New objectives, new collaborations? How the SDGs influence partnerships for tracking sustainability progress

In 2015, the United Nations agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. A recently published article in Global Policy led by Utrecht University’s Melanie van Driel investigated how these goals affect international cooperation in the field of data collection. The findings indicate that collaboration around some SDGs is not strong enough. “Top-down steering will be necessary in these cases to achieve the necessary cooperation to make these goals a reality by 2030,” she says.

New responsibilities for international organizations

Since the agreement on the objectives in 2015, a group of international organizations has been given a new responsibility in the field of data collection. They have become "indicator custodians" who collect data on progress towards the various goals. “The idea is that data about the gap between our current situation and our ambitions is crucial for understanding where focus and investment is needed,” explains van Driel, a PhD researcher at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. In 2021, this group consisted of more than 44 international organizations, including the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the World Bank, and UNESCO, among many others.

Indicator custodianship has created a new institutional landscape around the 17 goals. Some goals are characterized by a "dominant" actor who is responsible for most of the data. An example of this is SDG 3 (good health and well-being), where the World Health Organization plays an important role. Other goals are managed by a wide variety of organizations. An example of this is SDG 10 (reduced inequality), where nine organizations are jointly responsible for eleven indicators. Based on the available data, the researchers mapped out this "landscape" for each goal.

Data about the gap between our current situation and our ambitions is crucial for understanding where focus and investment is needed

Challenges for collaboration?

“We spoke with the custodian agencies of these two SDGs, international organizations that were institutionally quite different from each other,” says Van Driel. The question was whether international organizations would be better able to collaborate on improved data collection in a less "fragmented" institutional landscape. To be able to say something about this, the researchers developed a framework of potential ways in which organizations could work together and coordinate their activities. The "lightest" form of coordination is one in which organizations simply share knowledge with each other. A step further is attempting to solve problems and (potential) conflicts together. The third category is sharing and promoting knowledge together, for example at international meetings.

“We found that for SDG 3 (health), more collaboration and on more different categories was taking place”, Van Driel elaborates. For SDG 10 (reduced inequality), organizations mainly reported sharing knowledge with each other—the lightest form of collaboration.

Based on these results, the researchers outlined the expected collaboration for the other goals. They also provide various recommendations to the United Nations for improving this system, including appointing a "Chief Statistician" or another entity or person who can ensure that collaboration for all goals is realized if it does not happen naturally. “This is important because although data collection has not yet started for all SDG indicators, comprehensive information about the gap between our current situation and our ambitions is crucial to develop the world sustainably,” concludes van Driel.