Within the framework of UNAI’s principle of promoting sustainability through higher education, universities and colleges worldwide are making significant contributions to the advancement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially in this Decade of Action for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, such institutions have articulated their expertise to partner with other stakeholders and create innovative ideas.
Along these lines, the Federal University of Paraíba, a UNAI member institution in Brazil, started a new project aiming to elaborate an index, which aggregates information and data regarding the SDGs from over two hundred municipalities in the state of Paraíba, in the northeast of the country. The idea is for the index to serve as a tool that might allow the actual monitoring and assessment of the local level's social, economic, and environmental conditions.
The index will consist of more than thirty indicators, based on the SDGs, divided into four themes: Economic development, social development, environmental sustainability, and institutional capacities. The first three themes are entirely based on the SDGs' axes. At the same time, the last one, inspired by the targets and indicators of Goals 16 and 17 in particular, seeks to analyze the institutional and management capacities of the municipalities.
The rationale behind that is the need to enhance the responses to local demands. "With this project, we want to contribute to the implementation of evidence-based public policies to reduce regional inequalities," commented Henrique Zeferino Menezes, Coordinator of the Center for Public Policies and Sustainable Development at this institution, that has been fostering the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through a wide range of initiatives.
Methodologically, the researchers backing this project opted to select and construct indicators that have disaggregated data at the municipal level -something complex and costly for the Brazilian information system- and conduct periodic updates. With this, they avoid using outdated data, which therefore does not contribute to decision-making, while stressing the relevance of local particularities and the changes in the levels of regional development.
The comprehensive collection, systematization, and analysis of large volumes of economic, social, environmental, and institutional data from public agents at all levels is considered essential for evaluating the deliverables and performance of governments, especially sub-national ones, and for the critical formulation of public interventions aimed to scale-up sustainable development, with emphasis where this is most needed.
For this UNAI member institution, demands to access public information of this kind are fundamental for exercising citizenship and carrying out their control and monitoring functions. Moreover, according to the university, it simultaneously constitutes a mechanism that generates efficiency gains in the execution of public policies, simply because it is an essential means for accountability and management assessment and oversight.
"The first objective of ours is to drastically revamp the process of formulating and implementing public policies for sustainable development, in a state marked by strong regional inequalities and a persistence of low rates of development and institutional weaknesses in various areas," explained Zeferino Menezes. "We also want to boost social activism and the participation of stakeholders, to have a better-informed civil society," he added.
Despite being one of the smallest states in Brazil per geographic extension, Paraíba has a population of approximately 4 million inhabitants. In turn, the state is currently in the 23rd place among the 26 Brazilian federative or territorial units (26 states plus a federal district) when it comes to human development. This project by the Federal University of Paraíba is looking to change that reality precisely.
The research team is looking forward to developing an online and interactive platform that spatially locates and presents the information produced, allowing for a more comprehensive and geographically accurate understanding of the critical problems in the state with the overall vision of upgrading the decision-making processes. Furthermore, despite being a project focused on Paraíba, the methodology can be replicated in other regions of Brazil and beyond.
