Inter-Agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs). United Nations, New York
1 – 2 June 2015

Statement by Major Groups and other Stakeholders
Theme 1: Indicator framework: global, regional, national, sub-national and thematic

• Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW)
• Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development ATD 4th World
• The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
• Children and Youth International
• World Vision
• Beyond 2015

Thank you for the opportunity to engage with the IAEG-SDG indicator development process. As Major Groups and other stakeholders, we will contribute to and use the data gathered as part of the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Our recommendations on the indicator framework are as follows:

In defining specific indicators for each of the targets, it is important to set a multi-level framework that is objective, inclusive, and participatory.

At the global level the indicator framework needs to be universal and all countries need to be accountable to this process, fully participating in the implementation. Globally comparable data needs to be made available through the integration of all existing human rights reporting platforms such as the UPR and reviews on compliance with international conventions inter alia ICERD and CEDAW.

This integration can facilitate a more timely availability of data and reporting by governments.

To make this integration inclusive, a “World Forum on Sustainable Development Data” should be created. This forum could be utilized by civil society organizations and other stakeholders interested in reviewing progress on the SDGs. Such a forum could integrate data from various sources beyond National Statistical Offices. It could be web-based and accessible to the public and would feed into the HLPF, which will have the mandate to review the SDGs.
At the regional level, with the support from the regional commissions, the process should further facilitate knowledge sharing, towards the adoption of the indicator framework. In this regard regional platforms can encourage exchange of best practices and lessons learned towards statistical capacity building for data collection, disaggregation and analysis bringing together regional organizations to help further improve the measurement of regionally-specific priorities.

At the national and sub-national level, the framework should reflect the global and regional indicator set. In the process of integrating the global indicators, it is important to consider the role of civil society and local communities in filling data gaps and building statistical capacity of the national and sub-national statistical systems. So, national and sub-national statistical systems should make strides to incorporate data from sources other than official statistics.

These processes are connected by a continuum of cooperation across the global, regional, national and subnational levels. The feedback from national level experience should inform any changes to the global indicator framework, and vice-versa. This process should be sensitive to any discrepancies between statistical trends and the actual experiences of communities. All this, founded on principles of human rights and equity across gender, income, age, race, ethnicity and disability and other factors.

We are convinced that an effective multi-level indicator framework with the active participation of all stakeholders including civil society can help realize the truly transformative indicator development process.