UN DSD Development Watch

The document below is an EXTRACT from a Report of the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development (DPCSD), United Nations Division for Sustainable Development.

Sustainable Development Indicators

A. Introduction:

Chapter 40 of Agenda 21 calls for the development of indicators for sustainable development. In particular, it requests countries at the national level, and international governmental and non-governmental organizations at the international level to develop the concept of indicators of sustainable development in order to identify such indicators.

This issue was raised during the first two sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), at which time a large number of countries emphasized the urgent need for these indicators. Other countries expressed some concern and insisted that indicators be developed in close contact with Governments. Pursuant to the multi-year programme of work adopted by the Commission at its first session, the progress achieved on developing these indicators, in the context of Chapter 40 of Agenda 21, will be discussed by the Commission during its third session.

The objective of this work programme is primarily to make the indicators for sustainable development accessible to decision-makers at the national level by defining them, elucidating their methodologies and providing training and other capacity-building activities, as relevant. Indicators, as used in national policies, may also be used in the national reports to the CSD and other intergovernmental bodies.

B. Indicators for Sustainable Development:

An increasing number of organizations has responded to the challenge of Agenda 21 to develop indicators for sustainable development in the short-term. Some of this work is being undertaken around specific issues, such as health and the environment, or human settlements; others are attempting to define a full set of indicators. Such redundancy and overlap has been extremely valuable, since it has generated more creative thinking and a shared sense of purpose. The role of the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, as Task Manager of this issue, is now to coordinate the fruits of this work, to underline areas of convergence, and to bring together the many actors in a broad, cooperative programme that may directly serve the needs of the Commission on Sustainable Development, as well as all Member States. Much further work, primarily by the scientific community, is needed in order to understand and explicate these interlinkages.

Economic indicators have been used for many years at national, regional and international levels. Social indicators have also been developed over the past years and are widely used all over the world. It is feasible to select among the economic and social indicators those which capture the specific issues most relevant to sustainable development. Institutional indicators related to Agenda 21 or sustainable development are largely undeveloped and are at this stage limited to so-called yes/no indicators. Environmental indicators have been developed more recently. For some of the environmental aspects, data will not be easily available. Recent initiatives include the environment statistics programme of the United Nations Statistical Commission, environmental indicators being developed by UNEP, the UN system-wide Earthwatch, the OECD, various relevant international legal instruments, and so forth.

Based on relevant indicators that are available, it is proposed that the Commission on Sustainable Development agree that work will proceed on the basis of a core set of indicators, with the understanding that this is a flexible, working set of indicators that will be fine-tuned to the needs of countries after further methodological work, testing and training. It is further proposed that the Commission approve the work programme on indicators for sustainable development, including the following elements: (1) preparation of methodology sheets for distribution to governments; (2) testing of the indicators, on a voluntary basis, in three to four countries and their subsequent adaptation, as needed; (3) organization of national and regional training workshops and other capacity-building activities, upon request; and (4) evaluation and readjustment of the indicators on the basis of experience and further research at national and international levels, including in the context of international legal instruments.

It is also proposed that the Commission on Sustainable Development encourage continued cooperation with the work underway on environment indicators under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission.

C. Highly aggregated indicators:

Concurrently, work may proceed with developing highly aggregated indicators for sustainable development. Although this represents a longer-term effort, it is important for three reasons: it explores the relationship among the variables, which lies at the heart of the linkages intrinsic to sustainable development; it concentrates information collection and analysis and facilitates presentation to decision-makers; and, it may serve as the basis of an early warning system, if desired.

A project is now being undertaken by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), in cooperation with UNEP, aiming at developing highly aggregated indicators for sustainable development. This initiative is currently focusing on the environmental aspects of sustainability although the project could be broadened to focus on other aspects of sustainable development, as well.

D. A core set of indicators for sustainable development:

A core set of indicators is proposed for monitoring progress at a national level towards sustainable development through the implementation of Agenda 21. It is fully recognized that there is need for flexibility as the conditions, activities and priorities for sustainable development differ from country to country. At same time, the need for international comparability calls for the development of standardized concepts, definitions and classifications of indicators.

As mentioned, regional workshops and capacity-building programmes are needed in order to facilitate the use of the core set of indicators at a national level. Testing of the indicators in three to four countries could be used to gain experience and further develop the indicators, and evaluation of the use of the indicators at the national level, and national and international developments, could be used to adjust the core set of indicators if necessary.

The indicators in the core set are presented in a Driving Force - State - Response (DSR) framework. The DSR framework is adopted from the widely agreed framework for environmental indicators, the Pressure - State - Response framework. The concept of "pressure" has been replaced by that of "Driving Forces", in order to accommodate more accurately the addition of economic, social and institutional indicators. "Driving force" indicators indicate human activities, processes and patterns that impact on sustainable development, "state" indicators indicate the "state" of sustainable development and "response" indicators indicate policy options and other responses to the changes in the "state" of sustainable development.

