Monitoring Progress on SDG 16: Understanding the Effects of the Pandemic
Channel: International IDEA
Date: 28/04/2021

Monitoring Progress on SDG 16: Understanding the Effects of the Pandemic to Rebuild and Move Towards the Achievement of Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies

Mankind continues to face one of the deepest sanitary crises in its history, affecting the quality of democracies, economies and welfare worldwide. More than five years from the adoption of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals framework, we find ourselves at a point of setback, where the need to have strong and inclusive institutions, able to guarantee justice and peace, become instrumental to enable the achievement of the already ambitious SDGs.

Building on the outcomes of the first SDG 16 Conference in 2019, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) and the Government of Italy organized the SDG 16 Conference 2021. The conference considered the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16), as well as the transformative contribution SDG 16 can make in helping to safeguard and accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

International IDEA and SDG 16 Data Initiative hosted a side event under the ambit of the SDG 16 Conference to contribute to the conversation and continue expanding on the findings of the SDG16 Data Initiative Global Report 2020, dedicated to providing governments, UN officials, civil society actors, the academia and other stakeholders with a resource to help understand progress on the SDG16 targets.

Among the key issues analyzed in this edition of the Global Report, we highlighted global violence and sex-disaggregated data; official and non-official data for conflict analysis; trade-related illicit financial flows; corruption; valid and viable measurement of SDG16 targets; access to information; and data gap on peace, justice and accountable institutions.