Need for adequate data to monitor Sustainable Development Goals emphasised

Dar es Salaam. Development stakeholders said the absence of enough data generated by the government and players adversely affect monitoring implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.

At its heart are the 17 SDGs, which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership.

The challenge was recently unveiled during a breakfast debate organized by Policy Forum titled: Leave No-one Behind: The Importance of Stakeholders Engagement in the Voluntary National Review (VNR) Process.

Speaking during the event, the United Nations Association (Una Tanzania) Secretary General, Mr Reynald Maeda said the first report released in 2019 shows that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had a capacity to generate 40 percent data annually for progress tracking.

He said the Voluntary National Review (VNRs) aims at facilitating experience sharing in SDGs monitoring in the areas of success, challenges and lessons learnt for the purpose of accelerating execution of the 2030 agenda.

“One of the VNRs requirements is for the government to ensure that all stakeholders have fully participated,” said Mr Maeda.

He outlined the goals that are facing serious data shortages and their details in brackets as number Six (Clean Water and Sanitation); Seven (Affordable and Clean Energy) and Eight (Decent Work and Economic Growth).

Others are number Nine (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure); 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities); 13 (Climate Action); 14 (Life below Water) and 15 (Life on Land).

“Not only all the goals are facing data shortages, but also all available data involving some goals such as Goal Number Eight are completely outdated,” he said. “We are still referring to one million students entering the labour market annually, despite the data having been there for several years ago,” he said, noting that some indicators such as education and poverty are a wealth of data.

Further, he said the absence of enough and accurate data have been adversely affecting decision making in addressing the challenges highlighted by the SDGs.

“Failure to understand the magnitude of the problem adversely affects appropriate problem resolution. More efforts may be directed on one side, instead of another where they would be highly required,” he said.

“On development issues, data is considered as valuable as oil and gold, because they are the ones providing the lead towards problem resolution,” he added.

According to him, planning to address challenges facing a certain social group would entirely depend on availability of accurate data on the said group.

The Young Lawyers Foundation (YLF) executive director, Mr Jacob Mogendi wondered whether the majority of citizens were aware of the content of the 2019 report. He said the biggest challenge in the report was absence of enough data related to implementation of some SDGs such as number eight, 13 and 16.

“However, we are not aware when the second report will be released and how the shortage of data has been addressed,” he said. Mulika Tanzania executive director Hussein Malele said the government should localize the global actions at the community level in order to increase citizens’ understanding and easy implementation.

“The government should involve the youth in the process of SDGs implementations because not only the youngsters are the country’s development catalyst, but also they are motivated to attain,” he said.

A participant, Mr Steven Kitomari urged stakeholders to start collecting views on how to successfully implement the SDGs from the youth who are still in secondary schools.

Another participant, Mr Douglas Mwaisaka challenged stakeholders to start collecting views on SDGs to reach people living in peripheral areas, instead of concentrating in towns and cities only.

Development Vision 2025, for instance, identifies unemployment as the critical youth development challenge attributed to poor education systems.

As a result, the youth are denied pre-requisite innovation to engage in entrepreneurship and self-employment as well as limited participation in creation and ownership of wealth.

Tanzania has an estimated 35 percent of the youth who constitute 65 percent of the workforce.