OREANDA-NEWS. Union Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation, Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda inaugurated a National Consultation Workshop on developing a monitoring framework for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) here today. The workshop would be attended by senior officers from Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments during 27-28th September 2016.

The two-day workshop will have deliberation sessions with focus upon principles for development and identification of suitable National and State level indicators for measuring the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets including standardization, harmonization and periodicity, and coordination.

In his address, Shri Gowda stated that the success in the implementation of national policies for the attainment of SDGs not only requires better coordinated efforts of all the stakeholders but also a robust monitoring mechanism and would require that the policy formulators and statistical establishments work in close coordination. The Government is firmly pursuing the mission of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ and hence has already integrated the SDGs in various programmes and policies being implemented at various levels, he added.

The Minister further said that monitoring progress of SDGs on continuous and regular basis requires that indicators need to be developed at the local, national, regional and global levels. He further noted that setting the right and relevant indicators scientifically to measure the outcomes of the policies to achieve the various targets under different SDGs will be very crucial for providing appropriate direction to the policy makers and programmes implementers.

The Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) containing 17 Goals and associated 169 targets came into with effect from 1st January, 2016. These goals and targets are universally applicable. The National Governments have the flexibility to formulate the national SDGs within the overall ambit of the global SDGs as per their national circumstances.

In India, NITI Aayog oversees the implementation of SDGs from policy perspective. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India has been assigned with the task of development of measurement framework for tracking/monitoring the progress of nationally defined SDGs and targets. The Central and State Government Statistical Agencies will work in coordinated way to address the data demands emanating from SDGs and evolving suitable indicators in the National context.