In the core set, the indicators are grouped in categories covering the economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of sustainable development. The indicators are related to chapters of Agenda 21. The coverage of the four aspects of sustainable development and of all the chapters of Agenda 21 ensures that the most significant aspects of sustainable development are monitored by the indicators.

The indicators in the proposed framework have been developed in accordance with the following criteria:

(a) primarily national in scale or scope (countries may also wish to use indicators at state and provincial levels);

(b) relevant to the main objective of assessing progress towards sustainable development;

(c) understandable in that they are clear, simple, and unambiguous;

(d) realizable within the capacities of national governments, given their logistic, time, technical and other constraints;

(e) conceptually well founded;

(f) limited in number, remaining open-ended and adaptable to future developments;

(g) broad in coverage of Agenda 21 and all aspects of sustainable development;

(h) representative of an international consensus, to the extent possible; and,

(i) dependent on data which are readily available or available at reasonable cost/benefit ratio, adequately documented, of known quality and updated at regular intervals.

As noted, the core set of indicators may change and new indicators may be included, for example, in the context of international legal agreements, or as national level experience is gained. Furthermore, there are some potentially important indicators which require further methodological work before they can be used. This is especially the case for various ecosystem (geo-referenced) indicators, including biodiversity and other habitat indicators, and for the following issues, for which indicators are not included in the core set at this stage:

• transfer of technology (driving force, state and response indicators);

• science (driving force, state and response indicators);

• capacity-building (driving force, state and response indicators);

• decision-making structures (driving force indicators);

• strengthening of "traditional information" (driving force and response indicators);

• role of major groups (driving force and response indicators);

• oceans, all kinds of seas and coastal areas (response indicators);

• desertification and drought (response indicators);

• sustainable mountain development (driving force, state and response indicators);

• biotechnology (driving force, state and response indicators); and,

• toxic chemicals and hazardous wastes (response indicators).

Research and experimentation with advanced economic, social and institutional indicators that might more effectively measure progress toward sustainable development and continued research and experimentation with environmental indicators appropriate for measuring progress toward sustainable development should be endorsed. There may also be need for subsets and other, often more comprehensive, sets of indicators for other purposes.

E. Summary of elements in the work programme:

Activities related to the core set of indicators:

Methodology sheets (95-96): The UN-system organizations develop/describe the indicators in the core set, including the underlying methodology, and assess the data availability and the data sources for each indicator. This information could be included in a set of initial methodology sheets to be finalized by 1996 for use by Governments. The UN-system organizations disseminate the methodology sheets among Governments, for their use. The core set of indicators could be used as a "menu" from which Governments can choose those indicators relevant to their national problems and priorities for use in national policy-making. The countries may also use the indicators, if they wish to do so, in their national reporting to the fifth session of the CSD in 1997.

Training and capacity-building (95-97): Training should be provided for Governments in using the indicators for monitoring progress towards sustainable development at a national level. This implies assistance, where requested, in adapting the core set of indicators for the needs/targets of the country. Further capacity building programmes should be initiated, covering the whole field from data collection to use in policy processes.

Monitoring experiences in a few selected countries (96-98): Testing of the indicators in three to four countries could be used to gain experience, assess the applicability and further develop the indicators for sustainable development.

Evaluation of the core set (2000): The use of indicators for sustainable development at a national level is evaluated and the core set of indicators is adjusted if necessary.

Aggregated Indicators:

The SCOPE/UNEP project: With the core set of indicators as an input, highly aggregated indicators are developed to further facilitate decision-making at all levels. This could be undertaken and coordinated by the SCOPE/UNEP project benefitting from the experience gained with the core set of indicators and focusing on all aspects of sustainable development.

Interlinkages:

The scientific community is invited to undertake further work on identifying and assessing the linkages between the economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of sustainable development. SCOPE could facilitate the coordination of these efforts.

Other activities:

It is recognized that many other activities are ongoing. The scientific community, with the support and advice of the UN-system organizations, undertake parallel development of indicators for issues where no suitable indicators exist.

F. Actors in the work programme:

It is proposed that the actors further develop the indicators, including the underlying methodology, and analyze the data availability for each indicator in order to provide a full description of each indicator in a set of methodology sheets. This will include the following:

• A methodological description of the indicators and the underlying definitions. This includes a short description of relevance to sustainable development and Agenda 21, reference to other major international agreements or conventions, and a brief discussion of the indicators in relation to the Driving Force - State - Response framework.

• An assessment of the data availability for each indicator. This should include an assessment of whether the countries will be able to collect the data, which organizations already collect and compile the data, whether that data are available for the countries and how the data could be collected an compiled in the future.

Other efforts to be recognized as those of the scientific community and of NGO's, in cooperation with UN-system organizations, to further develop indicators for different aspects of sustainable development.