The papers in this special issue investigate the politics that shaped the SDGs, the setting of the goals, and the selection of the measurement methods. The SDGs ushered in a new era of ‘governance by indicators’ in global development. Goal setting and the use of numeric performance indicators have now become the method for negotiating a consensus vision of development and priority objectives. The choice of indicators is seemingly a technical issue, but measurement methods interpret and reinterpret norms, carry value judgements, theoretical assumptions, and implicit political agendas. As social scientists have long pointed out, reliance on indicators can distort social norms, frame hegemonic discourses, and reinforce power hierarchies. The case studies in this collection show the open multi-stakeholder negotiations helped craft more transformative and ambitious goals. But across many goals, there was slippage in ambition when targets and indicators were selected. The papers also highlight how the increasing role of big data and other non-traditional sources of data is altering data production, dissemination and use, and fundamentally altering the epistemology of information and knowledge. This raises questions about ‘data for whom and for what’ – fundamental issues concerning the power of data to shape knowledge, the democratic governance of SDG indicators and of knowledge for development overall.
Introduction
Knowledge and Politics in Setting and Measuring the SDGs - Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Desmond McNeill
Case Studies
The Contested Discourse of Sustainable Agriculture - Desmond McNeill
Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment: Feminist Mobilization for the SDGs - Gita Sen
Keeping Out Extreme Inequality from The SDG Agenda – The Politics of Indicators - Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
The Design of Environmental Priorities in the SDGs - Mark Elder and Simon Høiberg Olsen
Data Governance
The IHME in the Shifting Landscape of Global Health Metrics - Manjari Mahajan
The Big (data) Bang: Opportunities and Challenges for Compiling SDG Indicators - Steve MacFeely
Commentaries from Stakeholders
Layers of Politics and Power Struggles in the SDG Indicators Process - Serge Kapto (UNDP)
The SDGs: Changing How Development is Understood - Paula Caballero (former negotiator for Colombia)
Acknowledgements
This project was made possible by generous support from: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York Office; UNDP; University of Oslo Centre for Environment and Development and the Environment; Julien J. Studley Grant to The New School Graduate Programs in International Affairs