Ensuring the right data is available to measure the Sustainable Development Goals

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, states have committed to goals of eliminating extreme poverty, reducing inequalities and addressing climate change. Now the focus is on devising strategies that will enable 193 different countries to actually reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. A key component of this effort entails ensuring that the implementation of the SDGs departs from the right knowledge base and is guided by the right information. This means making sure that quality, accessible, timely and reliable disaggregated data is made available to aid decision-making, measurement of progress and to ensure that no one is left behind.

This week such data is the focus of the UN World Data Forum in Cape Town, South Africa. Today at the Forum, Chief Adviser on Human Rights and Sustainable Development at the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), Birgitte Feiring, will present the findings of the publication, Human Rights and Data: tools and resources for sustainable development.

Building an ecosystem of data

In the publication, the Danish Institute for Human Rights assesses the extent to which the generation of disaggregated statistical data based on global indicators is likely to ensure accountability, including for those furthest behind.
The publication also assesses the approaches, indicators and data needed to fill the data gaps. There is a need for collaborative efforts to develop creative, innovative, efficient and cost-effective approaches to monitoring and data collection, which can supplement statistical data based on global indicators. By building on crucial contributions from existing human rights monitoring mechanisms and using information from citizen-generated data, we can build partnerships and create an pluralistic ecosystem of data, which supplements official statistsical data with data from a range of sources.

The role of human rights monitoring

Human rights monitoring mechanisms at national and international levels constitute a crucial element of such a pluralistic data ecosystem.

The Universal Periodic Review, UN human rights treaty monitoring bodies and special procedures as well as the supervisory bodies of the International Labour Organization (ILO) are among the key human rights mechanisms that can contribute to SDG monitoring. As states are already required to report regularly to key human rights and labour law mechanisms, there is a further advantage of using this information from an efficiency and cost-effectiveness perspective.

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) can also play a crucial role in efforts to generate and disaggregate data to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. NHRIs can provide data, ensure national anchorage of SDG follow-up and review, and play a significant role in national monitoring processes.