New portal drives SDGs in Africa
SEVENTEEN United Nations entities under the Africa Collaborative Regional Platform launched an online data portal, the first of its kind on the continent, to measure and evaluate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The platform will serve as a one-stop shop repository that captures data and evidence on the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs from all the African countries and will raise the profile of statistical progress towards the African Union vision, Agenda 2063.
The Africa Collaborative Regional Platform breaks the 17 SDGs into 169 targets and 231 indicators, allowing interested parties to track progress at every level.
According to statisticians at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, among the 169 targets set out in the SDGs, only 30% are quantifiable. For the rest of the unquantifiable targets, the online platform proposes target values using a pragmatic and ambitious approach.
It identifies the region’s outstanding countries and sets their average rate of change as the region’s target rate.
The new data engine also gives users the ability to classify the statistics by various dimensions, such as the eight regional economic communities recognised by the African Union, least developed countries, landlocked developing nations, and oil-producing, mineral-rich States.
Additionally, it repackages the data by key thematic issues.
Users can categorise SDG indicators by agriculture, energy and health, allowing them to not only analyse the specific progress at country level, but also examine the convergence, similarities and differences among a variety of sub-regional blocs and topics.
Oliver Chinganya, director for the ECA Africa Centre for Statistics, said timely and disaggregated data was critical to guide targeted investments and ensure the desired returns in its human capital development, environmental sustainability, economic transformation and prosperity for all.
The data portal is expected to be used in progress reports on the SDGs and other sustainable development documents and can also be used to prepare speeches and presentations for senior government officials and institutions as well as stimulate policy conversations.