Measuring Sustainable Development

This course describes the significance of measuring progress on the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) using relevant tools and data sources. It is conducted by the SDG Academy and made available through edX, an online education platform. The SDG Academy is an initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

The course illustrates the views of the experts on how tools such as SDG Index and Dashboards help policymakers and other stakeholders make important decisions about their development priorities. It describes the analyses of regional and city-level indices, while discussing new approaches to SDG measurement and data-based decision-making.

In 2015, the 193 member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Launched in 2015 by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Bertelsmann Stiftung, the Sustainable Development Report is the first worldwide study to assess where the world stands with regard to achieving sustainable development. The Report contains the SDG Index and Dashboards, which use a combination of official and unofficial data and indicators to understand each country’s progress on the 17 SDGs.

Some of the course contents are:

• Using the SDG Index and Dashboards as a tool for understanding SDG progress in your country, region, or city
• Differentiating between data sources and selecting the most appropriate source for different types of data
• Identifying the steps necessary to construct an SDG Index