April 2016: Recent papers and articles by civil society organizations (CSOs) address: forestry in Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) implementation; the relationship between poverty and inequality; SDG 16 on good governance; and the indicators for the Goals. This piece highlights contributions from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Southern Voice, and Transparency International, among others.

Noting the importance of integrated implementation for the SDGs to succeed, an IIED briefing paper proposes a ten-step approach based on “SDG modules.” The models would bring together targets from across the SDGs and include enabling conditions for the policy areas of each ministry or relevant institution, as well as agreed priority outcomes. A forestry module, for instance, would reflect priority sustainable development outcomes to which forests can contribute (e.g., biodiversity protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation and resilience; food and energy access, water supply and access and employment and income) and enabling conditions (social justice, good governance, multi-functional landscape approaches). The paper also suggests the use of three categories of indicators: mega-metrics; target-tracking indicators; and interlinkage indicators.

Also on implementation, ODI and Southern Voice are collaborating on a focus on “the first 1000 days,” informs Andrea Ordóñez, Southern Voice, in a blog post. This focus includes: a “100-day agenda” for new presidents or other leaders, that aims to hold them accountable for establishing priorities and implementing actions to deliver on the SDGs; and the “first 1000 days of life,” which highlights the importance of nutrition and stimulation during a child’s early years. Ordóñez also urges a focus on assessing the quality of evidence and results. ODI and Southern Voice plan to hold regional dialogues to inform action and share ideas.

Analyzing the relationship between poverty and inequality, ODI and partners have identified “considerable discrepancies between national accounts and household survey data [that] call into question the ‘graduation’ of many lower-income countries to lower-middle-income status.” The “dimension paper” was commissioned by Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and produced as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-supported “Development Progress” project. It provides case studies of five developing countries – Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda and Viet Nam – that underscore the role of historical circumstances and policies in pro-poor outcomes. The paper highlights methodological concerns with the World Bank’s “Atlas Method” of determining income status for developing countries, and cautions against relying on this method.

Good public survey data are critical in measuring progress on the SDGs, argues Finn Heinrich, Transparency International, in a blog post. He recommends that the UN Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) “endorse and recognize the right kind of data…including surveys about what people think and have experienced.” While the current indicator for target 16.5 (corruption and bribery) is based on what people report, the author argues that governments should use opinion- and experience-based data. TI provides a list of “do’s and don’ts” for carrying out population surveys on experiences with bribery.

Also on good governance, governments should embrace open data because it leads to better decisions and helps deter corruption, argues TI’s Craig Fagan in a blog post. The post provides examples of how Transparency International’s national chapters have used open data on public procurement to identify cronyism and nepotism in the awarding of public contracts in Slovakia, and to shed light on the performance of courts and judges in Lithuania. In another example of the use of open data, the website “EU Integrity Watch” posts information on spending by registered lobbyists in the EU and consulting earnings by Members of Parliament. Fagan reports that the information initiative has resulted in a decrease in revenue earned by MPs in addition to their parliamentary work.

Finally, on gender, Caroline Sweetman and Valeria Esquivel stress that the SDGs need to work for women, in an Oxfam blog post introducing the SDGs issue of the ‘Gender and Development’ journal, which is published for Oxfam by Routledge. The UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) hosted the launch of the journal issue, which focuses on the SDGs from a gender perspective. [IIED Publication: Integrated approaches to SDG implementation and indicators: focus on forests] [ODI Blog] [ODI Events Website] [ODI Publication: Middle-income transitions and inequality: Is there a link?] [TI Blog, Finn Heinrich] [TI Blog, Craig Fagan] [Oxfam Blog] [Gender and Development Journal]