After years of detailed deliberation, the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) finally signed off the global indicator framework for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its 2016 47th Session.

The final report of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG indicators outlines the final version of the indicator framework , with 304 indicators for monitoring the 169 targets that make up the 17 headline SDGs (below).

Sustainable Development Goals

1. Poverty – End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. Food – End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3.  Health – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Education – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Women – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Water – Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Energy – Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and clean energy for all
8. Economy – Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Infrastructure – Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
10. Inequality – Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Habitation – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Consumption – Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Climate – Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
14. Marine-ecosystems – Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Ecosystems – Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt           biodiversity loss
16. Institutions – Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Sustainability – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

Though the indicator set has been finalised, the work of the Inter-agency Expert Group continues in the form of a process work-plan. Page 10 of the final report suggests that the following activities are still to be completed:

(a) Agree on the global reporting mechanism, including identifying entities responsible for compiling data for global reporting on individual indicators to be provided to the Secretariat;
(b) Establish a tier system for the indicators;
(c) Establish a workplan for further development of tier III indicators;
(d) Establish procedures for the methodological review of indicators, including approval mechanisms of needed revisions;
(e) Review the data availability for tier I and tier II indicators and develop a plan for increasing the data coverage of tier II indicators;
(f) Develop further guidance on the issue of data disaggregation;
(g) Continue the discussion on interlinkages across Goals and targets and on the use of multipurpose indicators;
(h) Hold two meetings, the first in March 2016 and the second in the fall of 2016, at dates to be determined and also continue to interact electronically and via teleconferences, as needed.

The Measure What Matters team welcomes the publishing of the final indicator set and hopes that the alignment agenda outlined through our project will be effectively mainstreamed and embedded within the new SDG implementation phase of work.

Te read the final report and SDG indicator set in full, please follow this link.