Non-Traditional Data Sources

The world is facing enormous challenges, ranging from climate change to extreme poverty. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)a were adopted by United Nations Member States in 2015 as an operational framework to address these challenges. The SDGs include No Poverty, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, among others, as well as a meta goal on Partnerships for the Goals. Despite limitations,7 the SDGs form a rare global consensus of all 193 UN member states on where we should collectively be heading. Goals are meaningless without a way to track their progress. Data on the SDGs and the associated indicatorsb are often outdated or unavailable, hindering progress during the Decade of Action leading up to 2030.c