandates.
UNDP’s AltFinLab and the BGA lead the accelerator program, providing the structure, resources, and technical mentorship necessary to move from concept to pilot-ready implementation.
With each organization bringing distinct expertise and mandates, this collaboration aims to set a new precedent for how the UN system manages data. Instead of fragmented reporting, it promotes shared infrastructure that enables each actor to contribute to a transparent, verifiable record of progress.
The outcome is a model that demonstrates how technology can make collaboration measurable. Data generated in one agency’s operational environment can be securely linked to national statistics, shared across UN systems, and directly used to support both policy decisions and global reporting while maintaining data sovereignty and accountability.
The accelerator pilot is designed to demonstrate how a verifiable, repeatable data system can improve the accuracy, efficiency, and actionability of SDG reporting. Over twelve weeks, Demia, UNOPS, and UNSD will build and validate a working model that transforms raw environmental and statistical data into standardized indicators through a transparent, traceable, and auditable process.
The pilot will focus on three indicators that together demonstrate environmental, social, and institutional dimensions of sustainable development:
- SDG 11.3.1 – Land consumption rate relative to population growth.
- SDG 15.3.1 – Proportion of degraded land.
- SDG 16.1.1 – Conflict-related deaths per 100,000 population.
For SDG 11.3.1 and 15.3.1, Earth Observation data will serve as a primary input, combined with national datasets and population data to produce verifiable, repeatable metrics. For SDG 16.1.1, the focus will be on integrating operational data from UNOPS Mine Action Services with national sources such as DANE to identify data gaps, validate records, and increase overall data confidence and completeness.
The pilot’s first national demonstration will take place in Colombia, supported by DANE, to showcase how national institutions can calculate, verify, and share indicator data without creating additional reporting burdens. The system will automate data ingestion, verification, and indicator computation using Demia’s Zero Trust Data Fabric. This ensures that every dataset and analytical step is logged, validated, and traceable.
By the end of the twelve weeks, the team will deliver:
This pilot will demonstrate how standardized, transparent data flows can improve both national and institutional reporting while laying the foundation for scalable, cross-sector SDG measurement.
The twelve-week accelerator pilot represents the foundation for a broader transformation in how sustainable development data is managed and verified. After the pilot, the focus will shift to scaling the system to new indicators, countries, and use cases that strengthen the entire SDG reporting ecosystem.
The next phase will begin by expanding within Colombia, deepening collaboration with DANE and regional agencies to include additional indicators and localized datasets. The goal is to enable near-real-time SDG monitoring that supports municipal and regional planning, helping decision-makers act proactively rather than reactively.
From there, the system will expand into priority countries for UNOPS operations, with the option to expand into regions such as Afghanistan and Sudan. In these contexts, where field data is limited and infrastructure is under strain, verified data pipelines can help identify operational gaps, target resources, and build institutional confidence in reported outcomes.
As the system matures, it will extend beyond Earth Observation to integrate new data streams such as sensor networks, open datasets, and verified field inputs. Each addition will expand the number of measurable indicators, enabling broader adoption across the 90 Earth Observation–aligned SDG indicators and, ultimately, the remaining 142 that can be supported by alternative data sources.
The long-term objective is to create a universal digital trust infrastructure for SDG reporting. This will allow governments, UN agencies, and private sector actors to exchange data securely and verify results without compromising data sovereignty.
The same system architecture can also be applied to carbon markets and sustainability finance, where verified impact data is critical to trust and value creation. By aligning SDG reporting methodologies with carbon market verification processes, the platform can unlock new incentives for data sharing and accelerate investment in measurable impact.
This approach creates a unified model for global sustainability reporting that connects local action to global accountability. It builds a future where data is not just collected, but proven; where progress is not just reported, but verified.
Accurate, transparent, and verifiable data is the foundation of sustainable development. Yet today, the process of reporting SDG progress often consumes more resources than it saves. Governments and UN agencies spend significant time reconciling disconnected datasets, while the private sector struggles to understand the economic value of impact reporting.
This pilot introduces a different approach. It shows that verifiable data can reduce costs, improve coordination, and strengthen confidence across the UN system. By combining Earth Observation, AI, and blockchain, Demia and its collaborators are building a shared data infrastructure that makes progress measurable, traceable, and reusable.
The outcome is not just better data, but better decisions. When indicators can be verified in real time, local and national leaders can act earlier. Donors and investors can direct resources to where they will have the greatest effect. And development agencies can move from reactive reporting to a proactive strategy.
This work matters because it transforms SDG reporting from a compliance exercise into a value-generating process that accelerates measurable impact.
To realize this potential, collaboration across the ecosystem is essential. The next phase of development requires:
With this support, the pilot can evolve into a standardized global framework for verifiable SDG reporting. One that connects data sovereignty, accountability, and impact into a single, trusted ecosystem.
This is how the SDGs become not only measurable, but actionable at every level. If you're interested in making that become a reality, reach out the the team at Demia via email at info@demia.net
Demia is building the backbone for verified environmental and sustainability data.
Our mission is to secure data, reduce friction, amplify impact and unlock value across environmental markets by combining AI, blockchain, and Zero Trust architecture to turn sustainability information into verifiable proof of action.
The SDG Blockchain Accelerator is led by UNDP’s AltFinLab, in collaboration with the BGA, EMURGO Labs, Stellar Development Foundation, FLock Technology Holdings, and the Sui Foundation.
This pilot is being developed with the support and involvement of UNOPS, UNSD, and DANE, to advance secure and verifiable SDG reporting systems.
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