Questions/Answers

SDG Tracker is an integrated development tool of Bangladesh used to measure the development progress of the country. This online data platform has designed and developed to enable tracking the progress towards the attainment of SDGs and other national and international development agenda. During the MDG era, Bangladesh experienced challenges regarding progress tracking, data coordination and national and international reporting due to lack of appropriate integrated progress tracking platform. Taking the challenges into account, the government emphasized on developing an integrated data repository for SDGs results management and the outcome of that focus is the SDG Tracker. Acknowledging the inevitability of this platform, the Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh launched the Tracker in 2017. This initiative envisions to: • Create a data repository for monitoring the implementation of the SDGs and other national development goals; • Facilitate the tracking of progress against each goals, targets and indicators; • Compare the national progress with the regional-level progress and guide to identify the pocket areas; • Improve situation analysis and performance monitoring; • Enable predictive analysis for achieving the targets within the stipulated time-frame. • Facilitate evidence-based decision making among the government for accelerating the implementation of SDGs and other national development plans and agenda. SDG Tracker is the central platform for SDG progress reporting at the national and international level through data dissemination. It aims to decentralize the data management, strengthen data governance for SDGs. It guides the government to take necessary actions based on evidence and visualize the country progress in all in a live dashboard. Thus, this initiative also envisages to make the progress tracking transparency and strengthen the data ecosystem for SDGs.

SDG Tracker is an integrated data platform which promotes data for decision within an institutional framework. It harmonizes data revolution in Bangladesh at the heart of co-creating evidences for ensuring sustainable development. SDG Tracker stimulates the progress of SDGs in association and comparison among the goals, targets and indicators as changes in one effect the progress of others. It is a critical role player in integrating the development plans and policies which emphasizes on the SDG localization to ensure no one is left behind on the country’s development journey. This initiative has been implementing under the guidance of Principal Coordinator (SDGs) of the Prime Minister’s Office who is the chief of the implementation and monitoring committee for connecting all the agencies of the government for progress management and development tracking.

SDG Tracker is an online data repository and dissemination platform which supports and track the progress of all 17 Global Goals, 169 Targets and 232 unique Indicators, and even beyond the global indicators but related to SDGs. This Tracker’s data journey from its dashboard to portal anticipates data culture to data revolution through creating evidences. The dashboard is enabling individual ministries/divisions and agencies to provide, approve and publish data for each of the SDG indicators drawing up analytics to get visual comparison. Here, data are collected electronically, visualizations are done in multiple tiers and manners reflecting implementation progress over time. Moreover, advanced-level analytics on the key thematic areas of SDGs are available in the Tracker for the decision makers and planners. Thus, this portal has empowered the policymakers, govt., private agencies, academia, researchers and all stakeholders track year on year progress against each target based on evidence and take necessary action as required.

The sustainability of this initiative has been in consideration from the beginning. To that end, a few steps has been taken which include: • Rigorous and comprehensive assessment of needs and demands of the stakeholders from this platform; • Engaging relevant all the stakeholders following the whole-of-society approach; • Strengthening the capacity of the data relevant agencies including the National Statistics Office (NSO) to ensure regular data flow; • Establishment of this platform as an efficient and central dashboard for all to coordinate of NSS under the leadership of NSO; • Upgrading the system time to time to keep it dynamic for its users as well as address the changing demands of the country as well as the globe; • Policy on assigning data and SDG Focal Point at each of the agencies of the government; • Formation of the National Data Coordination Committee (NDCC) for coordinating with the relevant agencies in the national statistical system (NSS) for SDG Tracker.

Before the SDG Data Movement, government agencies were not properly connected in terms of country progress tracking based on MDG and SDG data. This platform has connected all the national data providers of the govt. based on data source and data provider mapping. As the National Statistics Office, it was challenging for the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics to connect all the data providing agencies for data management against the SDG indicators. Thus, the National Data Coordination Committee (NDCC) was formed based on the PMO’s recommendation for coordination of SDG data and data-related decision making. This NDCC created a platform of participatory decision making to strengthen SDGs data management system in participation of all the stakeholders. Through NDCC, the SDG Cell of National Statistics Office (BBS) gets empowered to provide methodological and statistical support (according to SDG metadata) to the agencies for a quality data generation which reduced the methodological vulnerability of the agencies. SDG Tracker also transformed the progress reporting system of the General Economics Division into a timely and smarter system. This participatory and transparent data management system guides the agencies to identify the vulnerable groups and areas from different perspectives. It also helps the govt. To take focused initiative in response to the vulnerability.

To identify the vulnerable groups and pocket areas for improvement, it is crucial to have data in the proper visualized form. In SDG Tracker, the data against each of the SDG indicators are visualized in user friendly format for the policy and decision makers. Data against the SDG indicators are visualized in the Tracker with all the applicable disaggregation including gender. The gender disaggregated visualization of data helps to identify the areas of inequalities. For instance, the proportion of the population with a bank account is visualized in the Tracker with disaggregated data (http://www.sdg.gov.bd/themantic_area/17/9#1). That analysis and visualization indicate the situation of female in terms of their access to bank account and financial services. At the same time, it guides the decision makers to understand the actual scenario and take measures to address the inequalities at different sectors.

