INDEPTHStats for SDGs

If the international community is to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to which it signed up in 2015, reliable data will be essential. Without it, governments will be unable to measure progress against the goals, nor to fine tune policies to make their attainment more likely. Testing new policies and programmes and monitoring the impact of old ones require robust data collected over a sustained period of time. Accurate and timely data will ensure that resources are not wasted on ineffective interventions, pointing policy-makers instead towards programmes that will hasten their country’s progress towards the goals.  Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSSs) provide methodologies and designs that can be replicated in national statistics and data systems.  Many health interventions used routinely across the world were first trialled using HDSS platforms.  HDSSs provide the engineering that can be applied in generating valid indicators.

Please open the link to read how the HDSS methodology is suitable for SDGs and we encourage national statistics offices to work with INDEPTH.