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Halfway through the 2030 Agenda ambition and results of sustainability are still not well aligned. Calls for accelerating its implementation focus frequently on greater financial resources. But what about the backbone of sound policy-making, data and evidence? Do we really know where we stand today? Do we really know where we need to go to get there?
There was a sharp awareness of the critical role of data for a successful implementation of the SDGs, when they were decided upon in 2015 and work on developing and implementing a global indicator framework for the Goals and targets began. Member States and UN agencies invested from the start in the underlying data grid developing indicators and measurement approaches. At the same time, countries around the world began to upgrade their statistical capacities and engaged in strengthening national data governance. Over time, it has become even more obvious that the value of reliable, comprehensive, and operational SDG-related data cannot be underestimated - both for the purpose of evaluation of progress and for priority-setting, resource allocation and delivery of public policies and services.
The UN Committee of Experts of Public Administration (CEPA) is currently looking into the issue of governance and public administration-related data in accelerating the implementation of the SDGs. Three areas are suggested for particular attention in future data development and governance:
Data for coherence
The very nature of the 17 SDGs requires understanding and measuring the interlinkages, trade-offs, and synergies among them. The current challenges of risk management demonstrate the potential benefits of identifying and evaluating accurately cascading relationships and compounded impact. Policy coherence would similarly be improved if these types of data were to become available.
Data for participation
The pandemic has demonstrated the cost of lacking participation of citizens, the private sector, and civil society in designing and implementing crisis management. At the same time, progress in achieving sustainability depends on active and informed participation based on understandable, available, and reusable data for all stakeholders. This applies equally to all levels of government, especially in support of the strategic direction of localizing the SDGs.
Data for decision-makers
SDGs require support from the highest political level, as amply demonstrated through the voluntary national reviews and voluntary local reviews. For leaders, data need to be condensed to set priorities and mobilize the government machinery for implementation of the Goals. Earlier experiences and practices of performance-based budgeting have, for example, shown the value of a tight set of high-level policy objectives for sound policy-making, evaluation and timely interventions in the case of deviations from the anticipated policy path.
No doubt, advancing quickly along these suggestions will depend on investment in data technology, governance and a strategy of bringing diverse policy communities together around the “statistical table”. Generating a shared data culture will be worth the effort.
By Rolf Alter, Rapporteur of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) and Senior Fellow, Hertie School of Governance