About the “Tracking Post-2015” initiative

The clear, quantifiable and time-bound nature of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with goals, targets and indicators by which progress can be measured, has been heralded as one of the most valuable features of the MDGs.  It is likely that the post-2015 agenda will be framed in a similar way, but with a new set of priorities.

As a result, a number of proposals are being made on the priorities, and corresponding goals, targets and indicators, which should make up the post-2015 development framework. The North-South Institute’s “Tracking Post-2015” initiative tracks and analyzes the post-2015 process, including progress towards goals, targets and indicators for the post-2015 framework.

Our intention is not to lobby for a particular proposal, but to organize and analyze these proposals in an accessible way. The tool enables the examination of emerging themes and issues of consensus, the level of ambition of proposals and the data that will be required to track progress in the post-2015 era with accuracy and rigour.

In the spirit of data openness and transparency, all data posted and used through the “Tracking Post-2015” initiative is available and downloadable.

Methodology

Only documents making specific proposals on goals, targets and indicators for the post-2015 framework were included in our survey, which comprised 8 comprehensive proposals and 14 sectoral and thematic proposals (see “Data”). Each proposed goal, target and indicator was coded under a primary “theme”.  The 15 themes, generated by researchers at The North-South Institute, are children/youth; disaster resilience; economic rules; education; employment; environment; equality; gender equality; governance, democracy and justice; health and nutrition; human rights; income; infrastructure; peace and security; and social protection. Each proposed goal, target and indicator has also been coded under secondary themes, as many of these cover more than one theme. For each theme a set of “key issues” was generated and each proposed goal, target and indicator was coded as a key issue. The objective of this is to better understand the substance of each theme. Where available, these approximate more closely to data points that would eventually be tracked to assess progress towards the goal or target.

The next step in the research will be to assess the level of data coverage (e.g. no. of countries, time-series) and data quality, with the aim of highlighting areas where further work is needed to develop a robust and measurable framework.