Eric Swanson, is a co-founder and director of research for Open Data Watch. He is responsible for the development of the Open Data Inventory, an original assessment of the openness of the statistics published by national statistical offices. Eric was previously senior adviser in the Development Data Group and, for many years, the managing editor of the World Development Indicators. As an original member of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the MDGs, he has an active interest in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the last year he has contributed to work (with the Sustainable Development Solutions Network) on the cost of monitoring the SDGs and (with Dta2X) on overcoming gaps in gender statistics.