Data Governance facilitates smooth movement of data across entities and borders. In the light of the increased cross border data flows in the context of domestic and cross-border trade along with data localization, privacy issues and guidelines, it becomes imperative to have governance related guidelines and controls in place. There have been numerous incidents of data breach and leakages – which have put data owners at risk. Adversarial attacks on data models lead to leakage of private and classified information which is not only a privacy issue but also a socio-economic threat. An enterprise level data leakage can lead to economic and financial impact on corporations and international bodies

Thus, data governance policies and effective controls could ensure:
1.	Centralized and distributed policies and systems 
2.	Standardization of domestic and cross-border data exchange 
3.	Meeting Compliances 
4.	Incorporating principles of data privacy 
5.	Implementing Cyber security through standard Information Security Management Systems 

The purpose of this project is to look at Data Governance especially in Trade Facilitation (TF) in the context of UN/CEFACT’s mandates and create a whitepaper that focuses on studying existing Data Governance and presenting best practices for existing systems that can act as a guide for future implementation.
 

The project scope is to define and create white papers on the best practices in implementing Data Governance with a view to examining:
•	What is data governance?
•	Why is it needed in TF?
•	How existing UN/CEFACT deliverables are relevant in the context of Data Governance?
•	How Data Governance enables privacy, protection, localization and data security?
•	Illustrative Data Governance frameworks
•	Data Governance best practices
•	Domestic and Cross border data flow and governance
•	Various laws around Data Governance

All the above will be examined from the perspective of UN/CEFACT’s mandates in order to provide input to the Bureau, Programme Development Areas and Domains on:
1)	Possible future work and a possible common approach to Data management/projects
2)	Application developers as a potential new user group for UN/CEFACT standards
 

Deliverable 1 - White paper covering guidance material for developing Data Governance framework and guidance to facilitate secure exchange of domestic and cross border data especially in the context of trade

Exit Criteria for Deliv. 1: Draft white paper ready for publication

Membership is open to experts with broad knowledge in the areas of: Digital ID systems, technology and/or trade facilitation and related business processes

In addition, Heads of Delegations may invite technical experts from their constituency to participate in the work. Experts are expected to contribute to the work based solely on their expertise and to comply with the UN/CEFACT Code of Conduct and Ethics and the policy on Intellectual Property Rights.

The geographical focus of the project is global.

Initial contributions include existing descriptions and technical specifications for the UN/CEFACT: 
•	Core Components Library (CCL); 
•	Business Requirement Specifications (BRSs), 
•	Requirement Specification Mappings (RSMs) and 
•	Reference Data Models (RDMs) as well as 
•	already published material on advance technologies and implementations, 
•	Blockchain, IoT, AI work undertaken by UN/CEFACT

Participants in the project shall provide resources for their own participation. The existence and functioning of the project shall not require any additional resources from the UNECE secretariat. The project will be prepared in between Forums, in face-to-face meetings, if feasible, and using conference call facilities.