January 2016: The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has released a series of reports in advance of the 47th session of the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC), including the report of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) (E/CN.3/2016/2), which lists the proposed global indicators agreed by the IAEG-SDGs.

The UNSC’s 47th session is expected to make decisions related to: data and indicators for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; transformative agenda for official statistics; big data for official statistics; national accounts; environmental-economic accounting; information and communications technology (ICT) statistics; and climate change, governance and refugee statistics.

The IAEG-SDGs’ report summarizes the development of a global indicator framework for the 2030 Agenda’s 17 Goals and 169 targets. The Group proposes global indicators for all targets, with three different tiers: indicators for which an established methodology exists and data are widely available; a second tier where a methodology is established but data are not easily available; and a third for which an international agreed methodology is not developed yet. The report highlights that several indicators require further refinement, and that work is needed to establish baseline data in some areas.

The IAEG-SDGs’ report invites the UNSC to adopt: the global indicator framework for the 2030 Agenda, including plans for further development of some indicators; revised terms of reference of the IAEG-SDGs; and proposed work plans for the implementation of the global indicator framework and the IAEG-SDGs. The IAEG-SDGs’ proposed workplan for March 2016-March 2017 includes: agreement on the global reporting mechanism; establishment of a tier system for the indicators and further development of tier III indicators; and development of further guidance on data disaggregation. The group is expected to meet in March 2016 and in fall 2016.

The Report of the High Level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for post-2015 monitoring (HLG) (E/CN.3/2016/3) invites the UNSC to: propose revisions to the HLG’s terms of reference, including tasks previously carried out by the Friends of the Chair on Broader Measures of Progress, and agree on its 2016 work programme; and adopt a concept note for the organization of a UN World Forum for Sustainable Development Data in 2016, as a venue for discussion on data for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda.

The Report of the Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (E/CN.3/2016/8) discusses the promotion of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) in the SDGs’ development, national implementation of the SEEA, finalization of the SEEA for Energy, and development of the SEEA for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), among other topics. On the development of SEAA indicators for the SDGs, the report highlights the Committee’s identification of 35 SEEA-relevant indicators.

Countries and international organizations must strengthen production of environment statistics and promote them to the same status as economic and social statistics, concludes the report on ‘Climate change statistics’ (E/CN.3/2016/15). The report summarizes the UN Statistics Division’s work on climate change statistics, including environmental statistics necessary to inform about climate change, methodological guidance, technical assistance and training, and progress made by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) on climate change-related statistics and indicators. The report invites the UNSC to urge the international community to expand capacity-building efforts in climate change statistics, including mobilization of additional resources; and encourage national statistical systems to invest in development of climate change statistics, particularly environment, energy, agriculture and industry statistics.

The report titled ‘Environment statistics’ (E/CN.3/2016/27) recommends improving production of environment statistics and increased capacity-building and training on environment statistics, given their importance in monitoring the SDGs.

Another report addresses ‘Policy decisions of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council that are relevant to the work of the Statistical Commission’ (E/CN.3/2016/32). On the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), the report highlights requests for the UNSC to facilitate enhanced tracking of data on cross-border financing and economically relevant financial flows, and to assess and report on statistics related to implementing the 2030 Agenda, among others. On the 2030 Agenda, the report summarizes the role and work of the IAEG-SDGs. On the multi-year programme of work for ECOSOC’s Annual Ministerial Reviews (AMRs), the report states that the UNSC will consider the IAEG-SDGs’ global indicator framework and proposed work plans. The report also highlights decisions related to World Statistics Day, global geospatial information management, strengthening national capacity in statistics, and improving collection, reporting and analysis of data on persons with disabilities, among others.

The UNSC’s 47th session will convene from 8-11 March 2016. [UNSC 47 Documents] [E/CN.3/2016/2] [E/CN.3/2016/8] [E/CN.3/2016/15] [E/CN.3/2016/27][E/CN.3/2016/32] [IISD RS Coverage of UNSC 47]