The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), developed and published in 2015, are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.” Data on the SDGs helps policymakers understand where their country stands in relation to SDG priorities, ensures that topics and populations which are hard to track can be included in decision making, establishes frameworks for collaboration across cities, districts, and regions across countries, and much more. Beginning in 2015, CODE has worked on several projects to highlight the role of data in achieving the SDGs, and to ensure that SDG reporting and data is open, transparent, and useful for all stakeholders.
CODE launched the two-year SDG National Reporting Initiative in 2017 with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The initiative facilitated greater information-sharing for reporting on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) between international, regional, and local communities. It provided information to governments and international organizations to help them better understand key policy and technical considerations for SDG reporting. The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data continues to provide information based on the National Reporting Initiative.
More recently CODE has worked with the UK Office of National Statistics and the U.S. Government to develop Open SDG. Open SDG is an open source, free-to-reuse platform for managing and publishing data and statistics related to the SDGs. As of spring 2021, a dozen national, regional, and local governments are using Open SDG to manage their SDG reporting and about as many are working to use Open SDG in the future. CODE has also conducted a project to automate the translation of metadata on the SDGs and make it easier to report on the SDGs in different languages. Government officials and others interested in these projects can reach CODE for more information at contact@odenterprise.org.
The references below provide a wide range of resources to help governments publish data on the SDGs and to help other interested parties understand and use these vital metrics.
SDG National Reporting Initiative
SDG National Reporting Initiative (CODE website)
SDG National Reporting Initiative (GPSDD website)
Strategies For SDG National Reporting: A Review of Current Approaches and Key Considerations for Government Reporting on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (report)
Achieving the SDGs with National Reporting Platforms: Lessons Learned from the SDG National Reporting Initiative (report)
What's next for SDG Reporting? (webinar)
Lessons Learned From the SDG National Reporting Initiative (Medium blog)
SDG Reporting Platforms: New Progress and Priorities (GPSDD blog)
7 reasons SDG reporting matters (Medium blog)
Announcing The SDG National Reporting Initiative (Huffington Post)
Open SDG
Open-SDG.org
Open SDG Documentation Website
Open SDG GitHub Repository
SDG Translation Project
Translating SDG metadata: Improving transparency and capacity development for 2030 and beyond (World Bank)
