How Is Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Measured? Comparing Four Approaches for the EU

Abstract

Evidence-based policymaking must be rooted in sound data to inform policy priorities, budget allocations, and tracking of progress. This is especially true in the case of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as they provide the policy framework that all 193 UN member states have pledged to achieve by 2030. Good data and clear metrics are critical for each country to take stock of where it stands, devise pathways for achieving the goals, and track progress. Current assessments of the EU’s performance on the SDGs, however, tend to reach different findings and policy conclusions on where the priorities for further action lie, which can be confusing for researchers and policymakers. In order to demystify the drivers of such differences and make them transparent, this paper compares and contrasts the results obtained by four SDG monitoring approaches. We identify three main elements that are responsible for most of the differences: (i) the use of pre-defined targets for calculating baseline assessments and countries’ trajectories; (ii) the inclusion of measures that track not only domestic performance, but also the EU’s transboundary impacts on the rest of the world; and (iii) the use of non-official statistics to bridge data gaps, especially for biodiversity goals. This paper concludes that there is not one “correct” way of providing an assessment of whether the EU and EU member states are on track to achieve the goals, but we illustrate how the different results are the outcomes of certain methodological choices. More “forward-looking” policy trackers are needed to assess implementation efforts on key SDG transformations.

Assessment of the Governance Dimension in the Frame of the 2030 Agenda: Evidence from 100 Spanish Cities

“…As Greco et al state, "each approach in every single step has both its benefits and its drawbacks", and it is essential to understand the methodological framework to better design the weighting, aggregation, and robustness steps. There are several methods to build these composite indices [42,[45][46][47], even to measure the SDG [48][49][50], but all of them have strengths and weaknesses. For this reason, we focus our analysis on the SDG Index methodology, created by independent scientists and endorsed by the United Nations for its consistency, 'dynamic' distance-to-target assessment, and the possibility to be applied at national, regional, and local levels [51].…”

“…For this reason, we focus our analysis on the SDG Index methodology, created by independent scientists and endorsed by the United Nations for its consistency, 'dynamic' distance-to-target assessment, and the possibility to be applied at national, regional, and local levels [51]. The advantages of this methodology compared to those of OCDE [52], Eurostat [53], or ASviS [54] are analyzed in Lafortune et al [48].…”

Quantitative Analysis of the Impact of Public Policies on the Sustainable Development Goals through Budget Allocation and Indicators

“…The 2030 Agenda aims to define inclusive measures that promote sustainability and resilience [1]. These measures derived in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with 169 targets that integrate cross-cutting approaches throughout 2030, combining the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social, and environmental), and applying to developing and developed countries alike [2]. Integrating all three dimensions of development and having been signed by all 193 UN member states in 2015, SDGs represent a universal commitment towards sustainability.…”

“…As they have enlarged the definition of sustainability by integrating the environmental dimension of development (which had been perceived as left aside in the previous Millennium Development Goals), SDGs are also linked with climate action frameworks such as the Paris Climate Agreement (signed at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015, with the central aim to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius (UNFCCC).) [2]. The European Union (EU), its institutions, and member states have played a key role in the adoption of the Agenda, the SDGs, and the Paris Agreement [2].…”

“…[2]. The European Union (EU), its institutions, and member states have played a key role in the adoption of the Agenda, the SDGs, and the Paris Agreement [2].…”