SDGs: Clearing the grey indicators

More than six months ago, 193 countries of the world, also the members of the United Nations (UN), formally adopted the much talked about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The adoption obliges the countries to fulfil a set of 17 broader goals to turn the world into a global village of peace and prosperity. In a very turbulent time of human history, such willingness with apparent solidarity to make the world a place of less poor people and more clean-green environment is a very positive step. No doubt that next 15 years is not enough to achieve the goals. Nevertheless, a global commitment to boosting the efforts of the nations with mutual cooperation towards the goals makes the people of the world optimistic again.   
The 17 goals are distributed through 169 attainable targets. But these targets are needed to be benchmarked to measure the progress by the countries as well as the whole world. This month, the UN is scheduled to finalise the quantifiable indicators of the SDGs as benchmarks of the target. The same thing was exercised 16 years ago, when the UN adopted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Thus, the exercise is not a new one but the area is quite vast and much more time-taking.

The Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) has already finalised its report to the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC). The group has completed its technical work to propose global indicators for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the official name of the SDGs. The group has proposed a set of 231 global indicators. Now, the UN statistical commission will review the final report at its 47th session on March 8-11 2016, in New York.  Then it will finalise the indictors and ask the member countries to set their respective indicators, where required, for the next 15 years.
WHY INDICATORS: Indicators are essential to measure the progress in different areas as well as compare among the countries to find the global scenario.  For instance, the second goal of the SDGs is: 'End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.' The goal is divided into eight targets. One (2.2) of these is: 'By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.'
Now, how to measure that all forms of child malnutrition have ended? There are two sets of proposed indictors. One is: '(2.2.1) Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organisation Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age.' All the member countries thus have to go through their own countries' update or current status on this indicator first. Then they have to follow-up yearly about the said situation of the children.
Another indicator is: '(2.2.2) Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5, disaggregated by type (wasting and overweight).' Here again, the countries need to check their own status and then the follow-up. Each country is responsible for addressing malnutrition situation as well as updating information in this regard. The countries also have to report to the UN body.
While in some indictors, specific quantification is already proposed, in some cases it is not yet done. For instance, one of the targets (2.a) of the second goal says: 'Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round.'  Two related proposed indictors for the target are: `(2.b.1) Percentage change in import and export tariffs on agricultural products' and `(2.b.2) Agricultural export subsidies.' Now, determination of the `percentage' for the first indicator is critical.
It may be 10 per cent or 20 per cent. Again, there may be separate indicators for different group of countries like Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and non-LDCs. In a similar vein, the quantity or ratio of agriculture subsidies in different countries have to be determined. The expert group, however, puts asterisks (*) on these two proposed indictors along with other 78 indicators.
It means differences of opinion in these indicators are there. These are termed 'grey' indicators and are still being reviewed by the members of the group.
MORE EXERCISE: It is expected that the UN Statistical Commission in its meeting this week will reach a consensus to finalise the indicators and its framework for global monitoring. Member countries have also provided their feedbacks on the proposed final indicators.
The feedbacks, received from the member states at a briefing on January 28, reflected few differences of opinion on the indicators. For example, the United States put some reservation on SDG 16: 'Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.'
The country opined that the proposed indicators are not sufficient in key areas, and 'stronger indicators will be needed to meet the ambition of the targets.' There are12 targets under the goal and 23 indicators are proposed. Interestingly, there is no asterisk in any of the indicators which  means there is now no bar on adopting these.    
Again, according to India, the inter-agency and expert group proposal is excessively focused on national action, while the SDGs are an international endeavour. The country pointed out that the indicators for SDG 17 'are weak and must match the ambition of the agreed targets'.  
The goal-17 says: 'Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.' The final proposal, however, does not have any grey indicators for 19 targets of the goal.  
African country Morocco requested more details on implementation of capacity building and flexible monitoring architecture. It is not known whether Bangladesh gave any feedback in this meeting. But, in another meeting in Bangkok in October last, Bangladesh participated and gave some feedback on the initially proposed indicators.  In that meeting, the inter-agency and expert group received more than 4,000 comments on the proposed indicators.
In fact, the main challenge lies on clearing the grey indicators. The statistical commission may not be able to complete the task. If so, the finalisation of SDGs' indicators will be delayed and additional exercise will be required to complete the process before June this year. Because, after cleared by the statistical commission, the indicators are initially scheduled to be adopted by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the UN General Assembly in June this year. Thus, any undue delay in this exercise is not desired, but caution on finalising the indicators is a must.
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