Progress by West Africa towards attainment of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals with a deadline of 2020 and 2025 and assessment of the capacity of national statistics systems

Abstract

The present report, which represents the first step in evaluating progress in West Africa towards achievement of the sustainable development goals, focuses exclusively on indicators related to targets with deadlines of 2020 or 2025. The report analyses those indicators for which data are available. In addition, an endeavor is also made to identify and assess difficulties arising in the process of following up and evaluating the sustainable development goals indicators for member states. Thus, by analyzing survey data on the assessment of the capacity of national statistics systems, a quantitative picture can be built up of the extent to which countries of the economic community of West African states (ECOWAS) are able effectively to meet the needs for monitoring and evaluation of the sustainable development goals. The list of indicators used in the present report is that agreed upon by the United Nations statistical commission in March 2016. Specifically, the report aims to identify the targets of the sustainable development goals whose deadlines have been set at 2020 or 2025 and, in turn, their associated indicators; To assess the qualitative and quantitative progress by the 15 states of the sub region on the relevant sustainable development goals, on the basis of indicators related to these targets; To measure progress by countries towards achieving the targets of the sustainable development goals in question set for 2020 or 2025, and then to identify major challenges and constraints faced by them in this area.