Monitoring and Reporting on Sustainable Development Goals: Cross-scale linkages

The document discusses the transition from Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting the need for new metrics and capacity to cover social, environmental, and economic dimensions. It identifies a gap between the production of indicators and their actual use in decision-making, suggesting that monitoring should be integrated into all stages of the policy cycle. The author outlines various international initiatives—including work by the UN Statistical Commission and the Open Working Group—aimed at strengthening the evidence base for SDGs. Finally, it provides guidance for governments to align national and subnational monitoring systems with global goals to improve governance and accountability.

• Monitoring the SDGs requires a balance between maintaining continuity with existing data and innovating new metrics to address new goals and persistent data gaps.
• There is a systemic issue where statistical indicators are often produced but not utilized to improve policy and practice; therefore, monitoring must be embedded in all policy stages from goal setting to learning.
• The development of SDGs provides a catalyst for a global measurement reform agenda and the 'Beyond GDP' movement, aiming to replace traditional national wealth metrics with indicators of well-being and sustainability.
• Multiple international initiatives are currently developing SDG monitoring frameworks, including the Open Working Group's roadmap for measurement and the UN Statistical Commission's 'data revolution' to improve statistics through partnerships.
• Effective SDG implementation requires the involvement of the scientific community to ensure targets reflect planetary boundaries and the Earth's status as a complex adaptive system.
• Governments should synchronize global SDGs while allowing for national differentiation through subgoals, and they must engage national statistical and geospatial communities early in the process.
• National Sustainable Development Strategies (NSDS) can act as a bridge to move SDG discourse beyond foreign affairs ministries and into the finance and sector departments responsible for implementation.

APA

Pintér, L. (2014). Monitoring and Reporting on Sustainable Development Goals: Cross-scale linkages. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_monitoring_and_reporting.pdf

Chicago

Pintér, László. Monitoring and Reporting on Sustainable Development Goals: Cross-scale linkages. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2014. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_monitoring_and_reporting.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Pintér |first1=László |title=Monitoring and Reporting on Sustainable Development Goals: Cross-scale linkages |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=April 2014 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_monitoring_and_reporting.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pintr2014monitoring, author = {Pintér, László}, title = {{Monitoring and Reporting on Sustainable Development Goals: Cross-scale linkages}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2014}, month = apr, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_monitoring_and_reporting.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }