Towards achieving the sustainable development goals in the UNECE region
March 2020
Policy Reports
Introduction
Why this report?
The 2030 Agenda cannot be fulfilled without relevant and timely statistics to track progress. Data are needed for designing and monitoring the results and impact of policy actions, as well as for identifying areas, groups or regions that risk being left behind.
The 2030 Agenda recognizes the pivotal role of the regional dimension in implementation, follow-up and review. Actions at the regional level will bridge the global and national levels, and provide the necessary focus for international exchanges of experience and peer learning. The Regional Forum for Sustainable Development and the Platform for Statistics on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are prominent examples of such action in the UNECE region, which comprises 56 countries of Europe, North America and Central Asia.
The global indicator framework for the Goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda includes 232 indicators. As regional priorities vary, so too do the regional importance and relevance of the global indicators. The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations has endorsed recommendations for “a more cohesive, impactful, transparent and efficient regional response to SDGs”, which include development of coherent regional data ecosystems as well as knowledge management hubs in each region. Data availability and needs for measuring SDGs vary greatly among the world regions, and a single global database would not suffice as one international source to satisfy regional needs. Work on regional platforms for disseminating data on SDGs is proceeding in all five regional commissions.
The 68th session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (Geneva, 9-10 April 2019), the governing body of UNECE, requested the Secretariat “to publish a yearly report on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the UNECE region to support the discussions at the sessions of the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development”. The UNECE Statistical Division led the preparation of the present first annual report to inform the 2020 Regional Forum on Sustainable Development for the UNECE Region (Geneva, 19 March 2020).