Sadananda Gowda says success of SDGs only possible through robust monitoring

Union Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation D.V. Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday said that the success in the implementation of national policies for the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) not only requires better coordinated efforts of all stakeholders, but also a robust monitoring mechanism.

Inaugurated a national consultation workshop on developing a monitoring framework for SDGs here, he said that both policy formulators and statistical establishments need to work in close coordination while firmly pursuing the government's mission of 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas'.

Gowda said that the NDA government has already integrated the SDGs in various programmes and policies being implemented at various levels,

The two-day workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday is being attended by senior central and state government officers who will have deliberations on principles for development and identification of suitable national and state level indicators for measuring the SDGs and targets, including standardization, harmonization and periodicity, and coordination.

Gowda further said that monitoring the progress of SDGs on continuous and regular basis requires that indicators need to be developed at the local, national, regional and global levels. Setting the right and relevant indicators scientifically to measure the outcomes of the policies to achieve the various targets under different SDGs will be very crucial for providing appropriate direction to the policy makers and programmes implementers.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) containing 17 Goals and associated 169 targets came into with effect from January 1, 2016. These goals and targets are universally applicable. National governments have the flexibility to formulate the national SDGs within the overall ambit of the global SDGs as per their national circumstances.

In India, NITI Aayog oversees the implementation of SDGs from policy perspective. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India has been assigned with the task of development of measurement framework for tracking/monitoring the progress of nationally defined SDGs and targets. The Central and State Government Statistical Agencies will work in coordinated way to address the data demands emanating from SDGs and evolving suitable indicators in the National context.