The Philippines is allocating around P20 billion to collect and process data for its annual surveys and monitor the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the medium term.
In an interview at the sidelines of the International Conference on the Sustainable Development Goals Statistics, (ICSDGS), national statistician Lisa Grace S. Bersales told the BusinessMirror the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) needs P4 billion every year to carry out its mandate and meet the data requirements for the SDGs.
Bersales said this budget is already part of the medium-term expenditure framework created for the agency. The estimate, however, does not include the additional P2 billion needed to conduct the Census of Population and Housing survey in 2020.
“For the Philippines, we actually don’t have an estimate yet [for SDG data needs until 2030], but based on the budget of the Philippine Statistics Authority, which is really the main source [of SDG data], we would need P4 billion a year,” Bersales said.
In his speech at the ICSDGS, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and United Nations Development Programme Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific Director Haoliang Xu said around $1 billion a year is needed by developing countries worldwide to meet the data requirements for the global goals.
Xu added these can be obtained through national budgets and official development assistance (ODA). However, he said developing countries only received a total of $338 million in ODA support for statistics.
Based on data from Paris21, the total aid received by the world for statistics reached $1.81 billion, and 28 percent of this came from the World Bank.
In the Asia and the Pacific, which includes the Philippines and other Asean countries, some $397 million was received. The top donors were the World Bank, which accounted for 28 percent of the total; the United Nations Population Fund, 15 percent; European Commission/Eurostat, 10 percent; the United Kingdom, 9 percent; and the Food and Agriculture Organization, 5 percent.
However, he said that more than the financial requirements, achieving the SDGs will require “unprecedented amount of statistics at all levels”. He added filling these data gaps is the major challenge for national statistics offices worldwide.
“Beyond financing, data gaps are one of the biggest challenges in monitoring SDG achievement. These data gaps particularly apply to measuring progress against the targets for the environment, climate change and governance. Indicators relating to these targets are not in place or are not collected regularly and methodologies for effectively collecting data against these indicators are largely still in their infancy,” Xu said.
In the Philippines alone, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said out of 232 global SDG indicators, only 94 are readily available for the country to measure its progress.
Around 11 of the 232 indicators are not applicable for the country but 127 indicators need to be updated and/or developed.
Pernia added 59 indicators are not collected regularly and 68 indicators still do not have methodologies.
“The challenge, in fact, extends beyond these numbers as many of the indicators require further data disaggregation,” Pernia said.
Xu agreed and said the most difficult data to produce involves data disaggregation based on geographic location, sex, age, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or religion because these are often the hardest to reach.
But Xu remained optimistic given the amount of data that is now available at people’s fingertips. Proof of which, Xu said, is the fact that data produced in the past two years alone is even greater that the data produced in the entire history of the human race.
Bersales said the PSA will concentrate on collecting information obtained from administrative records, as well as forging public-private partnerships. She said some data could be generated by private research firms.
She said the Social Weather Stations and/or Pulse Asia could be commissioned to generate certain surveys provided they adhere to standards set by the PSA.
“There is an urgent need to mobilize the data revolution for everyone in order to monitor progress, hold governments accountable and foster sustainable development,” Xu said.
The ICSDGS serves as a venue for knowledge sharing/discussion on the methodologies, addressing data gaps and use of other data sources given the numerous SDG indicators, including the demand for data disaggregation.
The SDGs or Global Goals is a set of 17 socioeconomic goals that 193 United Nation-member countries like the Philippines committed to meet by 2030. The goals are composed of around 169 targets and 232 global indicators. The SDGs were adopted in September 2015.
The Global Goals aim to end poverty and hunger, promote universal health, education for all and lifelong learning, achieve gender equality, sustainable water management, ensure sustainable energy for all, decent work for all, resilient infrastructure, and reduce income inequality between and among countries.
The goals also include create sustainable cities, ensure sustainable consumption and production, take action against climate change, conserve and sustainably use oceans and marine resources, reduce biodiversity loss, achieve peaceful and inclusive societies, and revitalize global partnership for development.