The document discusses developing an indicator framework to measure progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the subnational level in OECD regions and cities. It describes a process of co-designing the indicator framework with stakeholders, identifying relevant targets and indicators, defining end values for indicators, and developing a composite index for each SDG. Preliminary results are presented showing the distance of OECD regions from the 2030 end values by goal. A new online tool is introduced that will provide overviews and data for selected regions and cities to monitor their progress relative to country and OECD averages.

1. 2nd OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs
Bonn, Germany.
December 9, 2019
Paolo Veneri
Head of Territorial Analysis and Statistics
paolo.veneri@oecd.org
A TERRITORIAL APPROACH TO THE SDGs:
INDICATOR FRAMEWORK AND RESULTS

2. SDGs require the participation of every level of government and
sector of society to be achieved
1. Local Governments need to know where they stand today against
the 2030 Agenda
2. Monitoring progress over time, relative to country and to other peer
regions and cities
3. Promoting an informed dialogue across levels of government and
sectors of society, as well as partnerships and cooperation
between regions and cities
Why to measure the SDGs at the subnational level?

3. Measuring SDGs at the subnational level requires selecting the
appropriate scale of analysis
– While some indicators have to be measured within administrative boundaries (e.g.,
gender balance in local government),
– … other indicators are more relevant following a functional urban approach (e.g.,
transport accessibility)
– Regions: first administrative tier of subnational government or TL2 Large Regions.
• Coverage: 600+ TL2 Large Regions of 48 countries (36 OECD and 12 partners)
– Cities: Metropolitan areas or Functional Urban Areas of more than 250K people.
• Coverage: 600+ FUAs of 33 OECD countries and Colombia
At which subnational scale?

4. • First workshop on indicators, with pilots (March, 2019). Main conclusions:
– Need to combine international comparable indicators with context-specific indicators
– Indicators to raise awareness and promote policy dialogue (not just to create rankings)
– Preference for disaggregated data; when using indexes, always show individual indicators
• Second workshop on indicators, with pilots, OECD delegates and stakeholders (DG-
Regio, JRC, SDSN, UCLG, WCCD and many more) (May, 2019). Technical
discussion:
– For indicators without a predetermined “End value” for 2030, how to define these values?
– For a composite index by SDG, how to normalise and aggregate indicators?
• Feedback from pilots on OEDC indicator framework (May, 2019).
– Assessing relevance of indicators to help measuring the SDGs in Regions and Cities
– Suggesting indicators to fill the data gaps
Co-designing the OECD indicator framework

5. • i) What targets and indicators are
relevant at the subnational scale?
– Place-relevant vs. place-neutral
• ii) What targets and indicators are
relevant in OECD countries?
– Developed vs. developing country
Identifying SDG Targets and Indicators for OECD Regions
and Cities based on UN Global Indicator Framework
Place -
relevant
OECD
relevant
OECD Place-relevant

6. • Regional Explorer https://stats.oecd.org/OECDregionalstatistics/#story=0
• Regional Well-being http://www.oecdregionalwellbeing.org
• Metro Explorer  http://measuringurban.oecd.org/
Where did we get the data?
OECD Regional and Metropolitan databases (but not only)
Regional- covers first
and second administrative
tier of subnational
government
Metropolitan- covers
functional urban areas of
more than 250 thousand
inhabitants

7. Additional data sources to bridge identified gaps
A new section in the WPTI
Questionnaire
Obesity rate
Pupils and students enrolment
Women victims of physical or sexual
violence (%); and Women Mayors (%)
Population connected to at least
secondary wastewater treatment (%)
Final energy consumption per capita
Municipal waste that is recycled (%)
Data from other sources or modelled
• GHS Grids:
Built-up area growth relative to population growth
• Gallup World Poll:
Feeling of Safety (%) (among others)
• World Database on Protected Areas:
Protected terrestrial and coastal areas
• OECD-ITF Database:
Performance of public transport network (among
others)
• Global Database of Power Plants:
Percent of electricity that comes from coal (among
others)

8. 120+ indicators to measure 61/103 targets identified as
“very relevant” for regions and cities in OECD
% of OECD-relevant SDGs Targets with at least one indicator for Regions and Cities

9. • Defining “End-values” (UN, WHO, OECD, other experts)
– Some indicators have predefined end-values: Absolute values or relative to initial
levels.
– Certain indicators have not a clear “positive” sense, but still informative.
How do we define the end-values of indicators with a clear “positive” sense?
Our approach:
• Relative to peer’s performances: average of best performing regions, the “best region” of
each country.
• Specific end-values based on OECD outcomes
• How to communicate the results in a simple way?
Our approach:
A Composite Index by SDG (while individual indicators are always available)
• Normalise indicators from 0 to 100 where 100 is end value.
• The composite index is the average of the normalised indicators.
Measuring the distance to the SDGs: our approach

10. Spotlight on preliminary (aggregate) results for “TL2 regions”
Distance of OECD Regions to the
end values for 2030, by Goal
Share of regions that have not achieved
the end values for 2030, by goal

11. One example for cities (metropolitan areas)
17% of cities have achieved the end values of both exposure to air pollution lower than 10 µg/m³ and an equal
or lower growth rate in land consumption with respect to population growth.
Note: Lagging cities are the cities that have not yet achieved the end values. Between parentheses: number of lagging cities over number of cities with available data.
The index for Goal 11 on Sustainable
cities combines the indicators of
– i) difference between land
consumption rate and population
growth rate, and
– ii) average exposure to particulate
matter 2.5 (PM2.5)

12. A new OECD online tool on Localising the SDGs data

13. Overview of selected region or city, relative to country
This example does not use real data

14. Overview of selected region or city, relative to OECD
This example does not use real data

15. THANK YOU
For more information:
Marcos.DiazRamirez@oecd.org
Stefano.Marta@oecd.org
Paolo.Veneri@oecd.org
• Oe.cd/sdgs-local
• @OECD_Local

16. • How is your region or city using SDGs indicators to raise
awareness and promote dialogue across levels of government
and sectors of society?
• How is your region or city using SDGs indicators for policy making
(e.g., prioritization, planning, budgeting, monitoring, etc.)?
• How could the OECD localized indicator framework for SDGs
better support your region or city in its policy making process?
Questions for discussion