# **III. Engagement with Stakeholders on Work Related to SDG Costing**

_The WBG plays an important role in monitoring quantitative progress toward SDG targets and producing SDG costing exercises, in partnership with other international organizations. The WBG also contributes to the SDG agenda through a variety of external engagements, including thought leadership, international and country partnerships, and participation in public events and discussions related to the SDGs._

## **A. Monitoring progress**

The WBG, in cooperation with other international organizations, collects and curates data related to the SDGs. Reliable, timely data are a necessary input for monitoring progress toward the SDGs and identifying remaining gaps, producing SDG costing exercises, and providing effective and efficient policy choices. The WBG’s data monitoring efforts are carried out alongside domestic authorities’ own efforts to track progress toward the goals, including as part of the UN’s annual voluntary national review process (UN DESA 2018).<sup>12</sup>

- _Data collection as part of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators._ To monitor the 17 SDGs, a framework of 169 targets and more than 230 indicators was developed by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs), a group of UN Member States with international agencies as observers. Various international agencies are assigned as “custodians” of the SDG targets.<sup>13</sup> Of the more than 230 indicators tracked as part of the framework, the WBG is the custodian or co-custodian of 20 indicators. These 20 indicators fall under nine SDGs: SDG 1 (poverty; Figure 2A), SDG 3 (health), SDG 5 (gender), SDG 7 (energy), SDG 8 (work and economic growth), SDG 9 (infrastructure), SDG 10 (inequality), SDG 16 (peace, justice, institutions), and SDG 17 (partnerships). The WBG is also involved in the monitoring of another 22 indicators, under an even wider range of goals.

- _Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals._ Since 2017, the WBG has produced the Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals, which provides a visual guide to the SDGs. The WBG’s _World Development Indicators_ includes many of the data indicators that are tracked under the SDGs.<sup>14</sup>

- _Human Capital Index._ The WBG’s Human Capital Index assesses how much human capital a child born today can expect to acquire by the age of 18, given the risks related to health and education prevailing in the country where the child was born (Figure 2B). The index considers indicators closely linked to the SDG targets—specifically, under-5 mortality

> 12 An increasing number of countries conduct voluntary national reviews, from 22 in 2016, the year the process was introduced, to an expected 51 in 2019.

> 13 As “custodians,” international agencies work with national statistical offices to develop methodologies for indicators to measure progress on the SDGs. The agencies also work with countries to compile data for SDG indicators, which they submit to the UN Statistics Global SDG database.

> 14 SDG-related indicators can be explored in the _SDG dashboard_ (http://datatopics.worldbank.org/sdgs/), a web-based interface that allows further exploration of the data (e.g., showing how a particular economy is performing across the 17 goals).

10