May 2018: The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has released a report arguing for an integrated approach to the implementation of internationally agreed development goals. The report reflects on Africa’s performance on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and makes recommendations for integrated implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
The report titled, ‘Integrating and Tracking Performance on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063: From Theory to Practice,’ urges countries to consider the interlinkages among the two agendas’ goals, targets and indicators to ensure horizontal and vertical integration of initiatives into national development plans. In the report, horizontal coherence refers to coherence between a national development plan and a country’s international development commitments and initiatives. Vertical coherence relates to synergies among goals, targets and indicators, such as between the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063. According to the report, levels of convergence between the two frameworks include 90% convergence at the Goal level, and 69% at the target level.
To support integration, the report presents the UNECA’s integrated planning and reporting toolkit, which aims to facilitate integration of multiple development frameworks into national development plans and to track implementation progress. The toolkit is intended for use by line ministries and others responsible for development planning at regional, national and sub-national levels, as well as for civil society and the private sector to track progress.
Users can apply the toolkit to evaluate the extent to which their national development plans and sectoral plans align with external frameworks. The software asks the user to identify the national goal, target or indicator that best matches the corresponding variable of the 2030 Agenda or Agenda 2063. If the goal, target and indicator is an exact match, the alignment is classified as “full.” If the national variable is a proxy, the alignment is considered to be “partial.” Variables can also be defined as having “no alignment.”
The software also facilitates performance tracking on all indicators of a country’s integrated national development plan. [UNECA Report Webpage] [Publication: Integrating and Tracking Performance on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063]