The SDG Tracker was developed to support the government in ensuring an inclusive development based on disaggregated data. All the vulnerable groups in terms of gender, region, age, disability, ethnicity, education, occupation, etc. where the target groups of this initiative. Disaggregated data has been visualized in the Tracker for guiding the policymakers to initiate response plans for the vulnerable groups. It has been found in the ethnic communities who are living in the hill tracts areas are more vulnerable. In terms of the factors of the vulnerability of the ethnic communities of Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT) were identified. Moreover, what projects or programmes are needed to be initiated for them were identified analysing the data of the Tracker. In the analysis of school data, it was found that the drop-out rate is higher in CHT due to the lack of curriculum in their own language. They have less access to safely manage drinking water due to the geographical location. The ethnic communities have been changing their traditional occupation due to less recognition and income.

The government of Bangladesh has taken various initiatives for the implementation of SDG Tracker. For SDGs coordination, an inter-ministerial “SDGs Implementation and Review Committee” is formed. The Whole-of-Society approach ensures the involvement of NGOs, professional groups, business, media, women's network, development partners (DPs), civil society organizations (CSO) for SDG implementation in Bangladesh. A Handbook on mapping of ministries by targets in the implementation of SDGs aligning with 7th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) is also developed. A Data Gap Analysis for sustainable development goals has been conducted in perspective of Bangladesh. Stakeholder analysis is conducted by the committee for the development and better implementation of SDG Tracker. M&E Framework is vital to the SDG Tracker implementation process. The SDG Tracker can be seen as the soft version of the M&E Framework with the added features. The development of the monitoring and evaluation framework has been based on the available indicator data. The baseline year has been determined as 2014-15. Sources of Data have also been identified. Furthermore, SDG Financing Strategy in perspective of Bangladesh has been developed revealing the annual average cost. Considering M&E Framework and other initiatives related to SDG implementation in Bangladesh, SDG Tracker - a results-based monitoring system within Government is facilitated, a macro-level data repository system is prepared to analyse the data for tracking and evaluating SDG attainment.

The obstacles faced such as unavailability of data, data literacy have been overcome through consultation with the government and other relevant stakeholders. Training has also been conducted for methodological clarification. Along with that one to one discussion has also been done.

During the MDG period, there wasn’t any integrated data platform for Bangladesh to manage the results and track the progress. Consequently, the progress reporting process was time consuming and the progress was also under-reflected. With the development of SDG Tracker, the key SDG implementation agencies as well as other agencies of the govt. are now empowered with the data on the progress in a single platform. This initiative is innovative in such a way that, it is: • A decentralized system where all the govt. agencies are providing, approving and authenticating data from their locations according to timeline; • An open platform where the country progress in SDGs is visualized to all which has been contributing to a transparent and smarter management of SDG results; • It has connected all the agencies of the government for SDG implementation and results management; • It has enhanced the scope for the govt. to track the country progress towards achieving the SDGs as well as national plans and priorities; • It has enabled the govt. to make decisions and planning based on evidence; • It has empowered the govt. and relevant other agencies to identify the pocket areas and groups based on disaggregated data.

Not applicable

The transferring of this initiative to other countries and regions has been initiated since the launching of the SDG Tracker in 2017. As a result, the govt. of Bangladesh has been working closely with 12 different countries (till October 2019) to transfer this initiative and the countries are: Bhutan, Peru, Uganda, Tunisia, Somalia, Fiji, Nigeria, Malawi, Ecuador, Paraguay, Namibia, Maldives. Moreover, discussion has been started to transfer the SDG Tracker to 16 Small Islands Countries of the Pacific Region and a regional workshop on that is supposed to be held in early 2020 (January-February). To transfer the initiative to other countries, different strategies were followed by the government. Those include, demonstrating the platform to the global audiences in different international events across the world; development and dissemination of process documents and knowledge products, organizing sideline events on the SDG Results Management System of Bangladesh during different UN events; exploring the scope of knowledge transfer through the South-South Cooperation Cell of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Through signing MoU between the countries, the initiative has been transferred to some countries. However, for some countries, the connection between Bangladesh and other countries were made by the South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) Network. As part of transferring the initiative, the country team (Bangladesh) visited some countries to share their experience and learning and guide other countries to contextualize the system according to local context. For instance, Bangladesh attended in a National-level workshop in Bhutan to support Bhutan government to assess their readiness for adopting this system in the context of Bhutan and identify the requirements and next steps for evidence-based SDGs progress management.

Not applicable

In terms of Human Resource, an expert team consisted of people from Data Science, Compute Science and Engineering and Social Sciences were involved to design and implement the initiative. Moreover, the officials of the key agencies of the government (Prime Minister’s Office, Planning Commission and National Statistics Office), policy makers and development partners were engaged for a seamless implementation of the initiative. For ensuring the effective implementation of the initiative, the whole of the government, the whole of the society, academia, researcher and civil society have been consulted. In terms of financial resources, around USD 100,000 were used for developing the first version of the platform.

