Ulrich Laaser, Helmut Wenzel, Richard Seifman, Bruce Kaplan, Vesna Bjegovic-Mikanovic
For Countries, Regional Authorities, and Local Communities Based on Sustainable Development Goals
Abstract
Aim: The United Nations SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) database, inaugurated in 2015, contains extensive and considerable information to follow up on the progress of the SDGs. We shall, therefore, explore in this paper whether the exclusive use of the easily accessible SDG database and a limited selection of 17 suitable indicators, i.e., one indicator per Goal, allows for a stable analysis of progress. We aim to provide a methodology for easy use at the sub-national level on the initiative of non-governmental organizations and communities evaluating their activities towards One Health implementation.
Methods: Seventeen suitable indicators (one per SDG) were selected and determined from the SDG-Database in 2015 and 2019 centering a period of six years from 192017-2022 to project the final success or failure of the target year 2030. To that end, we draw a 10% sample of 19 countries out of the 193 United Nations member states. Negative percent-values of SDGs are recalculated as positive, i.e., as the percentage of a 100% target achievement. Missing percent values, in total 23.5%, were replaced by imputation. A total of 969 values have been identified. We calculated the Sustainable One Health Index (SOHI) based on unweighted and weighted indicators. The weights were derived from a factor analysis of 17 indicators representing all SDGs. The indices were validated against the SDG values published for 2022/3.
Results: The unweighted index resulted in a correlation of 91% (p<0.001). Therefore, preference was given to the unweighted approach to facilitate the work of the target group of activists at subnational levels. The corresponding scatterplots for 2015 (r=0.7057; p<0.0007) and 2019 (r=0.7470; p<0.0002) show a grouping of high, middle-, and low-income countries. The average delay towards 2030 is 3.37 years for the indicators directly related to One Health (Group A), 3.19 years for the social (Group B), and 4.69 years for the economic (Group C) determinants.
Conclusion: Progress towards the target year 2030 is too slow despite the growing knowledge that most world regions’ current economic, social, and environmental trajectories are unsustainable. A new tri- or four-partite global agency which has new representation from civil society could address many of the problems identified by paving the ways for bottom-up commitment, starting from monitoring achievements of the SDGs at the local level. The SOHI-Index can fulfil its intended purpose to support bottom-up commitment, requiring only one measurable indicator per SDG but no experts and no weighting of the selected indicators.
Keywords: Bottom-up Initiative, Monitoring, One Health, Sustainable Development Goals, Target Achievement, Imputation.
Conflict of interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgements: The authors have to thank the One Health Commission for the yearlong support and collection of information used in this contribution.