Introduction
Africa faces substantial challenges in achieving the SDGs. The biggest challenges are health (SDG 3), infrastructure (SDG 9), and peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16), with more than 80 per cent of countries facing significant gaps in achieving these goals, according to the 2018 Africa SDG Dashboard (The Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa [SDGC/A] and Sustainable Development Solutions Network [SDSN] 2018). A review of the 2016-2017 UN Development Assistant Frameworks (UNDAFs) has revealed that most of the progress towards the SDGs is linked to the goals that were also included in the MDGs, including the SDGs on poverty (SDG 1), food security (SDG2), health (SDG 3), education (SDG 4) and gender equality (SDG 5). On the other hand, a delay in implementation is visible in the new thematic areas which correspond to the environmental dimension of development, notably the SDGs on water (SDG 6), energy (SDG 7), infrastructure (SDG 9), sustainable cities (SDG 11), sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12), climate change (SDG 13), oceans (SDG 14), and life on land (SDG 15).
This means that policy actions need to focus on those SDGs for the protection of the planet and its people and to ensure the linkages with the other SDGs in order to achieve sustainable development at the national level. Although progress is not on track for much of the environmental dimension of the SDGs, there have been some significant achievements over the last few years, including: the effort of the African Ministerial Conference for Environment (AMCEN) to increase advocacy and political awareness of the need to integrate Environmental Sustainability into development policies and strategies; a political dialogue bringing African ministers of health and environment to agree on a 10-year strategic plan to increase investment and accelerate health-environment priorities; the African Union priority setting through its 2063 Agenda supporting African countries to speed SDGs domestication and implementation; the UN System as a whole supporting countries through the UNDAF processes to ensure that the joint UN and Member States effort enhances institutional capacity development towards sustainable development; the Sustainable Development Center for Africa and the Sustainable Development Solution Network partnership to enhance knowledge, advocacy and institutional capacity across the continent to speed SDGs implementation; and countries’ agreement, through UN Environment Resolution 2/5 (United Nations Environment Assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme [UNEA] 2016), to increase their engagement towards achieving the environmental dimension of the Agenda 2030.
Statistical availability and capacity
According to the 2017 Africa Sustainable Development Report (African Union [AU] 2017), approximately six out of every ten SDGs indicators cannot be tracked in Africa due to severe data limitations. There are deficiencies in statistical information that hamper Africa’s development and transformation processes to achieve SDGs. Among other challenges, there is a lack of regular credible surveys to capture changes; there is inadequate funding and limited autonomy of the national statistical offices to generate accurate, credible, timely and neutral data; there is poor data quality with countries’ efforts not making it possible to achieve anticipated improvements. These limitations lead to persistent data gaps in key development indicators, mainly in social, environmental, and governance indicators. The data gaps impede the establishment of baselines for measuring progress on development frameworks, including the SDGs and compound the challenge relating to monitoring the targets. Ultimately, this means that policy- making in the region is not informed by adequate data, nor the effect of policies adequately monitored.
Although some progress had been made in statistical development, this progress is uneven, and the national statistical systems still face a number of challenges, including building sustainable statistical systems as opposed to building temporary capacity when project funding is available. A few key actions
Medical clinic in Sub-Saharan Africa (USAID 2006).
Sustainable Development Goal
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