Targets of the Global Goals

Dom Billings

A podcast about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, 17 goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2015.

  1. 16 AUG

    SDG Target #17.19

    SDG #17 is to “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development” Within SDG #17 are 19 targets, of which we here focus on Target 17.19: By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries Target 17.19 has two indicators: Indicator 17.19.1: Dollar value of all resources made available to strengthen statistical capacity in developing countries Indicator 17.19.2: Proportion of countries that (a) have conducted at least one population and housing census in the last 10 years; and (b) have achieved 100 per cent birth registration and 80 per cent death registration This target highlights the work of PARIS21. This organisation works to help developing countries increase their statistical capacity. The developing countries which had the most dollars available for statistical capacity were in Africa. Vietnam, Serbia, and Nepal also each spent over $10 million to this end in 2020. Global spending on increasing statistical capacity in 2020 was $541 million. As of 2017, only a dozen countries hadn’t completed a census in the past decade. The country with the smallest proportion of registered births was in the Horn of Africa. In Ethiopia and Somalia, the rate was less than 6%. The global rate of birth registrations was 72% of births as of 2018. Several African countries and Afghanistan registered deaths at a rate lower than 10%.

  2. 16 AUG

    SDG Target #17.18

    SDG #17 is to “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development” Within SDG #17 are 19 targets, of which we here focus on Target 17.18: By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts Target 17.18 has three indicators: Indicator 17.18.1: Statistical capacity indicators Indicator 17.18.2: Number of countries that have national statistical legislation that complies with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics Indicator 17.18.3: Number of countries with a national statistical plan that is fully funded and under implementation, by source of funding Goals give us the inspiration. Targets within those Goals help break down the vast ambition, and the indicators give us a tool to measure what we aspire to. Yet we need data to inform those indicators. Without this statistical information, we cannot know how we’re progressing toward our goals. Tools such as the World Bank’s Statistical Performance Indicator allow us to measure a country’s capacity to gather data. Whether in the form of surveys, censuses, or geospatial data, we need to ensure such information meets a standard. As many countries are in dire need of development, we can expect their capacity to collect data of their citizens is also hampered. For example, how will we know we’re lifting the 626 million out of extreme poverty, or whether there’s a reversal, without good data?  Many countries in South America and Africa don't have statistics adherent to the UN Fundamental Principles of data. In an irony, a couple dozen countries don’t have data for Indicator 17.8.2. As of 2022, 156 countries have national statistical plans under implementation, 100 of which have full funding. Of these, the government fund 72 of them, 19 are from donors, and other sources finance 10.

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A podcast about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, 17 goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2015.