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Indicators:
Expert Group Meeting, Bridgetown, Barbados, 17-19 September 2009

Institutionalizing Sustainable Development Indicators for Measuring Progress of National Strategies

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Ministry of the Environment, Water Resources and Drainage, Government of Barbados & Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development
Expert Group Meeting

Effective monitoring has been identified as a major challenge for ensuring successful implementation of national sustainable development strategies (NSDS).

Many countries use indicators of sustainable development to monitor progress in achieving the goals of their NSDS. In addition to the question of identifying suitable indicators, a main challenge is to find appropriate institutional arrangements to ensure that indicators are reported on effectively and within the agreed timeframes and agreed periodicity.

The expert group meeting, co-organized by the United Nations Department for Economic Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment, Water Resources and Drainage of the Government of Barbados, will bring together experts from various countries and organizations in the Latin American and Caribbean region.

Aim

The meeting aims to share experiences on three related topics.

  1. The first is the selection of appropriate indicators for measuring progress of strategy implementation.
  2. The second topic concerns the integration of indicators related to major sustainable development cross-cutting issues and processes into the overall strategy monitoring framework, such as to harness thematic linkages and to increase the coherence and efficiency of reporting processes.
  3. Thirdly, participants will share views on choosing institutional arrangements for monitoring systems and on ways to ensure their effective and continuing implementation.