Context
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is the blueprint for member States to progress towards inclusivity and sustainability. At the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda, countries are urged to better assess the progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Monitoring SDG implementation at the national level is challenging. Data availability and coordination across the entire statistical system, technical capacity, and access to IT infrastructure are key barriers for member States to measure their progress towards achieving the SDGs. In this regard, under the China-ESCAP Cooperation Programme (CECP), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the government of China initiated a project to strengthen the capacity of national governments to follow up and review implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Specifically, the National SDG Tracker tool was introduced to help countries measure current and expected SDG progress achievement by 2030. Results of this assessment are also expected to complement the countries’ Voluntary National Review (VNR) narratives.
The regional workshop was an opportunity for countries who implemented the National SDG Tracker to share their results and experiences on applying the SDG progress assessment methodology, emphasizing South-South cooperation, and exchange lessons learned from the use of SDG data.
Objective and expected outcomes
The regional workshop gathered statisticians, national planning experts, SDG coordinators and relevant stakeholders to:
- promote evidence-based assessment of SDG implementation in countries of the Asia-Pacific region;
- enable other countries of the region to use National SDG Tracker tool to measure current and expected SDG achievement;
- assess and understand the underlying challenges of monitoring SDG progress.
These were expected to strengthen capacity for follow up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The regional workshop took place in person at Amari Watergate Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand on 17-20 July 2023. It was
conducted in English only.