The Sustainable Development Goal indicators: prospective scenarios for 2030

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes a set of goals and targets to be met by 2030 with the aim of securing people’s well-being through sustained economic growth without neglecting the maintenance and conservation of the planet’s ecosystems. The international statistical community, led by Member States and supported by the United Nations, has created a global indicator framework for the monitoring and statistical follow-up of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to facilitate the task of reviewing, adjusting and implementing public policies that can contribute to fulfilment of the commitments accepted. In addition, regional, national and thematic monitoring systems have been devised to supplement the global framework, reflecting particular common challenges with specifications that support decision-makers in their analysis and subsequent actions.
National, regional and international efforts to generate the statistical information necessary for the production of SDG indicators have increased the amount of official data available, making it possible to build dashboards, dissemination platforms and online information systems that facilitate monitoring and analysis.

With less than a decade to go until the deadline set by Member States in 2015, it is vital to consider the results achieved and the way the situation has evolved, concentrating on what still lies ahead so that future scenarios can be envisaged and likely gaps between the forecasts for the selected metrics and the expectations of meeting the 2030 Agenda targets can be identified.