The following steps made SDG Tracker sustainable in institutional terms over time: • Formation of an SDG Cell at the National Statistics Office for data, methodological and statistical support to the agencies; • Getting suggestions from SDG experts, academia, researchers, data scientists regularly; • Assigning of data focal at all the relevant agencies; • Capacity development of the data providers, approvers and relevant agencies; • Integration of emerging technologies into the platform for effective data management, i.e. D3M, R Studio, Tableau, etc. to make the system up-to-date. In terms of financial issues, the development and implementation of the initiatives combined financial support from the government since the beginning. It is a platform where the participation of all relevant stakeholders has been emphasized and strengthened over time.

Yes

A third-party evaluation was commissioned on this initiative. The evaluation was commissioned by Professor Dr. Shuchita Sharmin of the Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka.

The following indicators were used for commissioning the evaluation: • Availability of data against the global indicators in the SDG tracker; • Engagement of the data providing agencies; • Engagement of the key SDG implementing agencies of the government; • Policy framework and institutional arrangement in support of the implementation; • Usage of the Tracker for decision making, planning and other purposes; • Indicator and goal-wise SDG progress reporting; • Engagement of private sector agencies in this initiative; • The contribution of the initiatives in ensuring No One is Left Behind based on disaggregated data; • Challenges in the implementation of this initiative; • Sustainability initiatives/ plans; • Lessons learnt and future recommendations. Open-ended questionnaire and checklist were used to conduct discussions with the respondents and getting the required data for evaluation.

Major Findings from Evaluation Report: • SDG Tracker has 51% of data availability against the Global indicators with the increased engagement of relevant data agencies. • SDG Tracker is found to be used by significant number of national and international users for the purpose of effective monitoring, planning and decision making. • SDG Tracker results in integrating institutionalization through data decentralization, reducing hassles for data into a single repository and making it open for all. • SDG Tracker has enabled decision making with the use of Analytics, visualization and progress reporting • SDG Tracker has ensured leaving no one behind through disaggregated data and tracking progress of the deprived and vulnerable groups for effective development planning. • SDG Tracker has structurally been found in a very sustainable position in terms of effectiveness, collaboration, implementation and partnership. • The strong institutional landscape of SDG Tracker has also been noticed remarkably having effective policy, action plan and sustainability initiatives.

Strengthening of the institutional framework has been emphasized in Bangladesh since the adoption of SDGs. As part of that, the responsibilities of all the govt. agencies were mapped through developing a handbook on mapping of SDG data sources and integration of SDGs in 7th FYP, the national development plan. Recognizing the mapping, all the agencies are connected to this initiative. For instance, the SDG Tracker is hosted at the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the National Statistics Office whereas the data coordination is advocated by the National Data Coordination Committee, which includes representatives from all the data agencies of the government. The General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Ministry has been implementing SDGs in the country as the lead agency and at the same time, it is the assigned agency for SDGs and development progress reporting for monitoring. The GED prepares all kinds of progress reports for SDGs using this platform. On top of that, the Principal Coordinator (SDGs) of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has been coordinating the entire SDGs related activities as the Central Advisory body. The dedicated position (Principal Coordinator– SDGs) has been created under the PMO and who provides advisory support for the implementation of SDGs. Moreover, all the agencies have their respective Action Plan for SDGs where the generation and providing of the data is the central issue in those plans.

SDG Tracker is a joint venture of various government stakeholders in terms of collaboration, engagement, partnerships, and inclusion. It has been developed by the government with the technical support from national and international development partners. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics facilitated by Prime Minister’s office was the key role played in designing the initiative in collaboration GED, a2i programme with other govt. agencies and development partners. BBS as the National Statistics Office, has been coordinating the data management connecting all the SDG-related stakeholders, including all ministries, departments, Civil Society Organizations, Development Partners are engaged in the process of implementation. The NSO is also in the position of coordination in national statistical system to ensure the data quality and facilitating the fundamental principles of official statistics mandated by Statistics Act, 2013. In terms of evaluation, the SDG experts, academia, researchers, CSOs and the Development Partners have been playing the key role along with the government.

• There are various indicators for each goal, but yet there are not sufficient data available for all indicators; • Consultation workshops played effective roles in sensitizing relevant stakeholders; • Sensitization and capacity building of the govt. officials lead to establish the culture of data in the govt. offices; • Partners helped in leveraging expertise. Plans for improvement: • Regular consultation with stakeholder groups and incorporating recommendations in the system; • Explore the methodology for Tier-I and II indicators for data generation; • Dynamic visualization of progress in the Tracker for all groups of stakeholders and users; • Conducting promotional activities to raise awareness about this initiative; • Continuing the capacity development activities for effective use of the platform; • Inclusion of advanced-level analytics on diversified themes for the policy makers; • Thematic corners to visualize sector-wise analytics; • Engagement of private-sector in a more rigorous manner in this initiative; • Replicating the initiative in other countries through South-South Cooperation Network; • Knowledge sharing with global experts and audience for getting deeper insights.