Opening remarks by Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, President of the 70th session of the General Assembly, at Informal Briefing on a Global Indicator Framework for the SDGs
5 November 2015
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Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to this informal briefing on the Global Indicator Framework for the SDGs.
In September, as all Member States adopted the ‘2030 Agenda for sustainable development’, a number of important items were left to be finalized during the 70th session: chief among these is the global indicator framework for the Sustainable Development Goals which will be crucial for the way Member States and other stakeholders measure, follow-up and review global progress on implementation of the SDGs.
During the 69th session, the UN Statistical Commission was tasked with overseeing the development of that framework and to do so, the Commission established an Inter-Agency Expert Group on SDG indicators.
According to their terms of reference, this Group is tasked with developing an indicator framework and a list of indicators for the monitoring of the goals and targets of the Post-2015 development agenda at the global level, taking into account existing efforts by groups of countries and organisations, including regional and international agencies, regional commissions, academia, civil society and other relevant international organisations. The Group is also asked to conduct its work in an open, inclusive and transparent manner.
The 2030 Agenda further clarifies that “this framework will be simple, yet robust, address all SDGs and targets including for means of implementation, and preserve the political balance, integration and ambition contained therein.” The 2030 Agenda also decided that the global indicator framework will be adopted by the Statistical Commission at its 47th session in March 2016 and thereafter, adopted by the ECOSOC and the General Assembly in line with existing mandates.
To keep Member States and other stakeholders informed of the progress, I have invited the Chair of the Statistical Commission and UK National Statistician, Mr. John Pullinger, to join us by audio link to brief us on the second meeting of the Inter-Agency Expert Group on SDGs which took place on 26 to 28 October in Bangkok and on the process going forward.
Following his presentation, I will give Member States an opportunity to ask questions if they wish, of both Mr Pullinger and the Assistant Director of the UN Statistical Division, Ms Francesca Perucci, who has also joined us here for this briefing.
I now invite Mr. Pullinger to make his presentation.
Thank you.
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Additional information on SDGs indicators can be found here