PLATFORM FOR SDG MONITORING
​DFA contributes to the realization of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda by assisting Member States to achieve sustainable development through strengthening data and statistical systems for evidence-based policy formulation.  In the deliberations leading up to the 2030 Agenda, many Member States have shared their concerns about significant capacity gaps in data and analytics to support the objectives of the agenda.  

​National statistical offices (NSOs) have expressed their need for technical support in monitoring the increased volume and added complexity of the SDG indicators, including subnational data disaggregated by a wider spectrum of socio-economic characteristics (age, sex, residence, wealth quintile, disability).  

​SDG monitoring tools are needed that will produce a much wider set of data to support government performance, service delivery, transparency, and accountability. ​The Statistical Commission has launched the work of the High Level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-building for Statistics, which is promoting system-wide coherence and coordination for data and statistics in support of the SDGs. ​

COMPLIANT WITH STATISTICAL STANDARDS
DFA provides a global platform to leverage the role of the UN system to support the overall normative and analytical work required for successful monitoring of the SDGs by national statistical systems.  DFA promotes compliance with emerging international statistical standards endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission.  These standards advance the technical processes for data and metadata storage and exchange, particularly in areas where the UN is providing global leadership and technical support, such as:  SDG indicator framework management, SDG indicator metadata, customization of SDG indicators to national priorities, and SDG progress reporting.

​DFA broadens the scope of data sources for effective SDG monitoring. The system uses traditional reliable data sources (household surveys, population censuses, civil registration and vital statistics systems) and strengthen administrative management information systems (health, education).  DFA helps advance the use of new innovative data sources, such as geospatial data and where relevant crowdsourcing (disaster response planning), mobile device data collection, smart-meters, big data, and polling civil society. 

BUILT ON ACHIEVEMENTS OF MDG MONITORING
​DFA builds in the achievements and lessons learned during 2000 to 2015 in the process of monitoring the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  During this period, UNSD led the UN system in preparing the annual MDG reports.  UNSD provided guidance to countries to strengthen their statistical capacities to monitor national development priorities through the use of tools, such as, the UN DevInfo database system, which was launched in 2004 and was implemented in more than 120 countries by 2015.

lesson 1

Innovative, Nationally-Owned Tools for Monitoring Indicators.  The UN DevInfo initiative gave full ownership of the system to national partners.  This mode of engagement provided for the technology transfer required to build the capacity of national statistical systems, while, at the same time, it provided international expert guidance on the technical aspects of the MDG indicator framework, the indicator metadata, and quality assurance measures.  The system allowed for the customization of MDG indicators to meet national development priorities.  It allowed for multiple sources of data for the same indicator to be compared and stored in the system, and informed users of the reasons for differences between nationally and internationally reported data.  This mode of engagement of the UN system with Member States provided an effective and sustainable data management innovation with NSOs leading the way.  This approach was in response to the increasing demand for open data and open source software technologies to leverage global and national investments in data collection for better development outcomes through evidence-based decision support. The lesson learned is that the UN system can improve public access to socio-economic data, and improve statistical literacy, by providing tools that help Member States manage accurate and concise metadata, describing the meaning of statistical data in clear and simple terms. This makes it easier to discover, analyze and visualize meaningful relationships and patterns in socio-economic data sets, with the ultimate goal of improving planning, policy formulation and decision-making. 

lesson 2

​Tool Development Strategy.  Another lesson learned is that the best strategy for tool development is to embrace a collaborative approach of open source software development of tools for SDG indicator monitoring. Under this software development methodology, the monitoring system source code is made available under open source license to analyze, change and improve its design over time. The open source software license will be managed by UNSD in order to:
  • Ensure that all contributions to the development of the tools are consistent with the overall requirements of national development needs and UN global monitoring requirements, particularly the need to monitor disaggregated SDG indicator data;
  • Ensure that investments made in software development and enhancements are shared with all countries using these monitoring tools;
  • Provide full ownership of the software to each country opting to use the tools for SDG monitoring;
  • Develop an integrated suite of loosely-coupled monitoring system modules, each with its own purpose (data capture, curation, storage, analytics, visualization) and designed to be interoperable with other existing systems;
  • Provide a mechanism for UNSD oversight and guidance of the software design process with the flexibility for countries to add customized modules while maintaining global standards for common data reporting, under the Open Source Common Development and Distribution License , which provides protection to UNSD that all contributions to the system will be shared with all countries using the system.
This strategy for the development of SDG monitoring tools provides an efficient model for UNSD to share the costs of the development of the modules of the system among all stakeholders of the system.  When one country or one UN agency develops a new feature or module for the system, the new software will be reviewed by UNSD, and if appropriate, made available to all countries using the system at no additional cost.

lesson 3

Statistical Standards with Flexibility for National Customization.  A third lesson learned is that indicator monitoring systems are most successful when developed based on international statistical standards.  The UN DevInfo system was designed based on three emerging international standards in the production and dissemination of statistical information.  These included standards for data and metadata exchange (SDMX), geographic standards (ISO  19115), and citation of data sources (DDI), and aid transparency standards for allocation and use of resources (IATI).  In addition, it was learned that it is critical to the design of the system to provide the flexibility within the system for national customization of the international standards to meet national user requirements, such as the management of subnational administrative boundaries, country-specific ethnic and language groups, and other indicator characteristics related to national development priorities.

Lesson 4

 Implementation Principles.  These key underlying implementation principles have proven to be successful:
  • National leadership with full participation and engagement of national and global stakeholders in diagnosis, formulation and implementation of monitoring frameworks, including, national results-based monitoring frameworks, UN Development Assistance Frameworks, UN agency annual work plans;
  • Alignment of development indicator monitoring within the overall national and global development goals and objectives, such as national development plans and UNDAFs;
  • Support to the UN and government in developing effective and robust information systems and data collection tools, through the use of open source, generic and cost-effective IT tools;
  • An exit strategy which results in a UN/government-owned indicator monitoring system integrated with a robust decision-support, and with the management of the system transferred to key UN/government institutions without dependencies on external technical support.

lesson 5

Brand Strategy.  Another important lesson learned is the importance of designing a powerful brand strategy to advocate for the use of a common platform of development monitoring tools.  Brand consistency will contribute to brand recognition across the UN system and Member States.  The brand should be flexible enough to offer creative solutions for specific-country customizations.  Consistency should set the standard for the brand, while flexibility should enable stakeholders to make adjustments that build interest and distinguish national adaptations of the tools.  Stakeholders should be well informed in how they should communicate the brand to users in ways that represent its core values.  Loyalty is a critical part of the brand strategy to build a community of users with a commitment to create and maintain a supportive relationship.  An idea for the brand name is:  Data for All, where the inverted “A” is the mathematical symbol for “all” and the name implies leaving no one behind.