Improving country data for monitoring SDG achievements and informing policy decision

The objectives of the subprogramme are to:

1. Provide additional methods, guidance and tools to assist countries in producing SDG underlying data and reporting on SDG indicators under FAO custodianship 
2. Develop the capacities of the national institutions responsible for collecting and computing the SDG data and indicators, so as to ensure that countries are able to report SDG indicators both for national and global monitoring.
3. Develop the capacities of national institutions for improved dissemination, communication, and use of SDG data in policy analysis and formulation and to guide investments.

SET-UP AND PLANNING

• Activities began in September 2019 following the recruitment of the Project Coordinator.
• Intensive planning work and engagement with national counterparts led to mapping of requirements, agreement on feasible dates and joint planning of project’s various technical assistance activities in 40 target countries.
• A dedicated operation dashboard was developed for the SDG subprogramme, allowing for the monitoring and tracking of activities planned and delivered throughout the FMM project. The dashboard provides direct access to the map of activities in countries, information regarding their status, and final reports and documents related to each activity.
• Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, significant efforts were made in 2020–2021 to support countries’ in strengthening their capacities to monitor the SDGs with improved and innovative compilation methods, data collection tools and validation processes. Activities under this sub-programme gained traction over the past two years, as evidenced by the delivery of large-scale, successful bilateral and regional virtual trainings on underreported indicators (2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.4.1, 5.a.1, 5.a.2, 6.4.1 and 6.4.2); the refinement of methods, metadata guidelines and tools for the production of the indicators (2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.4.1, 2.5.1, 6.4.2, 14.4.1 and 15.4.2); the improvement of the data validation processes for some indicators (2.1.2 and 15.4.2); and the delivery of targeted technical assistance at country-level (2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.4.1, 2.a.1, 2.5.2, 5.a.1 and 5.a.2). The capacity development activities supporting the production and reporting of SDG indicators will continue in 2022, to maintain the momentum generated and accelerate programme delivery. 

It is also planned to strengthened already existing partnerships:

Partnership established with the Arab Maghreb Union to implement pilot projects in the region to assist countries with collection/estimation of population size data for national breed populations (SDG indicator 2.5.2). A Letter of Agreement (LOA) was signed 21 October 2019 to deliver capacity building in data collection and SDG compiling on site in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.

Partnership formed with UN Women in Asia and the Pacific to report on gender inequalities in agricultural land ownership and control, with UN Women agreeing to fund a series of FAO technical assistance missions in selected countries to introduce a land ownership module into national household surveys. The assistance could be provided by the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, or by an SDG focal point in headquarters.

In April 2021, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the European Space Agency (ESA) to collaborate on the use of Earth Observation data for measuring and disaggregating SDGs.  The MoU covers areas such as identifying and understanding the requirements and challenges for using satellite data in the field of food and agriculture, sharing datasets and surveys, supporting access to Earth observation datasets and developing innovative Earth observation algorithms, products and applications making full use of latest IT capabilities, such as cloud computing.

Partnership established with Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) and the ESA to implement the Earth Observation-based methods for generating official agricultural statistics. This partnership is functional to the monitoring and disaggregation of SDG farm-based indicators. A methodology was developed in 2020 to use crop type maps and crop yield forecast map to monitor and / or disaggregate the farm-based indicators.

INNOVATION

In December 2021, FAO received the GEO (Group on Earth Observations) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Award for the Sectoral category, SDG Custodian Agency. The GEO SDG Awards, led by the EO4SDG initiative, recognize the productivity, ingenuity, proficiency, novelty, and exemplary communications of results and experiences in the use of Earth observations to support sustainable development, as indicated by progress toward a SDG Target and/or progress toward, and reporting on, a SDG Indicator. FAO was given the award for its remarkable efforts in developing a new method to measure and monitor SDG indicator 15.4.2, Mountain Green Cover Index, through analysis of standardized land cover maps and DEM data. The awards were announced in a virtual ceremony held during the GEO Week 2021 that was celebrated virtually from 23 to 26 November 2021.

CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED

• Synching the availability of resources that can deliver technical assistance with the availability of the SDG focal points from many different was a challenge. Factors such as other commitments in their annual workplans, interruption of work due to different calendars in national holidays, and the administrative times required for recruiting ad hoc international consultants could all delay the capacity of the project to immediately deliver technical assistance in countries. One way to improve this could be to combine multi SDG technical support missions or training workshops, hence offering technical assistance on a combination of SDGs rather than individual ones. This would considerably reduce time for recruitment but also reduce risk of delays. In this context country tailored assistance on farm-based SDGs will be delivered on combined indicators 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.4.1 and 5.a.1
• Another issue was the lack of political awareness of and commitment to reporting obligations in many countries. The sole technical capacity building activity of the FMM may not be sufficient. A way to ameliorate this would be to combine technical work and political engagement for each indicator within the concerned national institutions through the Office of the Chief Statistician (OCS) of FAO.

As a result of the subprogramme's interventions, the reporting rate of SDG indicators under FAO custodianship by partner countries increased from 42.92 percent in 2019 to 61.88 percent by the end of 2023. This improvement can be directly attributed to continuous and accelerated capacity-development efforts that enhanced the ability of national institutions to report on the SDGs. In summary, the subprogramme exceeded its output and indicator targets, significantly increasing global SDG reporting rates and strengthening the capacities of beneficiary countries within the allocated budget and timeframe. It played a crucial role in assisting countries in measuring and monitoring SDGs for both national policymaking and international reporting.