KPI for SDG projects
The countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) have committed to achieving the SDGs, and to support this effort the EU and UNDP have joined forces and launched a project for setting up a regional SDG platform. To this purpose, the UNDP Country Office in Kazakhstan has mandated a research study on SDG-related KPIs to document how regional EU-funded projects contribute to meeting the SDGs. A first research report focused on best practices in monitoring frameworks. A second report built on the research mentioned above and consisted of a qualitative estimation of the contribution of EU projects to the SDGs in Central Asia. The analysis was carried out with the data available from the SDG Index, UN Stats, UN Women, and a sample of 43 EU-funded projects provided by the UNDP Country Office in Kazakhstan. That second report also documented obstacles, gaps, and methodological issues to be considered in relation to EU project KPIs. The third report builds on the previous two reports to provide a final set of recommendations for future SDG planning and project design and monitoring.
Recommendations
Recommendations from review on SDG interlinkages
The SDG Platform for Central Asia offers a unique opportunity to collect, store, and analyse SDG related information in the five Central Asian countries individually and the region as a whole. To provide a complete analysis of which SDGs are impacted by different policies, budget allocation,or project KPIs, it is important to map such initiatives at the SDG target level. That analysis at the SDG target level can also benefit from an additional nuance that comes from the identification of interlinkages between mapped SDG targets:
- Are there any causal relationships among the different SDG targets analysed?
- What type of relationship is it (synergy or trade-off)?
- How intense is that relationship? Is it a strong or a weak synergy/trade-off?
- Is that relationship two-way or only one way?
The first report of the current consultancy consisted of a systematic research study of the different methodologies to identify and assess interlinkages among SDG targets. Four main methodology typologies were analysed, and the research concluded that to develop a regional SDGs platform for Central Asia, the methodology to map SDG target interlinkages should combine the following features:
- Be structured, with a set of simple rules to identify and assess SDG interlinkages and ensure methodological robustness and consistency of results.
- Map both synergies, trade-offs, and low or no influence among SDG targets, ideally with target direction. In order to simplify the system proposed by Nilsson et al. (2016), a five-point scale similar to the one used by Miola et al. (2019) could be useful. The different values of that scale could be: +2: Strong synergy; +1: Significant synergetic relation; 0: little or no causal relation or influence between targets; -1: Significant trade-off relation; -2: Costly trade-off relation
- Undergo peer-review rounds by national and international development practitioners to ensure the uniformity of the methodology used and the consistency of the interlinkages’ assessment.
- Considering the similarities among Central Asian countries, a ‘template’ structure of mapped interlinkages could be used for all five countries, with ad hoc adaptations to specific countries. This template could be defined first by available data, then improved by available literature, and finally polished and adapted to each country.
Recommendations from review on the status of SDGs progress in Central Asia
The SDG Platform for Central Asia is intended to allow government agencies, non-governmental organisations, and stakeholders to assess the progress toward achieving the SDGs and identify challenges and opportunities. To this end, the initial status of the 2030 Agenda progress in Central Asia must be periodically updated (with new data) and upgraded (with methodological improvements – better data and insights).
According to the an initial estimation of the implementation status of the SDGs in Central Asia based on data from the SDG Index initiative and UN Stats. According to SDG Index (using proxy data), four SDGs still face major challenges in Central Asia: SDGs 3, 7, 15, and 16. When using data from UN Stats (with available SDG indicators) the SDGs facing most challenges (off track, advancing or not) are SDGs 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. On gender issues, according to data from UN Women, only a combined 26% of the gender aspects relevant to the applicable SDG indicators for Central Asia show a high or medium performance, and there is a remaining 74% of the gender aspects relevant to the applicable SDG indicators that have low performance or missing data. A way to perform a more accurate analysis would involve defining the applicable and nonapplicable SDG targets in Central Asia. A ‘default’ list of applicable SDG indicators and targets should be defined, to be gradually validated, adapted to each Central Asian country, and improved with experience from development practice. With this ‘template’, interlinkages among SDG targets can be defined (ideally following recommendations from section 2), which can in turn serve to the effort of integrating the contribution of projects to the achievement of the SDGs in Central Asia. It is recommended that further upgrades begin by carrying out PAM, BAT, and IPR analyses in the target countries.
Recommendations from the estimated contribution of EU projects to the SDGs in Central Asia
An estimation of how EU-funded projects contribute to achieving the SDGs in Central Asia. A sample of 43 EU-funded projects was analysed by mapping their specific outcomes to the SDG targets. This allowed also for an estimation of budget priorities among SDGs. The results of that initial analysis showed that the thematic priorities within the 43 EU-funded projects are in line with SDGs 8, 10, 12, 16, and 17.
When comparing these results with the ones from SDG Index, SDG 16 was shown as a priority for investment, and when comparing with data from UN Stats, SDGs 8 and 10 were identified as priorities for investment.
The analysis of EU-funded projects also focused on the project KPIs. The results indicated that the KPIs with more challenges for implementation are connected to SDGs 1 and 12, while the ones with fewer challenges are connected to SDGs 7, 9, and 10. Following this, these three SDGs (7, 9, and 10) could be candidates for which to increase or maintain budget allocation.
SDG 7 can be a key accelerator for the Central Asian region, as:
It is an SDG that still faces major challenges according to data from SDG Index and UN Stats. It is not yet overfunded in the EU-project portfolio (it receives around 6% of the projects’ budget according the 43-project sample). It has proven to be efficient in its implementation, with none of their connected KPIs failing to be implemented thus far.
SDG 9 could be another interesting candidate for SDG acceleration
It has been identified to have challenges for implementation according to data from UN Stats, it is relatively underfunded in the Central Asian project portfolio (around 1% of the budget), and so far it has a 100% KPI implementation success rate. The SDG 9 is closely related to the Middle Corridor initiative, which show great potential for economic spillover effects from infrastruture investments
SDG 10 (/www/10/) could also be good candidate in which to maintain investment
SDG 10 currently takes around 11% of the budget, as it is not encountering many obstacles for implementation (only 8% of KPIs not implemented) and it is one of the SDGs facing most challenges according to data from UN Stats.