Monitoring Change

This chapter discusses monitoring change as part of the sustainable development process. To change something, you need to have goal, targets, and indicators because the way you measure progress impacts the way you can improve progress. A goal is an ambitious, specific commitment or a common large challenge in vision that motivated us in a larger scale, while a target is a specific, measurable, attainable, time-bound subcomponent that contributes to achieving the goal. An indicator is then a measurable metric that assess whether that target is being met. The SDGs have a small set of global indicators to track overall country performance for each SDG, but there is still a discussion regarding the kind of indicators to use, particularly regarding SDG 2. Stunting among children under five years of age, for example, is considered a strong indicator because it has a clear definition, it is a robust and scientifically sound measure of undernourishment, it is relevant universally, there is already a baseline of data, it is outcome focused, and it can be disaggregated. Target 4 of SDG 2, the proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture, is a weaker indicator. We need a way to have more open data platforms to utilize information collected by different types of agencies in better monitoring approaches. 

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