A group of 17 regional UN entities has launched the Africa UN Data for Development Platform with a view to bringing together all African countries with data and evidence on sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The platform, Development Diaries understands, is the first platform to serve as a one-stop-shop repository that captures high-quality data and evidence on the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.
It is also the first of its kind to raise the profile of statistical progress toward the African Union vision – Agenda 2063.
‘With barely nine years left to achieve the SDGs, making use of common and harmonised data is essential to accelerate progress’, Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa at the UN Development Programme, Ahunna Eziakonwa, said in a statement.
Eziakonwa added, ‘Reliable and collective data will allow all actors to make the best possible evidence-based policy action to accelerate the SDGs, strengthen collaboration, avoid unnecessary duplication and make sure that we can address gaps, really leaving no one behind’.
The new data portal looks into the 17 SDGs and breaks them down into their 169 targets and 231 indicators, allowing everyone to track progress at the granular level.
It is open to all users, including policymakers, planners, programme managers, development partners, private sector organisations, civil society groups, academic institutions, researchers, students, media outlets and many others.
According to the statisticians at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), among the 169 targets set out in the SDGs, only 30 percent of them are quantifiable.
‘Presenting comprehensive, practical data sets will especially help us, government civil servants, to monitor progress, make sound decisions, and evaluate outcomes and impacts’, the statement quoted Vice President of Malawi, Saulos Chilima, as saying.
‘This data platform is a long-awaited online tool for us to carry out in-depth analyses and progress assessments at the target and indicator levels, and link them with our national development plans’.
The new data engine also gives users the ability to classify the statistics by various dimensions, such as the eight regional economic communities recognised by the African Union, least developed countries, landlocked developing nations, and oil-producing, mineral-rich states.
Source: UNFPA
Photo source: UNICEF
