SDG Counting

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• The Sustainable Development Goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals (SDGs) were adopted by UN Member States in 2015 to provide a global blueprint for peace and prosperity through partnership.  
• The SDGs are comprised of 17 goals, 169 targets, and 231 indicators with a target completetion date of 2030.  
• Since their inception, SDGCounting, a program of StartingUpGood, has been tracking progress on how these Global Goals https://www.globalgoals.org/ are counted and measured.  
• You can follow our insights on data and development through Twitter https://twitter.com/sdgcounting and Medium https://sdgcounting.medium.com/.

• 2023 Focus on New Approaches To Measuring SDG Outcomes
• Halfway to 2030
• You can follow our insights on data and development through Twitter https://twitter.com/sdgcounting and Medium https://sdgcounting.medium.com/.

• In 2020, the UN launched it's Decade of Action https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/decade-of-action/ to accelerate progress and ensure the SDGs could be met by 2030.  
• Unfortunately, COVID derailed many of these efforts and made measurments more difficult.  
• 2022 promises to be the year where the full impact of pandemic comes to light and new strategies for implementing and tracking the goals will be introduced.  
• This year our team will be paying particular attention to how disruptions in data processes are being overcome with special focus on new methodologies being utilized such as geospatial and big-data modeling.  MORE DETAIL ON THE SDGCOUNTING 2022 PROJECT PAGE
• We will also be following the emerging discussions around the synergies and disruptions that exist between the goals and how that is being measured.

• 2000-2015 - UN development strategies are guided by the Millennium Development Goals [https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/] (MDGs).  
• 2012 – UN Conference on Sustainable Development is held in Rio [https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/rio20.html] where world leaders discuss what is to follow the MDGs.  In the document “The Future We Want” [https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/futurewewant.html], a call is given to develop the SDGs. 
•  2012-2015 – Global participatory process engages millions across the globe to help shape the contents of the SDGs.  [https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015]  
• September 2015 – After extensive deliberation and negotiation the 17 SDGs are officially adopted by the UN. [https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/summit]  
• July 2017 – A list of targets and indicators for each of the 17 Goals is adopted by the UN. [https://ggim.un.org/documents/a_res_71_313.pdf]  Indicators were placed in tiers based on the ability of agencies to collect the measurements. [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/iaeg-sdgs/tier-classification/]  
• March 2020 – UN Statistical Commission reviews the indicator framework and passes a total of 36 changes. [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/iaeg-sdgs/2020-comprev/UNSC-proposal/]

• 2014 – Data flow research project identifying how information moves from on-the-ground local implementation into national, regional, and international reporting and modeling.  September 
• 2015 – Medium site established to keep track and report on how the SDGs are being tracked and measured. [https://medium.com/sdg-counting/sdgcounting-an-introduction-91ecdfb91ea6]  
• October 2015 – Presentation at the Wolfram Technology Conference (WTC) outlining how technology can be used to track, understand, and implement the SDGs. [https://library.wolfram.com/infocenter/Conferences/9340/]  
• 2016 onwards – Research and reporting on the emerging indicators via Medium [https://sdgcounting.medium.com/] and data related events around the SDGs.  2018-2021 – Additional presentations at WTC on finding, structuring, and analyzing diverse data sources to better understand the SDGs (see below).  
• 2020 – Focused attention given to how COVID is impacting the SDGs and the data sources available. [https://medium.com/sdg-counting/tagged/covid19]

• 2018: Analyzing Public Data with Wolfram: UN Sustainable Development Goals [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur_TnA3TxJs]  
• 2019: Structuring Diverse Data Sources for Machine Learning and Analysis [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfJHEWAPEhw]  
• 2020: Using Wolfram to Find and Analyze Unstructured Data [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rLceb3SryU]  
• 2021: Creating Computable Data for SDG Metrics from PDFs, Video and Images [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQCiouKtISI] 

• 2022 Data and the SDGs: Events to Follow [https://medium.com/sdg-counting/2022-data-and-the-sdgs-events-to-follow-261f3463877b]  
• How COVID-19 Is Affecting the Global Goals: SDG Report Summary [https://medium.com/sdg-counting/how-covid-19-is-affecting-the-global-goals-sdg-report-summary-2d7b540bfc0e] 

The starting point for any discussion of SDG related data is the official UN data sources:  

• UN Indicator Database [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/UNSDG/IndDatabasePage]:  Provides official statistics with nearly 1.8 million observations across 590 data series in 346 geographic areas.   
• Custodial Agencies and Contacts [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataContacts/]: For those wishing to dig deeper into specific indicators and who is responsible for each.
•  Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) [https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/vnrs/]: Country specific data and narrative on SDG progress.    

