9th Meeting of the IAEG-SDGs – Update 2

Agenda item 3 – Updates on the work of:

(a)       High-Level Group on Partnerships, Coordination and Capacity Building (HLG-PCCB) for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda

The HLG-PCCB will hold the next World Data Forum in Berne, Switzerland in 2020, where it met in January. It’s next meeting is scheduled for Mongolia in May. 

The second World Data Forum was held in Dubai in late October 2018, hosted by the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority of the United Arab Emirates. It was attended by more than 2,000 participants from 100 countries. The HLG-PCCB made the final decisions on the content of the programme and developed some sessions to highlight important topics. The official outcome document was the Dubai Declaration, on the implementation of  the Cape Town Global Action Plan (CTGAP) and financing for statistics.

The HLG-PCCB workplan for 2019 focusses on implementation of the CTGAP and financing for data and statistics; a more efficient UN statistical system and the 3rd UN World Data Forum as well as making contributions to the Statistical Commission and the ECOSOC and UN General Assembly level High-level Political Forums. There will be a rotation of members of the Group in the second quarter of 2019.

(b)      Interlinkages  Working Group

Canada presented the report of the Group which, recognizing a need to refresh its membership had opened its membership to include four members from Academia; one from civil society; one from the private sector;  five from international / regional organizations; and 13 from National Statistical Offices of which 11 were IAEG-SDG members. It is co-chaired by Canada and China. 

Most recently the Group has been looking at interlinkages within the 2030 Agenda (at the goal, target and indicator level) which were put together in background report for the 50th session of the UNSC

It is now updating its Terms of Reference (ToR) and its second report will be more in-depth, including interlinkages of legislation related to the SDGs and interlinkages at the regional level. They planned to provide some practical guidance to support policy-making. The draft will be submitted to the next IAEG-SDGs meeting with the final document being sent to the 51st UN Statistical Commission (UNSC).

Elliot Harris, Chief Economist for UN, spoke during a Seminar before the UNSC, on interlinkages, noting that effective policy-making cannot be done in  a vacuum.

(c)       Geo-spatial information working group

Enrique Ordaz, Co-chair reported that the IAEG report expressed concern that some activities not specifically connected to work of IAEG-SDGs. It was decided, therefore that there should be a clearer demand. In response to how to do it and to articulate added value, it was agreed that there was a need to recalibrate and align its to work of IAEG. Leave no one behind should be reflected in refined ToR to use inputs to meet that objective. There should be increased participation of members of IAEG and members of HLG-PCCB and international organizations

(d)      Working Group on Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) for SDG indicators

The 4th version of the data model for SDG reporting was published in April 2018, to be used for the pilot exchange.

From March to end of Sept, pilot data was implemented involving six countries, the ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank. A meeting was held in Paris in October to decide the work plan for 2019. Among its activities will be an analysis of the IAEG-SDGs’ report on data disaggregation.