Regional Training on Measuring SDG 16 in Africa

December 20, 2020

 

Background 

Five years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development several countries are facing considerable challenges in monitoring targets in the areas of crime, violence, trafficking, access to justice and the rule of law. These targets are particularly relevant to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 (“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”), but also to Goals 3, 5, 11 and 15.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the value of measuring and monitoring: no strategy can be developed, and no measure can be implemented without a proper monitoring and evaluation system.

Several countries in Africa have included SDG 16 in the national development framework, thus recognising the importance to address peace, justice and inclusion as part of sustainable development. However, reporting on progress on SDG 16 indicators, which has been a challenge globally, also remains limited in the region. Insufficient availability and quality of statistical information on SDG16 remains and directly hampers the capacity to implement the 2030 Agenda, as it prevents countries from generating evidence-based and effective policy responses to justice, security and governance challenges.

 


Objectives

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organized a series of interactive and focused online training workshops on measuring progress of SDG16 indicators in the African region.

The main objectives of the regional training were:

  • To strengthen technical capacities of national authorities to produce, analyse and disseminate relevant SDG16 indicators;

  • To strengthen the organisational framework and promote a “data community” among data producers and users for the exchange of experiences and challenges.

The training workshops familiarized relevant stakeholders with the concepts, international standards, methodological tools, as well as establish an understanding of the challenges needed to measure SDG indicators related to preventing violence, strengthening criminal justice systems, prisons, access to justice, countering organized crime, illicit trafficking, and corruption.


Webinar 1 Measuring SDG 16: Opening Regional Meeting and Cross-Cutting Tools – 19 November

This webinar presented cross-cutting methodological tools to measure SDG indicators in the area of violence, crime, access to justice, corruption, governance and trafficking. Participants were introduced to the objectives, format, and certification of the regional training programme. Guest speakers from a range of African Member States presented their national experiences on issues related to monitoring SDG 16.

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Webinar 2 Measuring SDG 16: Homicide and Other Forms of Violence – 26 November

This webinar focused on how to produce SDG indicators 16.1.1 on intentional homicide, 16.1.3 on victims of violence, 16.1.4 on feelings of safety, and 16.3.1 on crime reporting rate. Both the production of national administrative data and crime victimization surveys were discussed. A guest speaker from Southern Africa presented new findings from their annual victims survey.

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Webinar 3 Measuring SDG 16: Organized Crime and Illicit Trafficking – 03 December

This focused on how to measure SDG indicators 16.2.2 on victims of trafficking, 16.4.1 on illicit financial flows and 16.4.2 on firearms trafficking. New methodologies, challenges to measure the number of undetected trafficking victims, and the latest findings in Africa from the UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (2020) were presented. This webinar also featured preliminary results in measuring SDG16.4.1 from selected Latin American countries.

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Webinar 4 Measuring SDG 16: Corruption – 10 December

This webinar focused on how to measure SDG indicators 16.5.1 and 16.5.2 on bribery and discussed the methodology to conduct corruption surveys. Guest speaker from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics presented their national experience in, as well as findings from conducting perception-based national corruption surveys in Nigeria.

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Webinar 5 Measuring SDG 16: Prisons, Access to Justice and Strengthening the Criminal Justice System – 17 December

This webinar discussed the production of SDG indicators 16.3.2, 16.3.3, 16.6.2, 16.7.1 and 16.7.2. Participants were familiarized with the tools need to measure aspects of access to justice, satisfaction with public services, inclusive representation and inclusive decision-making in Governments.

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