In addition to the official data sources, our team recommends the following for exploring primary and secondary SDG data:  

• SDGs Today [https://sdgstoday.org/] – A real-time tracker of SDG related data produced by SDSN [https://twitter.com/UNSDSN] and ESRI [https://twitter.com/esri] providing insights based on modeling and secondary sources.    
• SDGs Dashboard [https://www.sdgsdashboard.org/] – An easy-to-use dashboard from iTech Mission [https://twitter.com/itechmission1] for exploring official data sources.   
• SDG Tracker [https://sdg-tracker.org/] – Developed by Global Change Data Lab [https://twitter.com/gcdatalab] using technology from data visualization leader 
• Our World in Data [https://twitter.com/OurWorldInData], this tool provides time customizable maps, charts, and data tables for SDG indicators.   
• SDG Index Dashboard [https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/] – Providing both an annual report and tools for exploring, this site from SDSN and Bertelsmann Stiftung [https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/home] provides insights into both aggregated data and information from VNRs.

Each year on the SDGCounting Medium site [https://sdgcounting.medium.com/], our team breaks down the most important events and reports:

• SDG related events [https://medium.com/sdg-counting/tagged/sdg-events] and 
• SDG related reports [https://medium.com/sdg-counting/tagged/sdg-reports] 

If you can only read one SDG related report a year and want to get the best information on how goals are being tracked and the progress being made, be sure to check out the Sustainable Development Goals Report [https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/] put out by the UN every July.  

When it comes to events, the three to watch are:  

• High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development [https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf] – Generally held in July of each year, the HLPF serves as the cornerstone assembly to review progress, make adjustments, and plan for future work on the SDGs. 
• Global Goals Week [https://globalgoalsweek.org/] – Coinciding with the UN General Assembly in September, Global Goals Week includes a diverse collection of events, seminars, and activities focused on promoting global progress in Sustainable Development.  
• UN World Data Forum [https://unstats.un.org/unsd/undataforum/index.html] – With a specific focus on how data is being gathered, shared, and utilized, the World Data Forum is the event most focused on the objectives of SDGCounting.  You can expect live coverage of the events from our team. 

UN and Related Agencies: All United Nations entities actively participate in tracking and promoting the SDGs; those listed below provide the most significant resources for following progress.  

• UNSTATS - UN Statistics Division, also referred to as UNSD.  Website [https://unstats.un.org/home/] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/UNStats]  
• UNDP - UN Development Programme. Website [https://www.undp.org/] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/UNDP]  
• UNDESA - UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Website [https://www.un.org/en/desa] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/UNDESA]  
• ECOSOC - UN Economic and Social Council. Website [https://www.un.org/ecosoc/en/home] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/UNECOSOC]
•  UNSDG - UN Sustainable Development Group. Website [https://unsdg.un.org/] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/un_sdg]  
• WHO - World Health Organization. Website [https://www.who.int/] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/WHO]  
• World Bank - Website [https://www.worldbank.org/en/home] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/WorldBank] 

Where to go to get up to date information on the Global Goals:  

• UN News [https://news.un.org/en/] – Covering all aspects of the UN’s global work and initiatives, this news source reliably offers timely and relevant stories related to work being done and reports that have published.  
• SDG Knowledge Hub [https://sdg.iisd.org/] – Providing articles, policy briefs, event summaries, and news related to SDG implementation, this resource from IISD is consistently a solid service for staying informed on progress on the Global Goals.  Be sure to follow their twitter handle @IISD_news [https://twitter.com/IISD_news]. 

The accounts on Twitter providing the best information on data and development:

•  Opendatawatch [https://twitter.com/OpenDataWatch]  
• ESRI [https://twitter.com/Esri]  
• Devex [https://twitter.com/devex]  
• Data4SDGs [https://twitter.com/Data4SDGs]  
• SDSN [https://twitter.com/UNSDSN] / TReNDS [https://twitter.com/sdsn_TReNDs] 
•  IISD [https://twitter.com/iisd_sdgs] / IISD-News [https://twitter.com/IISD_news]  Our World in Data [https://twitter.com/OurWorldInData]