The eradication of poverty continues to be one of the greatest global problems, as was made clear at the last General Assembly at the United Nations at approve the new Sustainable Development Goals development with the slogan leave no one behind. It was a praised and mediatic meeting that attracted the attention of all the international organizations that fight poverty -understood in its multidimensionality- and, nevertheless, an essential factor was missing: the research.

Without rigorous and quality research it will not be possible to end poverty. Thanks to it and to the rigorous and innovative methodologies that are being applied in the world of development we have been able to get to the source of concrete problems that hinder the growth of people and nations.

As an example, it is worth mentioning the study that the French economist Esther Duflo, award Princess of Asturias for Social Sciences 2015, carried out together with her team of research from the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab with a revolutionary methodology - RCT random control trial - on why children did not attend school in Kenya. Against the logical answers that might spring to anyone's mind -work children, parental rejection by Education or long distances between home and high school- the research concluded that the main stumbling block was diarrhea. It is clear that any effort invested in another line would be ineffective if that particular problem was not solved first: to get results, investment in Education had to be accompanied by investment in health.

This is a clear example of the multidimensionality of poverty and the interconnection between its different facets: insecurity, malnutrition, unemployment, disease, etc.

Likewise, in order to check whether what is actually being achieved, the creation and implementation of policies in the countries at development requires a study of the context of each region and a assessment of the effects of certain interventions or cooperation projects.

Good intentions are not enough: the illusion of having a better world is the starting point and the daily motivation, but it is useless if it is not preceded by a rigorous and quality research that provides reliable and accuratedata . For if we do not have figures, how can we study the effects of a program or a policy? Moreover, how will we know how many people are actually living in poverty? Indeed, ODI (Overseas Development Institute) published a report in April this year in which it denounced the lack of a real knowledge on how many people live below the poverty line. According to this research there could be 350 million more, but without good data this figure is not reliable either.

To answer these questions, a revolution of the data -datarevolution- is needed in the collection, dissemination and access to data (instructions of data public).

With the latest advances in new technologies, this collection can be much easier, as can be seen in cases such as the use of financial services through cell phones in Kenya, an African country that leads the way in their use, and where banking services have been easily extended to the poor.

Fortunately, progress is gradually being made in this data revolution. The United Nations has included in the recently approved 17 Sustainable Goals of development a point specifically dedicated to this issue: the last goal expresses among its goals that of"significantly increasing the availability of timely, reliable and high quality data ".

In addition, in August 2014, the Data Revolution Group was established in August 2014 at the initiative of University Secretary of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, in order to oversee the new diary of the SDGs in terms of the collection and dissemination of data.

But in addition to creating commissions, concrete actions must also be implemented, such as devoting more funding to Departments to collect data from data. According to a report of The Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century the financial aid Official to development (ODA) -OfficialDevelopment Assistance (ODA)- destined to national statistical offices decreased from 0.33% in 2012 to 0.24% in 2013, that year being the period in which more ODA was destined to countries in development (134.8 billion dollars).

If we really want to end poverty, if we want to find sustainable and long-term solutions deadline, we need to know what we are really facing, qualitatively and quantitatively. Let us go to the source of the problems, study them, see what solutions can be most effective and then evaluate work. Only in this way can poverty eradication become sustainable, lasting and for everyone -leaveno one behind-.