1. SDMX for SDGs What it means for you
Abdulla Gozalov
United Nations Statistics Division

2. SDG Indicators General Assembly resolution 70/1 (25 Sep 2015)
Sustainable Development Goals adopted: 17 Goals, 169 Targets
General Assembly resolution 71/313 (6 Jul 2017)
global SDG indicator framework adopted: 232 unique indicators

3. SDMX for Development Indicators
Dates back to 2007 when the Interagency and Expert Group for MDG Indicators established an SDMX Task Team
Data and metadata exchange on development indicators between UNSD and 11 countries
As part of the UNSD-DFID Project on MDGs ( ); a further 4 countries joined exchange later
Facilitated comparison and analysis of national and international MDG indicators

4. SDMX-SDGs Working Group
Working Group on SDMX for SDG Indicators established by IAEG-SDGs in April 2016
First meeting in October 2016
Monthly virtual meetings
Draft DSD(s): end 2017
Pilot data exchange: 2018Q1
Production data exchange: 2018Q4

5. MDGs vs SDGs
Overlap between the MDG and SDG indicator sets is less than 20%
However, there are significant similarities; both sets are diverse in focus, from multiple statistical domains.
Largest structural change called for is disaggregation “… by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability and geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts” (A/RES/70/1).

6. Challenges
Highly disaggregated dataset mandated by the General Assembly
Methodology under development for many of the breakdowns
Guidance on specific indicator disaggregation currently under development
SDMX solution must be customizable for dissemination by countries

7. Opportunities Uniform data model
Read and correctly interpret SDGs data from any source: national, regional, global
Uniform data access and dissemination
SDMX-based API: JSON, XML, soon to come CSV
Greatly reduced reporting burden
Common tools, visualizations, platforms…

8. SDGs Data and Visualization Platform
At the moment, built from data submitted by international agencies
To be implemented: exchange with international agencies as well national and regional agencies and publication of their data at the platform
With support provided by the UK Department for International Development

9. National and International Data
National and international data and metadata will be compared and analyzed
Greatly simplified by SDMX
Reasons for differences: see metadata!
Once ready, all countries will be invited to submit their data to the platform
Data exchange with 20 countries funded through a new UNSD-DFID SDGs Project

10. SDG datasets Global dataset compiled and published by UNSD
Annual reporting
Internationally comparable country-level data
Regional and global aggregates
Regional datasets compiled by regional agencies
Customized regional indicator sets
Indicators may be comparable at regional or global level
National datasets compiled by the countries
Voluntary reporting of indicator set customized based on the country’s priorities
Indicators do not necessarily follow global methodology
Expected emphasis on subnational data

11. Customization
It is expected that in many countries, global structures will need to be adapted for their needs
Guidance will be provided

12. SDG Concepts
Although a complex, highly disaggregated dataset, SDG concepts are intuitively easy to understand
Sex, Age, Education Level, …
This makes it easier to map your database to the DSD
Mapping to a global DSD is usually the most involved exercise of an implementation

13. Mapping
Eurostat’s SDMX Reference Infrastructure is a very efficient way to map any database to a DSD
Expertise in SDMX is a prerequisite
As part of the UNSD-DFID project on SDG Monitoring, SDG mapping modules will be developed for common dissemination platforms
Customized mapping module: easy to use, lower barrier to entry
Similar to MDG DSD mapping module developed for DevInfo as part of the previous UNSD-DFID project

14. Do you need an SDG database?
Databases are typically used in SDMX data exchange
Highly desirable to have statistical data in a database
However, it is possible to map an Excel spreadsheet to a DSD and extract data from the spreadsheet into an SDMX file
This option will be provided

15. THANK YOU
Abdulla Gozalov
gozalov un.org