The 17 universal goals and 169 targets set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as an action plan for countries, partnerships and international collaboration. The goals and targets aim to promote concrete results for people, society, governance and the environment all over the world.
On 3-4 February 2016, the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate organised a workshop on “SDGs and Development Results: Results in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” The 135 participants came from 53 countries and organisations. The three main messages of the workshop were:
- The SDGs are an overriding framework for development co-operation. Many providers and partners are adapting their development co-operation goals and policies to the 2030 Agenda, while building on their own priorities. The universality of the SDGs enhances mutual accountability in development co-operation.
- Monitoring progress on the SDG targets strengthens the pursuit of development co-operation results. Approximately half of the 169 SDG targets are aimed at change on the ground, and they can tell us about real-life progress.
- The DAC should further examine an SDG-based results approach to development co-operation. Information collected from developing countries on progress towards the SDGs can help to increase the effectiveness and relevance of development co-operation.
The workshop identified several potential advantages to be gained from building a results-based approach to the SDGs, among them:
- The SDGs seek to achieve concrete outcomes, i.e. real change for people, society and the environment, thereby adding value to development co-operation.
- Aggregated evidence of results can be used to support accountability.
- Developing countries will provide the data on progress towards the SDGs. In turn, information on progress can feed back into these countries’ results frameworks as well as into the corporate results reporting of providers.
For more information see the background paper, the key messages and the proposed next steps. Source: OECD DACnews March 2016.