Mehdi Musharraf Bhuiyan
The government is working to develop a web-based data repository called ‘SDG Tracker’ for online monitoring of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other national development goals, Planning Commission officials have said.
A prototype of the system has already been developed, while the full system will be up and running by this April. Bangladesh will be one of the first countries to develop such an online tracker for the SDGs, officials concerned have said.
"Once operational, the SDG Tracker will act as an online monitoring tool for implementation of the SDG-related activities in the country," Planning Commission (PC) Member Dr. Shamsul Alam told the FE on Sunday.
"The system will facilitate the tracking of progress against each goal and target of the SDGs as well as the government's Development Results Framework," he added.
Once developed, General Economics Division of PC will be responsible for administering the system. Access to Information (a2i) Programme of the Prime Minister's Office is providing technical support to the government in developing the system.
The system will be publicly accessible at sdg.gov.bd, and will be hosted in the National Data Center of Bangladesh Computer Council.
Adapted by the United Nations (UN) at the Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, the SDGs are a set of seventeen global goals with 169 targets, to be achieved by the UN member states by 2030.
The SDGs are built on the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were earlier adopted by the UN for the period of 2000 to 2015.
Bangladesh has been quite successful in achieving various MDG targets, like - poverty alleviation, ensuring food security, primary school enrolment, gender parity in primary- and secondary-level education, and lowering the infant and under-five mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio.
Now, as part of attaining the SDGs, the government has already done a mapping of resources, identifying the lead ministries for each of the SDG goals.
In this context, experts said development of the SDG tracker will be highly instrumental in ensuring real-time monitoring and coordination of national and global goals.
"Initially, the database will contain SDG data up to divisional level. Gradually, the system will offer data up to upazilla level," a high official of PC said.
"This will also create an environment of healthy competition among various organizations in terms of achieving the SDGs, and also enable predictive analysis for achieving the goals within the set time-frame," he added.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the government's main data-providing agency, will be the main source of data for this system, while various government ministries will be responsible for providing administrative data.
"Bangladesh has already been a brilliant example in achievement of the MDGs. However, replicating the same success in the SDGs will require intense and regular monitoring," said a2i Policy Adviser Anir Chowdhury.
"In that case, the SDG Tracker will be a valuable tool for policymakers, planners and implementers in tracking the SDGs' progress and in making important policy decisions accordingly," he added.
Officials also observed that the SDG tracker will improve situation analysis and performance monitoring for various development initiatives of the government.
"The system will enable the government to track progress according to various SDG indicators, and visualize the progress using different analytics," said Md. Mamunur Rashid Bhuiyan, a2i e-service specialist.
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