Reporting progress on the 2030 Agenda: Navigating through the maze of the 17 goals

19 Jul 2017 by Eunice Kamwendo, Strategic Advisor, UNDP Africa

The goal is to help countries design an SDG implementation and reporting strategy that builds and maintains momentum, while enhancing integration and synergies between the goals on the short, medium and long term. Photo: UNDP

As countries implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, they face competing demands. There is the desire to embrace the entire framework as a whole on one hand, and the need to be practical and focused to achieve each goal, on the other. As UNDP supports SDG reporting at the country level as well as in the global arena, part of our role is to help countries tackle this and other challenges along the way.

The global, regional and country reporting that was largely adopted for the Millennium Development Goals was goal-by-goal reporting. This might have worked well with fewer goals, but it also served to reinforce the sectoral approach to development. There is a need to think through options for reporting the SDGs in ways that would enhance integration effects and synergies, as well reduce the burden of reporting on all goals at the same time without taking our eyes off the objectives of the entire agenda.

The annual High Level Political Forum (HLPF) offers a model that could be instructive. Held under the theme “eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world”, the 2017 HLPF was convened this week and last at the UN Headquarters. This is a great platform for tracking progress on sustainable development commitments, including the 2030 Agenda.

The specific themes under discussion each year ensure that there is momentum kept around SDG implementation, especially as countries are still putting in place the necessary structures, frameworks and resources to be responsive to the SDG agenda in its entirety at the national and sub national levels. The early reports to the HLPF serve this purpose and are an important benchmark for future reporting on the goals and targets. Since 2016, countries have been reporting on a few goals at a time on a voluntary basis, according to selected themes.

This is a good start, as the focus on a few goals allows for closer attention to the issues under discussion. In a lot of ways, the approach offers some strategic reflections on how countries can report on the SDG agenda looking beyond the HLPF, given its breadth and integrated nature.