One hundred and sixty ideas: Introducing the Future Development Goals Tracker - Opinion
By Gina Bergh at the Overseas Development Institute
With the increasing hive of activity around the work of the UN High Level Panel on Post-2015 and the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals it’s getting tough to keep track of the growing number of proposals for future development goals. That’s why the Overseas Development Institute is now tracking all the proposals in one place!
The Future Development Goals Tracker is a new online database that allows you to browse and search (almost) everything the world has proposed so far on future goals, targets and indicators. We’ve prioritised proposals that get specific, covering goals across both the human development (poverty) and sustainable development (environment plus..) agendas. A separate field on targets and indicators is under construction, and the Tracker will focus increasingly on measurement as we get further along in the future goals process.
We hope this serves as a useful tool for those engaging in the debate and putting forward new ideas, to see where theirs fit with what’s been said so far. It’s also aimed at anyone seeking to get to grips with the complex goals landscape…so far we’ve found as many as 160 proposals on goals and ideas on how they could be measured. In case this ever-growing volume of proposals looks as overwhelming to you as it does to us, we’ll be featuring regular analysis and commentary to help you make sense of the chaos at this space. This will cover what’s been proposed so far plus regular updates on the shape of the latest proposals we come across.
The Future Development Goals Tracker is one of three complementary projects underway to help you keep up with future goals proposals: you can find an interesting visual analysis of a range of post-2015 proposals by the North-South Institute here, and Stakeholder Forum is developing a platform where you can upload your own proposal on future goals. We are looking at ways to collaborate between these initiatives, and are interested to hear about any other similar projects out there.
There was an overwhelming and encouraging response to my earlier blog and list that formed the basis of the data in the Tracker. Having crowdsourced info on the gaps, it now hosts some proposals you sent that aren’t available elsewhere online but can be viewed at the links in the ‘Proposal’ column. We really value your comments and collaboration on this initiative, so a big thank-you to those who’ve been in touch.
But we know there are still some gaps, particularly from the global South and in languages other than English. So if you know of proposals not yet in the Tracker or would like to collaborate in other ways, please post a comment below or contact me by email.
You’re even free to put the Tracker to your own use, since it’s licenced for sharing under the Creative Commons (as if it could get any better than seeing all the proposals in one place!)