This September 18 and 19, the SDG Summit will be held in New York (US). The event, which is organized by the UN, will seek to promote a new phase in the acceleration towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as a response to the series of crises the world is going through.
Cepei will follow up the summit with the conviction that it is urgent to improve the quality of the Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) to facilitate data-driven decision making, as this is still not as expected. This is one of the conclusions of its 2023 Flagship Report, which contains a detailed analysis of 19 VNRs published by Latin American and Caribbean countries, including the level of governance that each country established to implement the 2030 Agenda.
The document also points out the importance of directing all spaces, forums or events established to follow up on the 2030 Agenda towards action in order to achieve concrete proposals in the short term.
Another of the calls for the SDG Summit will be to give a new boost to the data revolution through partnerships between stakeholders. In this way, all will be able to benefit from the power of data to advance sustainable development.
In fact, seeking to strengthen public-private data partnerships, in 2022 Cepei, together with LIRNEasia, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and in collaboration with the Local Development Research Initiative (LDRI) of Kenya, the Caribbean Open Institute (COI) of Jamaica and the Center for Continuing Education (CCE) of Palestine, created the SDG Acceleration Roadmap.
This initiative mapped 394 company data actions in Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa to understand their contribution to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.
As a result, eight case studies were published showing that data produced by the private sector provides support to the public sector through actions such as data sharing or the strengthening of digital systems in areas related to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) and sustainable development issues.
A new boost for the data revolution
During the summit, Cepei, PARIS 21, Open Data Watch, the Global Partnership For Sustainable Development Data and SDSN TReNDS will present their vision on a roadmap to harness the transformative potential of data around the world by 2030.
This vision is based on the understanding that governments and multilateral organizations cannot achieve the 2030 Agenda alone. They cannot produce, analyze, disseminate and use the data needed to meet and monitor the SDGs on their own. Inclusive, rights-based, multi-stakeholder partnerships and governance of the systems that produce sustainable development data are crucial to harnessing the transformative potential of data.
Halfway to achieving the 2030 Agenda, progress on the SDGs is still lagging, with some targets even going backwards. Despite this, Cepei reaffirms its commitment to accelerate sustainable development by working together with diverse stakeholders to continue building a common path to ensure a more just and sustainable future.